Skillet Braised Fennel worth the effort

Blue Howard of Gouldsboro recently requested recipes for preparing fennel. Truthfully, I had never actually cooked that bulbous, anise-flavored vegetable. Though I once had some simply roasted with other vegetables and thought, hmmm, this is nice. I never got around to trying it myself.

June Smith of Perry and Lila Fortin in Searsport kindly sent along their suggestions. Lila grows her own fennel, finding it hardy enough to survive Maine winters. She reminds us that fennel seeds, leaves, and bulbs are all good; the seeds are that nice anise-flavor in Italian sausage, (I love it when soft fennel seeds pop in your mouth) and you can make a kind of sugar cookie with fennel seeds in them. The feathery fronds are good chopped up finely and mixed with melted butter as a sauce for fish.

One fennel strategy is Lila’s Fennel Parmagiana, in which you slice fennel bulbs thinly, boil until just tender, and then layer the slices in a baking dish with a drizzle of butter (or olive oil), salt and pepper and grated Parmesan. Bake that for 10 minutes at 425 F. It makes for a good and easy side dish.

June Smith’s Skillet-Braised Fennel, which she adapted from Martha Stewart Living magazine ten years ago, takes a bit more effort but it is surely good. I twiddled with it a bit, well actually, more than a bit. I hope June won’t mind. The thickened sauce that results is very good for warming boring old chicken in (especially the boneless, skinless breasts that some of us are condemned to eat these days.) We liked this a lot and it is a beautiful color.

Looking for…

Marguerite Gallison of Bangor has asked for a Lemon Pound Cake recipe “baked in a small bread tin, yellow, like cake, but more firm than cake.” My mouth watered just thinking about this. And Dottie Gagne of Greenville would like a “good Southern chili recipe, or any chili recipe as long as it is GOOD.”

Send queries or answers to Sandy Oliver, 1061 Main Road, Islesboro 04848. For recipes, tell us where they came from. List ingredients, specify number of servings and do not abbreviate measurements. Include name, address and daytime phone number.

Skillet Braised Fennel

Serves four as a side dish

2 medium bulbs of fennel, tops and tough outer leaves removed

1 tablespoon of butter

1 teaspoon sugar (raw or light brown is good)

1 clove of garlic, peeled and thinly sliced

3/4 cup of orange juice

salt and pepper

Slice the fennel bulb lengthwise into half-inch slabs. Melt the butter and sugar together in a large skillet, add the garlic and cook it for a few moments. Lay the fennel in the skillet and brown over medium-high heat for about 4 minutes to a side. Then add the orange juice, salt, and pepper – it will bubble violently at first. When it settles down, reduce the temperature to simmer. Let it cook covered for about 40 minutes until the fennel is fork tender. Turn at least once.

Take off the lid and let the sauce reduce, occasionally basting the fennel with it until the sauce is slightly thickened another 10-15 minutes.