Wardy are you out there? You were about to reveal the secret of your fennel soup recipe when the site went down. Or does anyone else for that matter know any great fennel recipes, soup or non soup? I want to celebrate my non-bolting fennel with something really tasty :P
Fennel Soup.
4 tablespoons olive oil
4 large fennel bulbs trimmed cored and finely sliced
A fat clove of garlic chopped (yuck!)
3 tablespoons chopped parsley (YUCK!!!)
1 litre vegetable stock.
Method
Heat the oil, stir fry fennel and garlic and half the parsley, cover with stock . Bring slowly to the boil. Turn heat down low, simmer for 40 mins or until Fennel has collapsed. Liquidise if preferred.
Sorry but I didn't know if you wanted t'soup recipe or the chicken thing so here it is. It's dead easy
1 fennel bulb - I used two cos I'm greedy, keep some of the lovely ferny top to use as decoration for the finished soup, 1 medium chopped onion, 1 clove of garlic squashed or whatever, a bit of dried tarragon but don't worry if you've got none, but if you have a teaspn would be good, butter or oil, turmeric, salt and pepper, CREAM, about a pint of veg stock (I used chicken)
In big pan sweat the onions in the butter or oil til soft but not brown, add the chopped fennel and garlic and sweat for another 5 mins, add the stock, add tarragon and turmeric. Season. Simmer for at least 30 mins for the fennel to release its lovely flavour. Fennel should be soft. Liquidise and then served topped with cream and the fennel fronds and tons of chunky bread. Enjoy :)
Plus there's four or so fennel recipes in September's Good Food magazine.
In jamie olivers second book (maybe third) there is a great pork with fennel dish. i've done it twice now and its bloody tasty and impressive also.
I've got a recipe for fennel grattin, I'll post it in the recipe section if you're interested. :)
And what to do with a row of bolted fennel?
I am growing a short row of fennel, and when it's ready I'm going to cook this Delia recipe:
Roasted Red Peppers Stuffed with Fennel
http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/r_0000000795.asp
EJ Can't you just eat the bolted fennel in the same way as yer normal fennel? Would it not still make some good soup. It all gets whizzed up. Waste not and all that :)
I just slice it up, bung it in an oven dish with some butter, salt and pepper (maybe some garlic or whatever herbs you have to hand) and a drop of white wine and bake it (covered quite tightly with foil) at about 200 for about 30 mins. You can sprinkle the chopped tops over at the end if you feel like being fancy. Vermouth is supposed to be good (instead of the wine, I guess) too, but since I never have it in the house I can't vouch for that!
I can vouch for Vermouth! Hic ;D
Must try it sometime ... shaken not stirred?
Prue Lieth has a wonderful baked fennel with goat's cheese recipe in her vegetarian cookery book. Take one or two bulbs of fennel and cut vertically in half and then quarters or sixths depending on size. She then says to bake in the oven but I cheat and put them in a shallow baking dish, add water and a drop of lemon juice and then microwave for 8 to 10 minutes. Drain, then scatter over some chopped goat's cheese and sun dried tomatoes and pine kernels. Drizzle with olive oil and bake about 30 minutes at 180C. Serve with crusty bread.
Ooh that sounds lovely :)