They Came from Mars

Yesterday, I found myself staring awkwardly at a giant fennel bulb. Its strange bulbous shape and tall, green, fuzz-topped stalks suggested its origin to be some foreign planet rather than the neighboring farm stand. My mom had asked me to prepare dinner but the only vegetables to be found were a dozen tomatoes and this. The tomatoes were exciting but fennel?? What was I supposed to do with that?

My initial reluctance to engage with fennel evaporated when I realized this would be an extreme exercise in listening to food. I had never cooked this plant before so I had no idea what spices and herbs would make it sing. I would have to let fennel guide me in the spice department. Fennel and I eyed each other warily. Would we get along?

After severing those strange stalks and scrubbing the bulb clean, I laid it out on a cutting board of dark wood. I admired its elegant curves; the way its white surface nearly glowed in the late afternoon light, luminescent against the darkness of the cutting board. Clean, strong and sensuous at the same time. I lowered a knife against its surface and watched as the first slice of fennel fell away in a delicate backwards swan dive. A sweet, high, nearly prickly smell rose into the air and tickled my nose. It was not unlike licorice but also had a hint of something like pinewoods. Interesting.

But how would I mix it with tomato?

A few minutes later, tomato and fennel simmered happily in a big pan along with some shallots and the only tiny half of a garlic clove I had managed to find. Hmmm how to season fennel… I started with easier task of making tomato a little brighter and more solid. Thyme and oregano sprinkled down into the pan. Then rosemary and sage were called upon to bridge the gap between fennel’s piney sharpness and tomato’s sweet fullness. Dried fennel seed helped ground the fresh fennel slices and bring out the robustness of the dish. Finally, I decided that if the licorice-y smell of fennel reminded me of baked goods, I should just go with that. Which of the cookie spices would work well with both tomato and fennel? Cloves!

I put the contents of the pan into a baking dish and topped the whole thing with the croutons that I had meanwhile been preparing. Salty and aromatic of fresh herbs, they would provide a contrast/compliment to the main dish. Bake for 15 minutes and sprinkle with parmesan if so desired.

As for fennel and me? We rode off happily into the sunset and lived happily ever after.

Fennel and Tomato Gratin

Gratin

- 5 normal sized tomatoes (or 3 large)

- 1 fennel bulb

- 3/4 large shallots

- 1 clove garlic

- 1 tablespoon lemon juice

- half teaspoon fennel seed

- rosemary, sage, oregano, thyme

-1/2 teaspoon ground cloves (careful not to overdo it!)

- tiniest pinch ground red pepper

- salt & pepper

Topping

- several slices bread

- 2 tbs minced bacon (optional)

- olive oil

- 1 shallot

- a few sprigs rosemary

- 7/8 leaves fresh sage

- 1 clove garlic (didn't have any when i made this dish but always recommend it for croutons)

1. Heat olive oil in a large pan and brown the minced shallots for a minute or two.

2. Remove the stalks from the fennel, scrub it clean, slice it thin and add to the pan.

3. Dice the tomatoes and add these to the pan.

4. Add various herbs, spices, lemon juice.

5. Cook partially covered over medium heat until the fennel softens up a bit. Probably about 15 minutes or so

6. Meanwhile, heat up another pan for the croutons. Sautee the bacon, garlic and shallots in a little olive oil to make the oil very flavorful.

7. Chop the bread into roughly 1 inch sized croutons and toss the croutons into the pan.

8. The heat should be relatively high so as to get the croutons crispy but not so high as to burn things.

9. Use a half teaspoon or more of salt. I consider croutons to be glorified french fries so I tend to oversalt :p Use your judgement.

10. Preheat oven to 400 F

11. Pour the tomato fennel mexture into a baking dish.

12. Top with croutons when they are appropriately delicious and crispy

13. Sprinkle a little pepper over everything and pop it into the oven!

14. Bake for about 20 minutes.

When Fennel and I become Friends

Mini Plum Soufflés

Sweet, airy, moist (almost liquid in the center), these Mini Plum Soufflés feel as light as clouds.

Plum Soufflé

- ¾ pound plums

- 1/3 cup caster sugar

- 3 egg whites

1. Preheat oven to 350˚ Fahrenheit.


2. Butter ramekins (or cupcake tin J ) and coat each one with a little bit of caster sugar.


3. Slice the plums in half and remove pits.


4. Boil plums down with a little water until they are quite mushy


5. Use a food processor to puree the meats and skins.
6. Strain the puree so as to remove any big chunks or remaining pieces of skin.


7. Melt down the caster sugar in about two tablespoons water. You will want to remove it from the heat as soon as it is all melted and perfectly transparent in color. Make sure not to burn it!
8. While the sugar melts, beat the egg whites until stiff.
9. Pour melted sugar into egg whites while continuing to beat. Stop beating as soon as the sugar is incorporated.
   Using a spatula, gently incorporate the plum mixture into the egg whites. Be gentle but swift. You really want to avoid breaking the egg white bubbles.
10. Fill ramekins with mixture.
11. Bake for about 15 minutes. BE SURE NOT TO OPEN OVEN DOOR or you will cause the soufflés to collapse.



12. Serve immediately.


13. I find that the soufflés have a bit of an intensely sweet taste. Serving them with freshly made whip-cream will provide a wonderful cool contrast. Put a little of each on your spoon; the soft, sweet bubbles of the soufflé collapsing on your tongue to make way for a clear, cool rush of white cream.

This recipe is based off the Plum Souffle recipe found on http://www.recipes4us.co.uk/.

When Bourbon took Peaches Dancing

I’ve been on a pie baking bent lately. My favorite part of summer: the mounds and mounds of fresh fruit waiting to jump into flakey, buttery pie crusts. My least favorite part of summer is that not all fruits were created equal. Even the most promising farm stand can occasionally deliver completely tasteless fruits. This was the case for me a few days ago. I had spent a warm, golden August afternoon on the beach with nothing to do but daydream about pie recipes. We had made evening plans for dinner and croquet at the beautiful old house of a family friend. Lying half asleep on the soft sand, I could just picture a beautifully latticed peach pie sitting in her restored colonial kitchen.

On the way home, I stopped at a farm stand to pick up the promising fruit. There they were. All pink and red and creamy yellow: end of summer peaches. But when I reached out to pick one up and smell it, my hand touched the cold, hard, sterile surface of refrigerated peaches. Local these most certainly were not. I closed my eyes and hoped for at least a wiff of summer sunshine. But no; these peaches did not emit even the slightest hint of a smell. What to do? I had been promising everyone peach pies all day.

Wandering through the displays of fruit, I caught sight of some late strawberries. Peeping out at me, all ruby red, they seemed to hold the promise of sweetness lacking in the peaches. They even smelled sweet! But a pie composed entirely of strawberries sounded a bit too mushy. I really had my mind set on the satisfying bulk and slightly more resistant mouth-feel of peaches. I finally decided I would combine the two in my pie; peaches providing substance and strawberries enrobing my somewhat tasteless peaches with a high note of sweetness.

An hour later, I stood in my kitchen completely puzzled. The beautiful golden curves of peaches slices lay in a cheerful jumble of pink strawberry slices; the mix covered in a generous sprinkling of brown sugar and vanilla. It should have tasted amazing. Instead, as I stood by the mix with dripping tasting spoon still in hand, I realized that the strawberries, though still beautifully scented, had too muted and round a taste to lift up the decidedly recalcitrant peaches. To make matters worse, I had doused the whole thing with a tablespoon of vanilla; yet another low, round taste. The taste combination slid right to the back of my mouth, without even bothering to interact with the front of my tongue. I offered a taste to my sister. “hmmm.. That’s nice… I guess”. Clearly it was not. It was boring as hell.

I tried to add some lemon juice. Now there was a note of lightness. The front of my tongue tasted sweet summer sunshine while the back of my mouth enjoyed the warm, brown tastes of the other ingredients. But somewhere in between there was a gap. If the ingredients in my pie were at a party, strawberry, peaches, vanilla and brown sugar were the well-behaved, well-bred guests who sit in quiet whispering pairs at the back of the room trying desperately to ignore lemon’s bright, strident and somewhat gauche attempts at conversation. How could I bring them together? I went round my kitchen sniffing various spices and liquors. Finally, I found it. Bourbon. With a high scent but warm, round mouth feel, it provided the perfect link. Or maybe the alcohol just broke down the ingredients’ inhibitions. It turns out that peaches could make quite the combination with lemon once they forgot to be snobby and stopped trying so hard to keep to themselves. Whatever the case, they were soon partying together in a wonderful array of colors and tastes; lemon dancing the night away with fruit slices.

Satisfied, I sealed the whole thing in a golden crust. And yes, it looked just as beautiful on that colonial counter top as I had imagined.

Peach Pie with Strawberries and Lemon

5 large peaches – peeled and sliced thinly
½ pound strawberries- sliced
2 or 3 tablespoons dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1.5 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons Bourbon
Dash salt

1 pie crust (recipe to follow)

1. Prepare peaches and strawberries
2. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl and allow them to sit for about 10 minutes (you can roll out the pie dough during this time).
3. Preheat oven to 400˚
4. Spoon the wet ingredients into the waiting pie crust. The sugar will have melted into delicious syrup. While this is great as a marinade for your fruits, you may find that if you put it all into your pie, your dough gets a bit mushy and soupy. I like to use a slotted spoon at this stage so as to be able to avoid putting excess liquid into my pie. However, it’s really up to you and your pie preferences. Some people don’t mind a more liquid pie filling. You can also always mix more corn starch or flour into the mix to help dry things up before transferring everything to the pie crust.
5. Bake for 20 minutes at 400˚. Reduce heat to 350˚ and continue baking for another 20 minutes or so. Remove when the crust is golden and firm and the filling has the consistency you desire.

Corn and Black Bean Tortillas

4 large tortillas
1 can black beans
2 ears corn

1 onion
2 cloves garlic
2 table spoons olive oil
1 large tablespoon brown sugar

1 pinch each rosemary, oregano, cumin
1 block cheddar cheese (shredded)
1 green pepper
3 tomatoes
Lemon Juice to taste (Probably about 3 tablespoons)
Salt
Pepper

1. Begin by preparing all your ingredients. Mince the garlic, dice tomatoes, chop onions, cut green pepper into long thin slivers and shave the raw corn off of the cob.
2. Heat olive oil in a large pan. When you can feel the heat rising off of it, slide in the garlic. Let it simmer and bubble for just a minute but be careful not to let it burn as nothing smells stronger and more acrid than burnt garlic.
3. When the pieces of garlic are just beginning to turn a very light brown, tilt in the diced onions. Turn down the heat to about medium or medium low. Let simmer for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Add the brown sugar. Unlike regular sugar, brown sugar doesn’t have that high strident sweetness. Instead, it provides a warm round base taste which compliments the quick sharpness of the onion. The two tastes wrap around each other and provide a more solid and interesting base taste. Lean over and smell your ingredients warming in the pan- you’ll see what I mean.
5. Pour in the lemon juice. Lemon juice adds a certain lightness and freedom of spirit and it lifts up the taste combination a bit. It will also add more liquidity to the pan, though you can always provide this liquid by using a bit more olive oil or water.
6. Slide in the corn and the black beans and stir everything around a bit.
7. By sautéing the ingredients, you allow them to mingle for a while and blur some of the edges between them. Generally in cooking, you begin with a fairly straight forward list of simple ingredients and it’s moments like these that allow them to interact with and compliment one another. If you have the right combination, they will all bring out what’s best in one another.
8. Add the various herbs, salt and pepper. These will serve to bring out the highlights in each ingredient.
9. When this mixture smells so delicious that you can’t help but sneak tastes, it’s time to assemble your quesadillas!
10. Preheat oven to 400˚ F
11. Place the tortillas onto cookie sheets and onto each one spoon out a quarter each of the sautéed mixture, the shredded cheese, green pepper and tomato.
12. Pop into oven and let bake for about ten minutes or until the cheese has melted and the edges of the tortillas look a bit crispy.