Bronze Fennel

[ChristinaJo]

I have several plants that always put out a ton of seeds. I put a post in the available trade section for those who want some......even though I don't want anything in return.....

My question here is:

Suggestions on what to do with them?

How to cook with them and what dishes will they go with?

I grow them with my roses and the foliage looks very pretty with them. I enjoy that.
Plus there are caterpillars that eat and attach their cocoons to them. My Kids get a kick out of that.
Christina

[Worth1]

I go through a lot of fennel.
I use it to make sweet Italian sausage and I use it in all of my red sauces for pasta.
You can also use it on fish and many other things.
If you like the taste then use it.

Worth

[Zana]

Good in pasta sauces, sausages and other meat sauces. Good with seafood. Good with cornmeal to dip catfish or other fish in for light frying. Good with smashed roasted garlic in sour cream on baked potatoes or other other veggies. Good in breads. Good with garlic, rosemary and currants to stuff lamb for roasting. Those are a few that come to mind quickly.

[Tracydr]

I use it in spaghetti sauce, which gives it an Italian sausage flavor, even if I only have ground meat. I also use it in rye bread.
It has a lovely flavor, you just have to remember that it's there.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Zana

Good in pasta sauces, sausages and other meat sauces. Good with seafood. Good with cornmeal to dip catfish or other fish in for light frying. Good with smashed roasted garlic in sour cream on baked potatoes or other other veggies. Good in breads. Good with garlic, rosemary and currants to stuff lamb for roasting. Those are a few that come to mind quickly.

Zana you are so right.

One thing I forgot to add was the lamb.
You can rub a lamb breast down with some curing salt for 24 hours and rinse it off.
Then grind up some ( A bunch) fennel seeds and add to chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, sugar, red pepper, paprika and turmeric.
Rub all of this on the breast and slow smoke on the BBQ it is to die for.
Just taste the powder before use and adjust to taste and add what you want.

Sweet salty spicy with a hint of hot.
Eat with lemon juice or lime drizzled on.

It wont turn gray when cooked it will be brick red in the middle.
Pretty much a Middle Eastern/Indian thing with a Worth twist.

I just told you guys what my BBQ rub was, notice no salt in the rub.

Worth

[Zana]

I usually have more than 70 to 100 jars of spices and herbs at any one time in my kitchen....that includes multiple salts - sea salts, smoked salts, garlic salt; multiple types of garlic powder (I dry different varieties and make up my own blends); multiple types of basil (grow my own), mint(grow my own), fennel, sesame seeds, ginger (grow my own); various peppers - whole or ground; various curry leaves for blending my own blends; and many middle eastern or far eastern or other ethnic spices/herbs. And I have a dedicated coffee grinder just for spices/herbs...so I can make up my own blends.

So playing with the fennel to find out what you like it with can become a bit of a game. Over the years I've made note of dishes I've had on my travels and have gone out of my way to purchase cookbooks from those locales where I really got into the food. Experiment. Test out ideas....even strange ones. Believe me some that sound really strange can turn out amazingly well in the end. (I just did that in the past few weeks using strawberry/raspberry/cranberry/apple/cinnamon fruit herbal tea blend to make a marinade for a pork loin. It was to die for!)

Although I have different salts in my kitchen, it is used very sparingly and sometimes not at all on a daily basis. I prefer to flavour my food with something other than high salt / high fat that seems to be the "norm" for N. American convenience cooking.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Zana

I usually have more than 70 to 100 jars of spices and herbs at any one time in my kitchen....that includes multiple salts - sea salts, smoked salts, garlic salt; multiple types of garlic powder (I dry different varieties and make up my own blends); multiple types of basil (grow my own), mint(grow my own), fennel, sesame seeds, ginger (grow my own); various peppers - whole or ground; various curry leaves for blending my own blends; and many middle eastern or far eastern or other ethnic spices/herbs. And I have a dedicated coffee grinder just for spices/herbs...so I can make up my own blends.

So playing with the fennel to find out what you like it with can become a bit of a game. Over the years I've made note of dishes I've had on my travels and have gone out of my way to purchase cookbooks from those locales where I really got into the food. Experiment. Test out ideas....even strange ones. Believe me some that sound really strange can turn out amazingly well in the end. (I just did that in the past few weeks using strawberry/raspberry/cranberry/apple/cinnamon fruit herbal tea blend to make a marinade for a pork loin. It was to die for!)

Although I have different salts in my kitchen, it is used very sparingly and sometimes not at all on a daily basis. I prefer to flavour my food with something other than high salt / high fat that seems to be the "norm" for N. American convenience cooking.

Well I have over one thousand jars of spices at my disposal for cooking.
I also have caravans of camels coming in everyday with more to replace the spices I use.

My table is served by 10 princes and my personal servant is a king.

Over 500 maidens and concubines line the path to my table.

My army lined up 100 abreast could reach from the mouth of the Tigris to the Bosporus and beyond.

So why am I sitting here in the house in Texas with only a cat.

Worth

[Worth1]

Zana has already emailed me about my comment as I told her I will tell you guys.

The list Zana had of her spices reminded me of a letter that was sent to Manuel I Komnenos or Emanuel of Constantinople in or around 1165.
It was a letter that was supposedly from a fictitious person called Prester John.

I cant get into the whole thing or post the letter or even a link to it.
What it is is a letter about wild claims of a land far away where Prester John ruled.
In this land there were even wilder claims such as salamanders that lived in fire and so forth.
The crazy part is people believed in it.

Just look up The Letter of Prester John if you may.
Be forewarned if you like history as much as I do you may just get lost for a few years I know I have.
In no way do I doubt the spice list of Zana's it was just the wording that reminded me of the letter.
Here is an excerpt from it.

In one of our lands, hight Zone, are worms called salamanders.
These worms can only live in fire, and they build cocoons like silk-worms which are unwound by the ladies of our palace and spun into cloth and dresses which are worn by our Exaltedness.
These dresses, in order to be cleaned and washed, are cast into flames ...




Before our palace stands a mirror, the ascent to which consists of five and twenty steps of porpyry and serpintine ...
This mirror is guarded day and night by three thousand men. We look therein and behold all that is taking place in every province and region subject to our sceptre.
Seven kings wait upon us monthly, in turn, with sixty-two dukes, two hundred and fifty-six counts and marquises. Twelve archbishops sit at table with us on our right and twenty bishops on the left, besides the patriarch of St. Thomas, the Sarmatian Protopope, and the Archpope of Susa ...



Worth












Worth

[Zana]

I told Worth he was still a smart alec and that he should never change....life would be boring for him...and for us.

As for Prester John I ran across his name while doing research at St. Lazzaro / Sourp Ghazar Monastery near Venice....many years ago. Didn't have the time to do much more reading on him there, but I remember thinking it was a pretty fantastical tale worth checking out at some point in the future. Well...have to admit I pretty much forgot about him until Worth emailed me about him. And there is quite a bit on the internet should you choose to look him up. Shades of the Tales of Arabian Nights...almost. LOL

So Worth's response to my list / quantity of herbs and spices was written in the same vein as the "letter" written by Prester John....and definitely worth a chuckle or two...at least for me.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Zana

I told Worth he was still a smart alec and that he should never change....life would be boring for him...and for us.

As for Prester John I ran across his name while doing research at St. Lazzaro / Sourp Ghazar Monastery near Venice....many years ago. Didn't have the time to do much more reading on him there, but I remember thinking it was a pretty fantastical tale worth checking out at some point in the future. Well...have to admit I pretty much forgot about him until Worth emailed me about him. And there is quite a bit on the internet should you choose to look him up. Shades of the Tales of Arabian Nights...almost. LOL

So Worth's response to my list / quantity of herbs and spices was written in the same vein as the "letter" written by Prester John....and definitely worth a chuckle or two...at least for me.

Zana
The Arabian Nights Entertainments is the only E book I have on my phone.
It is the direct translation not the kids story.
The original title is one thousand and one nights.
Part of it is about how a new bride is telling these stories to postpone her beheading before she is accused of infidelity.
Well here is the link.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Tho...ights#Synopsis

What does this have to do with Fennel.
I have no idea and I'm sorry.
Oh yes spices.


Worth

[Zana]

Worth,
I haven't read the Tales of the Arabian Nights in years...but grew up hearing bits and pieces...and what could be told to "Kiddies" by my Grandfather and relatives. Apparently one of my Grandfather's favourite things to do for Halloween or other fancy dress/costume parties was to dress like something out of the Tales. LOL

And my Father used to lament about the fact that our family had too many smart alec's (clean up for TV) in it. His kids reply was usually..."And whose fault is that there are so many of us?". But I think he secretly thought it was a lark...since he obviously took after his own Father's warped sense of humour.

And to get back to the fennel....there are a few Armenian recipes that call for the use of ground fennel in the pastes that you cover meat that you're curing, as well as whole fennel used in marinades or stuffings....all of which I'm told my Grandfather used to love to make.