This is one of those ‘barely a recipe’-recipes, but I’ve been munching away on miso braised fennel toast all winter, so I thought I’d share.
Tin To Table
It is inspired by a recipe I saw for bucatini with sardines and caramelized fennel from Tin To Table by Anna Hazel. I wanted to make her recipe but also recipes are for chumps (I don’t actually believe this)! I just couldn’t be bothered to get the book of the shelves and winged it instead. Turns out, I am a pretty good winger of recipes.
Miso braised fennel pairings
I have this miso braised fennel on toast with sardines a lot (A LOT). But it also pairs nicely with a variety of cheeses, melted or not. For this occasion I got some raclette cheese and melted that over the top, but I’ve been dreaming of having this with Taleggio (hard to come by in the country of a bazillion cheese) and recently had my first Beaufort, which would have also paired nicely were it not for the fact that I ate it all before I made this. Feta of course will also do nicely.
It’d also be super nice to top with some Trouble&Spice Ciao Bella chili crisp. Use discount code ‘DorothyPorker’ or click the banner below and your discount should be added to your basket automatically.
I have tried to mix the fennel and some sardines through some linguine, but I feel like it becomes too much of a mush for that to be the best way to experience this. Either way, slap it on stuff, add other stuff (capers mayhaps?) and let me know how you get on.
Miso Braised Fennel For Toast
Equipment
- Frying pan
Ingredients
- 1 bulb fennel thinly sliced, see recipe
- 1 pat butter
- 1 T olive oil
- 1/2-1 T miso
- 1/4 C - 60 ml Pineau de Charentes alternatives in the recipes
- pinch thyme leaves fresh, optional
- pinch marjoram leaves fresh, optional
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Thinly slice 1 bulb of fennel. Depending on my mood I will use a mandoline for uniform super thin sliced or just wing it with a knife, if your slices are a bit thicker it will just take longer but you will save your fingers and potentially some money should you not own a mandoline..
- Preheat a frying pan on medium-high heat and add 1 T of olive oil and 1 pat of butter (or more of whichever one you prefer to use).
- Stir in 1/2 T of miso (or more, but no more than 1 T) until sort of dissolved and chuck in your thinly sliced fennel.
- Lower the heat and gently let the fennel soften until seemingly forever, it should turn translucent and soft and start to brown.
- Right before you think the fennel is about done, add in 1/4 C of Pineau de Charentes along with any fresh herbs, if using, and season to taste. If you don't have Pineau de Charentes (very likely), some vegetable stock, white wine or even just plain old water will also do nicely. The fennel is done when the liquid has mostly dissolved.
- Serve on good toasted bread, maybe melt some cheese over the top or top with some good quality tinned sardines.
Notes
- Cheeses that will work, melted or not: feta, any soft goat (I am quite partial to Rocamadour at the moment), raclette cheese or Taleggio. People have also recommended Parmesan or Pecorino, just see what you've got and give it a whirl.
- For tinned sardines, I like the Ortiz-brand as it is sort of local to me and has a very consistent quality. I also like La Perle des Dieux, though you really need to get some advice on which year to get. I think 2018 was my favorite year, with well-rounded flavors from a season that had plenty of rain as well as a lot of sunshine.
