Thursday, October 16, 2008

Gingered Fennel with Garlic


I decided to use up some left-overs today / try and finish up the stuff left in our produce box.

One of the main "left behinders" was the fennel - luckily my Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites had a recipe for gingery fennel with garlic. Fennel is hard to just throw in anywhere, it has a really distinctive (possibly overpowering) liquorice taste. Also, the fennel recipe was the only one I found in my handful of cookbooks.

I'd gotten some fresh ginger just to try the gingered fennel; it was actually my first time using fresh ginger, not the powdered variety I usually use. The ginger was good: strong in that "it's probably good for you" kind of a way. Basically, sautee chopped fennel and garlic for a few minutes, then add the ginger, cooking until the fennel is tender. Throw in a little sugar, salt, and pepper.

It's pretty spice, so I'd recommend serving it with something mild - I think a grain would go nicely here. I think it also be good with noodles and maybe even toned down with some peanut sauce.

For sides we had the left-over rice filling from yesterday's cabbage rolls, and some baked potato chips. You can't really go wrong with potatoes, and these chips were not an exception. The potatoes and rice were bland enough to turn to for comfort from the spicy fennel, so I was happy.

2 comments:

Jen Treehugger said...

I'm still feel intimidated to use Fennel - I just keep thinking of Aniseed and I'm like "Bleurgh!"

It looks good though.

Bethany said...

looks like you broke your vegan with a vengeance streak. it was going strong. that book is awesome.

fennel is strange. I've never had it cooked. I have had it raw. someday (soon actually), I will post a raw foods recipe that I modified that features fennel because I'm going to a potluck that will have both raw and cooked foods.

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