Fennel Salad Reimagined

Few vegetables are as transformed by cooking as fennel.  Raw, fennel has a faintly licorice-like taste.  I love it, but not everyone does.  Whether you find the raw version intriguing or not, cooked fennel is much milder - interesting to be sure, but not remotely bizarre.  

As the weather (finally) got warm this week, I got a hankering for Alice Waters’ shaved fennel salad.  But in a moment of mad scientist kitchen-edition whimsy, I wondered what the dish would be if those same ingredients were cooked and made into a composed (arranged) salad.  The answer is that the new version is as delicious as its progenitor, in a completely different way.  Where the layered salad is crunchy and light, this one is smooth and the flavors are concentrated.  Both are worthy of a place at your table.

Composed Fennel Salad With Mushrooms and Parmesan

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Food Bloggers Support for Sandy Relief (and a Recipe)

When Barb of Creative Culinary and Jenn of JennCuisine suggested that foodbloggers support Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, I felt a personal tug.  I grew up in New York and New Jersey and have family and friends affected by the storm and its aftermath.  Luckily those closest to me have fared relatively well, but there are countless others who have been devastated.

Monetary donations are great and so are other types of generosity – mitzvahs or good deeds that remind people who have suffered that they are not alone.

How to Help Those Affected By Hurricane Sandy? 

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Alice Waters' Shaved Fennel Salad

If you’ve never tasted fennel, put it on your bucket list.  My mom taught me to love it and I’ve passed that favor along to my kids.  Of course, they’ll also tell you that fennel can be controversial.  I used to put raw fennel in their school lunch bags some days instead of carrots or celery. When I did, other kids grimaced, thinking it was raw onion.  Maybe it looked that way to them, but fennel tastes more like Good ‘N Plenty candy than onion.  And to prove it, my kids would try to get their classmates to taste it with their eyes closed and name the flavor.  Those who were brave enough to try were amazed.  

Fennel is great adult food too.  Crunchy and tasty, slices are a nice addition to a raw vegetable platter.  Braised (cooked in liquid), fennel goes mild and almost sweet.  It is marvelous baked in cheese sauce and its beautiful leaves or fronds are wonderful spread over baked or poached fish instead of parsely or dill.  It is even delicious in soup, cut up with lots of others vegetables and simmered.  And I love its seeds too; they are among my 5 favorite spices.

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