It’s been a while since I’ve added a new recipe on here because I have been dealing with Stuff. I have a deadline for the clarification of said Stuff now and will hopefully be able to start sharing recipes again on a regular basis in the second half of the year, but for now, you’ll have to deal with patchy updates.
Feel free to follow me on Instagram for behind-the-scenes madness, cats and me growing my first tomatillos, or on Twitter where I passive aggressively like political tweets so they land in your feed without your being able to tell me you disagree with me.
There is also The Big Thing, which I don’t really want to talk about because everyone else is already talking about it. But I can share a simple recipe (and hopefully a few more) while we are all stuck indoors.
Goat cheese schmoat cheese
So here’s an old favorite of mine, adapted from a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty, caramelized fennel with feta and pine nuts.
Ottolenghi makes his with goat quark or yogurt, but since I always have feta on hand I prefer to make it like this. I like to throw in some pine nuts for good measure, because pine nuts. Hazelnuts would probably also be very nice.
What do I eat with caramelized fennel with feta?
I eat this by myself for lunch or dinner as a main course with some pita or Turkish bread. You could probably also have it with some simply baked white fish or salmon but I don’t think it needs much more. If there are two of you you’ll probably went to get a bulb each or add another dish to ensure a satisfying meal.
You can also Trouble&Whale’s Ciao Bella chili crisp to finish this dish. Use discount code ‘DorothyPorker’ or click the banner below and your discount should be added to your basket automatically.
Caramelized Fennel with Feta and Pine Nuts
Equipment
- Large frying pan or skillet
- Large plate
Ingredients
- 1 large bulb fennel cut into 1 cm/ 5 inch slices, fronds set aside
- 2 x 2 T - 20 gr butter
- 3 T - 15 ml olive oil
- 2 T - 25 gr sugar
- 1 t - 5 gr fennel seeds ground works too in a pinch, but not as nicely
- 4 oz - 120 gr feta crumbled, you can do this by stabbing it with a fork and then twisting the fork
- salt
- pepper
- 1/4 c - 33 gr pine nuts dry roasted in a skillet or non-stick frying pan to bring out the flavor
Instructions
- Melt 1 T - 20 gr of butter and 3 T - 45 ml of olive oil in a large skillet or frying pan.
- Once the butter stops bubbling, place as many slices of fennel into the pan as it will comfortably hold (usually about half of the fennel) and roast for 3-6 minutes on each side to get a decent amount of color on them. This will go a lot quicker if you resist the urge to move them around.
- When the first batch of fennel has browned nicely, set it aside on a large plate or in a bowl, add 1 T - 20 gr butter again and fry the second batch as before.
- Remove the remainder of the fennel when ready, leave the pan on the heat and add 2 T - 30 gr sugar, 1 T - 15 gr fennel seeds and a good helping of salt and pepper. Shake the pan vigorously for 30 seconds or so to help the butter, oil, fennel seeds and sugar divide evenly across the bottom of the pan.
- Now place all the pre-cooked fennel back into the pan and let sit on each side for 2-4 minutes until you get some REALLY good caramelisation going on.
- Remove from the pan and back into your large bowl or plate and mix with the finely chopped clove of garlic while still hot.
- Depending on the weather and the season, serve immediately or leave until cooled covered in a healthy dose of the crumbled feta, dry roasted pine nuts, chopped fennel fronds and more seasoning to taste.
