27 June, 2012

Finocchio!

Fennel

Pickled fennel recipe.

I had a couple instances this week where I recommended pickled fennel to folks, it's a great garnish for pizza or grilled sausage. I just whipped up a batch, here's how it goes.

First find the fennel. Here in the midwest grocers sell fennel bulbs as Anise, I don't know why they call it that, it's fennel. Select a tight bright one with happy fronds. This root great roasted, or grilled, and it's good as a substitute for carrot in a white stock or fumet. But nevermind that we're gonna pickle it.

Benriner slicer

Next slice the fennel. Slice it thin. Use whatever you have, knife, Cuisinart, but I like the Benriner mandoline. They're about 25 bucks on Amazon, or at a well stocked Asian market and they are worth every penny.

Fennel sliced thin

Now for the pickle, 2-1-1. I hear ratios are popular and easy to remember, Chef only had to tell me six times before it sunk in. 2 parts vinegar, 1 part water, 1 part sugar. Start with this ratio for just about anything you want to pickle: Cherries, watermelon, cucumbers, or peppers. Once you done it a couple of times, you can adjust the the formula. For Fennel, already a little sweet, I use less sugar.

Vinegar, water, sugar, salt

Add some salt (3-5%) and bring it pickle to the boil.

Pickled fennel

Pack the sliced veg into some vessel and pour the hot liquid to cover. Allow to cool and refrigerate, let it pickle overnight.

here are the quantities I used:

1 bulb fennel
300 ml white wine vinegar
150 ml water
100 g sugar
18 g salt

Pizza w/ Ham, red lentil puree, tomatillo salsa, pickled fennel, jalapeno

Cheers.

2 comments:

Smokin Don said...

Love fennel, thanks for the recipe. I never figured why they call it anise either! Don

Unknown said...

Looks great! I agree, the whole fennel/anise thing used to throw me at the u-scan checkout, as I always went to "f" to look up the code and could never find it!

I can't wait to try this!