Real Food: Make friends with fresh fennel to help beat those cravings
Monday June 29 2009
I asked a few of my students this week if they were familiar with fennel and some replied along the lines of: aaah! Fennel tea is meant to be great for flatulence!
No, no, no! I can't believe this elegant, sophisticated vegetable has been reduced to a cure for methane emissions.
Fennel has a delicate, fresh aniseed flavour. It marries so well with so many dishes that you'll wonder how you lived without it. There are three parts of the fennel plant we can use: the bulb, seeds and fine leaves. The only inedible parts really are the hard stalks, but these are still excellent in stocks.
It is widely used in Italy as a salad and also with pasta, for instance pasta with prawns and a creamy fennel sauce. It's particularly popular in Tuscan cooking, as a main ingredient in pork sausages and roasted with pumpkin. One of my favourite pairings is baked fennel with coriander seeds and roast belly of pork.
Fennel is the perfect partner for any seafood dish, so serve it on the side as a salad or a roast vegetable. You can also stuff a whole fish with fennel and lemon slices or bake fish in foil parcels with fennel and lemon.
It's the fennel seeds in tea that are well known as a digestive aid. Fennel is soothing on the digestive tract and nursing mothers can calm colicky babies by eating fennel. It is very effective at helping digest fats, so an even better reason to serve it with pork.
Fennel is very good at stabilising blood-sugar levels and food cravings, so has been used for many years as a useful tool in weight loss and managing cravings, especially sugar cravings. Fennel seeds are also mildly diuretic and cleansing to congested lymphatic systems. In plain English, fennel is great for fluid retention and cellulite.
Rich in phytoestrogens, fennel helps relieve hormonal problems such as PMS and menopausal symptoms. And as it is soothing on the whole abdominal region it can only bring relief. It might also relieve the uncontrollable urge to scoff mountains of chocolate at that time of the month.
Fennel is in season at the moment so make the most of this wonderful vegetable. Finely slice it into salads or wrap the bulbs in foil and roast on the BBQ.
Baked Fennel with a Crispy Topping
3 fennel bulbs, stalks removed, cut into quarters (reserve the delicate leaves)
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, crushed
Zest of 1 lemon
50g breadcrumbs
50g grated Parmesan cheese
2 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
salt and pepper
Method
- Preheat oven to 190C.
- Place fennel on a baking tray, brush with half the olive oil and season with some salt and pepper.
- Mix the rest of the olive oil with the breadcrumbs, cheese, lemon zest, parsley and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until the fennel is softened and the coating is crispy.
- Garnish with the fennel leaves.
Fennel and Orange Salad
2 oranges, peeled and thinly sliced
2 fennel bulbs, stalks removed and thinly sliced (reserve the leaves)
1 red onion, very thinly sliced
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp finely chopped mint
salt and pepper
Method
- When chopping the orange, reserve the orange juice to mix with the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Season with salt and pepper.
- Arrange layers of orange, onion and fennel. Drizzle over the dressing and garnish with plenty of fresh mint.
Rozanne Stevens is a tutor at Cooks Academy Cookery School
- Rozanne Stevens
