Fennel

[MaryMotherOfCheeses]

What do I do with it?

I'm roasting pork.

do I chop fennel and put it around the roast?

Do I boil fennel, or braise it?

What is it for?

I thought this was another bizarro baby name thread...

... I'll clear off, sorry

Sister to Celery.

I chop it up small and treat it as you would celery. I find a little goes a long way so i freeze what i dont use all at once. A handful added to mushroom sauce is nice

You can do either. An easy braised fennel recipe would be to remove leaves and trim and quarter the fennel lenghwise and braise in about a cup of chicken stock it until fairly soft (maybe 45 minutes on a low simmer). Then take out the fennel with a slotted spoon and whisk in a bit of room-temp butter mixed with flour to chicken. Spoon sauce over fennel. Sprinkle with chopped fennel leaves.

Jamie Oliver has a wonderful pork roast recipe where you roast a pork loin with whole unpeeled garlic cloves, fresh sprigs of rosemary, fennel and white wine as well. It is seriously delicious!

I've been trying to google that Jamie recipe but can't find it.

Does he just roast the fennel along with the pork and garlic? Then make a gravy with wine?

much nicer than celery can't stand celery but like fennel like it finely sliced in salads and roasted with other vegetables

You need some fennel seeds as well, if you have and some bay leaves (although will still probably be delish even without). Preheat oven to 200C. Season the pork loin with salt and pepper and roll it in 1 tbsp fennel seeds and tie it up if you can be bothered. Slice a bulb of fennel. Put the joint in the roasting tray and throw the fennel, 8 cloves unpeeled garlic, a handful of rosemary, half a bottle of chardonnay and four bay leaves in with the meat in a very rough fashion. Loosely cover with wet greaseproof paper and roast for 1 1/4 hours. Take the meat out and let it rest while keeping warm. When the meat is resting, add a couple of knobs of butter to the roasting tin as well as squeezing some of the garlic out of the peel and stir in. Mix together and it makes the most scrumptious rustic sauce for the pork.

It really has a great flavour.

Thanks, that'll do me