Fennel

I have a massive surplus of fennel in my veggie garden and keep having to find inventive ways of feeding it to people!  I love the gentle aniseedy flavor of fennel, and very often just eat it raw, thinly sliced in a salad, drizzled with olive oil and salt.  Recently I have been experimenting with braised fennel bulbs, a long slow process which is totally worth it as it brings out the sweet treacly flavor.  Here is my favorite version:

Braised Fennel:

4pcs fennel bulbs

1 whole head of garlic

4 tablespoons olive oil

5 table spoons of white wine

5 tablespoons good vegetable stock

Salt and black pepper

Trim the fennel bulbs, removing outer leave and stalks, keep some of the feathery tops to one side.  Split the fennel bulbs in half. Separate the garlic cloves, but leave the skins on.

In a heavy based pan, heat the olive oil, add the fennel bulbs, cut side down.  Put in all of the garlic cloves and season with salt.  Cover and cook the fennel very gently until the undersides are golden.  Turn and allow the other side to color.  This takes about 30-40 minutes.

Squash the garlic flesh out of the skins and mix it in.

Add the white wine and stock, turn the fennel once more ( so it is cut side down again) cover and continue to cook very gently for about an hour.

When the fennel is tender and a rich golden color, season and serves with some of the chopped fennel leaves on top.