I have an aubergine and a bulb of fennel. Hmmmm...

[LowLevelWhingeing]

I'm on the second week of veg box delivery (with which I am spectacularly unimpressed but hey ho) and so I have an aubergine and a bulb of fennel to work into the week's meals.

Anyone got any nice recipes for either?

I've cooked aubergine once before in a Jamie Oliver pasta thing and I remember they just sucked up a tonne of oil in the frying stage.

I've only ever used fennel in a spag bol (half a bulb chopped quite finely, try it - it's gorgeous!).

I can pick up any necessary ingredients tomorrow.

Thanks y'all!

The main thing I do with both of these is roasted veg with red onion, red pepper and courgette, glug of olive oil, herbs to taste and then sling in a tin of chopped toms 10 mins before serving. Very easy and tasty.

I'm not sure I've ever done aubergine and fennel at the same time, that might be a bit too much of a mix.

Roast fennel - Slice fennel quite thinly and place in a roasting tin. Drizzle with olive oil and a pinch of salt, roast for about 15-20 mins, for the last 5 mins add thinly sliced parmesan on top and leave to brown.

Fennel salad - slice fennel thinly, peel and slice one orange, arrange on plate, dress with extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt, a scattering of aniseed (optional) and either capers if like me you're veggie or anchovies if you're not.

I used to loathe fennel as a result of having it in veg boxes to often but this recipe has saved the day

heat oven to 190

finely slice whole bulb fennel, onion and or leek and sweat gently in mix of butter and olive oil in oven proof casserole dish with well fitting lid

Once all soft and lovely chuck in glass of white wine or two and let it simmer down until halved in volume, remove from heat

peel some potatoes and slice finely like you would for dauphinoise. Layer these on top of fennel mix not too thickly - no more than inch say. Then get some chicken or veg stock (from oxo fine in my book) and add enough so that it sits just below top layer of potato

On top of this put nice bit of cod, haddock or monkfish, season fish,

ooh lovely, thanks ladies! i had actually forgotten that fennel goes with fish.

Sorry iPhone having mad moment...

Then stick lid on and put lot in oven for about half hour until fish and potatoes cooked through.

Is really lovely, nice steamed fish and very tasty potatoes just need to serve it with something green - so nice am thinking of doing it when friends come over next week.

hehehe, thought your ending was a bit abrupt w&p!

Aubergine doesn't soak up so much oil if you sprinkle salt on the slices and leave them in a colander for an hour, then rinse and carry on. iread somewhere that a quick blast in a microwave has the same effect but have never tried. Aubergine goes really well with lamb, in a curry or tagine for example. I also love the greek style dip where you oven bake it whole (prick with a knife to prevent it exploding) until softand the scrape and mash the insides with garlic lemon olive oil and parsley.

Fennel is delicious baked with a bit of white wine, finish with creme fraiche and serve with salmon steaks.

The Riverford website has loads of fantastic veg recipes.