the

touch
Text and recipe by Teresa Byrne-Dodge
Illustrations by Christina Mattison Ebert

It looks like celery on steroids. But, in fact, fennel

its also called finocchio, which rhymes with Pinocchio
is a member of the Umbellifereae family and is therefore
closely related to parsley, carrots, dill and coriander.
There are three useful parts to fennel, and all three
have a haunting anise-y flavor. The swollen leaf base
that forms the white bulb can be enjoyed raw and goes
particularly well with oranges. (See our salad recipe to
the right.) The bulb is also excellent when cooked and
served as a side vegetable. At our house, we like it sliced,
tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted in a hot
(425 degree) oven until soft and browned.
The stems and fronds, meanwhile, make a flavorful
bed for steaming or roasting chicken, meat and fatty fish,
such as salmon. Fennel stalks can take the place of celery
in soups and stews. Use the wispy fronds as a garnish. Or
chop them and use as you would other herbs, like dill
or parsley. (Add fennel fronds late in the cooking, as the
flavor is delicate and can be cooked out.)
And the seeds why, the seeds are what make Italian
sausage so very delicious. They are also widely used in
Indian, Pakistani and Middle Eastern cookery.
The Indo-Pak subcontinent is the world's largest
producer of fennel seeds, says Kaiser Lashkari, owner/
chef at Himalaya restaurant in Southwest Houston.
They are given to lactating mothers to increase
lactation. They are boiled and steeped in water, which
is then strained and given to babies to relieve colic.
Fennel seeds (aka saunf) are used in a few key masala
spice mixes, such as the Bengali five-spice mix known as

FRONDS

stemS

bulbS

Fennel seeds
(saunf)

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FEBRUARY MARCH 2016

paanch phoron in which fennel is one of

the main ingredients, explains Lashkari. Saunf used whole rather than
ground is used in tempering [seasoning] of dishes as well as in pickles and
chutneys.
Lashkari also notes that the little graybrown fennel seeds are the key ingredient in mukhwas, the after-meal digestive
and breath-freshener that you spoon
into your hand as you leave an Indian
restaurant.
Fresh fennels peak season is fall and
winter. At the grocery store or farmers
market, choose fennel bulbs that are
compact, relatively heavy and unblemished, avoiding those that have brown
spots or are splitting. The bulbs should
look clean and crisp, and its leaves
should be green, fluffy and feathery.
You would know just by looking at
it that fennel is a very good source of
fiber. Its also a good source of folate (a
B vitamin), vitamin C and potassium.
In folk medicine, its said to help reduce
flatulence and, echoing Lashkari above,
increase lactation in nursing mothers. Its even reputed to repel fleas: A
12th-century English Herbal advised,
Plant fennel near your kennel.
When trimming the bulb, cut off
the stalks, leaving about an inch. If
you want the slices to stay together (for
grilling, for example), keep the root end
intact. Otherwise trim about a halfinch off the root end before slicing and
cooking.
Besides the fennel sold at the supermarket, there is also a common fennel
that has naturalized throughout the
world in dry soil near seacoasts. As a kid
growing up in San Diego, I was driven
mad by the licorice-y scent from its tall
wispy fronds that sprouted every year
in the canyons between the neighborhoods. Smelling fennel today still takes
me back to that time and place.
But the wild fennel does not develop
the large white delicious bulb that the
cultivated Florence fennel does. Rather,
wild fennel puts all of its flavor into the
fronds, which can be used in soups and
pasta dishes.
People who like black licorice almost
always like fennel. But fennels flavor is
so gentle that even licorice-haters warm

up to it. Several years ago, restaurant

consultant and former caterer Joe Abuso
conducted a wine tasting for My Table
magazine that paired wines (and one
sake) with a number of dishes, each flavored with an ingredient tasting of licorice. Two of those dishes included fennel
and fennel seeds. Crazy as it sounds
wine and licorice the pairings were
not so far-fetched when you recall that
licorice is often a flavor profile that is
identified in wine.
One pairing was sauted shrimp
with roasted fennel and garlic with
a 2009 Domaine Manciat-Poncet,
Mcon-Charnay Les Chnes from Burgundy, France. Alone, the wine came
across as the crisp, no-nonsense, no-oak
Chardonnay that it is, noted Abuso
in the subsequent article. With the
shrimp and fennel, the biggest difference was in the wines finish. Suddenly
the wine had a much longer, more
complicated and evolving finish. One
taster commented, The high-acid bite is
totally gone.
Fennel is used in distilled spirits, too.
I brought a bottle of liquore di finocchietto back from Amalfi a few years ago.
(Serve it chilled at the end of a meal.)
Along with wormwood (artemesia) and
green anise, fennel is also one of the
three main herbs used in the preparation of absinthe, originally invented as a
medicinal elixir in Switzerland.
Are you a gardener? Fennel does well
in some parts of Texas, but is said to be
challenging here in the Houston area.
Probably its the heat and humidity.
If you want to try fennel, treat it as a
cool-weather herb, as you would arugula, cilantro or parsley. It needs about
three months for the bulb to form.
Improved varieties for home gardeners
include Zefa Fino and Trieste. (They
resist the urge to bolt and channel their
energy into the bulb instead.) Swallowtail butterfly caterpillars use fennel
which looks so much like dill as a host
plant.
Heres my own quick-and-easy recipe
for the seasons most delicious vegetable.
Teresa Byrne-Dodge is the publisher and
editor of My Table magazine.

13
FEBRUARY MARCH 2016

WINTER FENNEL &

ORANGE SALAD

2 navel oranges or blood oranges

3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 large fennel bulb
medium red onion
salt and pepper
handful of baby arugula
Working over a bowl to
catch the juice, remove the peel
and pith from the oranges. Cut
the oranges in half and then between the membranes to release
the segments. Add orange pieces
to the bowl along with the olive
oil and vinegar.
Cut the fennel bulb in half
lengthwise and slice very thin. (A
mandoline works well for this.)
Discard the tough root remnant.
Cut the red onion equally thin.
Add the fennel and onion to the
oranges and toss. Season to taste
with salt and pepper. Serve over a
small bed of arugula. Serves two.
METHOD: