Fennel with saffron, Pernod, and a nutty crumble
“The carrot family is one of the most interesting plant families of all,” he says, putting leaves and stalks in the bag. “It includes hemlock, fennels, hogweed, angelica, cicely, parsnip, parsley . . . It’s hand in hand deadly and delicious.”
Marcis Dzelzainis quoted by Alice Lascelles in The Financial Times
I love the taste of fennel, but its texture represents a problem. We have tried everything. It does work well wedged in between chicken joints, in a salad, or mixed in with something else – both orange and cabbage work well.
But in its own right, fennel struggles. Until this. This method is the only way the Chief Taster will eat fennel.
If you substitute the chicken stock for vegetable stock and the honey for maple syrup this is a dish suitable for vegetarians and vegans.
Fennel with saffron, Pernod, and a nutty crumble
This would serve two for lunch, with some crusty bread.
It will serve four as an accompaniment.
Serves – 2
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large fennel bulbs – approx. 700g/1 lb 8 oz
- 120 ml/½ cup chicken stock (made with a whole chicken stock cube)
- 60 ml/¼ cup Pernod (or anise, or raki, or… I have very successfully used sake)
- 3 generous pinches of saffron strands… the longer the better
- Handful of parsley – approx. 20g/1oz
- Couple of sprigs of rosemary
- 1 tsp textured salt
- 100g/1 cup of shelled walnut halves… or pieces
- Zest of a small lemon
- 1 tbsp orange juice
- 2 tsps of honey, I use Sardinian bitter honey, chestnut honey would also work
- 2 tbsps walnut oil (or more olive oil)
- Crusty bread to serve, and soak up the delicious juices
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 210°C.
- Use the olive oil to oil a small roasting tin.
- Measure out the Pernod, and drop in the saffron strands. Make the stock, using boiling water, and dropping in the stock cube, allowing it to dissolve. Obviously, if you have ‘real’ stock, that is even better- get it hot before using.
- Cut off the green stems of the fennel and reserve them for garnish. Cut off any brown bits. Slice the fennel vertically into slices about 1 cm/½” thick, placing them in the roasting tin and keeping them as much ‘in formation’ as you can.
- Pour over the Pernod and stock. Cover the roasting tin with foil and put it in the oven for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, in an electric chopper or blender, ROUGHLY chop the walnuts, the parsley (including the stems where a lot of the flavour is), the rosemary needles and the salt. Then mix in the lemon zest, the honey and the orange juice.
- Take the fennel out of the oven after it’s had its 20 minutes. Take off the foil (you can use that to wrap the bread to heat that up). Baste the fennel. Put back in the oven for another ten minutes. Warm your plates.
- After this ten minutes, take the fennel out, baste again. Put spoonfuls of the wonderful nutty crumble over it. Return to the oven for five minutes – heating the bread at the same time.
- Remove from the oven, drizzle with the walnut (or olive) oil, and tear over some of the fronds.
- Serve immediately with the warm, crusty bread.
