the cook stack

Finally, another winner from Cook This Book! To be honest, I was beginning to regret committing to cooking my way through this book. There have been a few winners but also more losers than I would care for in the kitchen. My twelfth recipe, Caramelized Fennel with Parmy Frico, gives me enough motivation to keep working my way through at least the whole vegetable chapter.

For a bit of background, fennel annoys me in many ways. As just one example, whole fennel, with the bulb, stalk, and fronds, does not fit into the plastic bags at the grocery store, so fennel fronds end up strewn about all of my other groceries when everything is placed in a larger brown paper bag at checkout. I am also not convinced I like the licorice-y flavor of fennel. I would probably skip over this recipe if I was not attempting to literally, cook this book.

This is the beauty of cooking through a whole book, however! There are those winning recipes that would otherwise be overlooked.

In this rather simple preparation, fennel is sliced through the bulb to make, what I call fennel steaks. I learned the bottom of the bulb really cannot be trimmed much, or the fennel steaks fall apart into fennel spears. The steaks are roasted in a hot oven with parmesan. The remainder of the fennel, the stalks and fronds, are chopped and tossed in a lemony-dressing.

All of the parts are combined in the end to make, I daresay, a banger of a recipe! I had never successfully accomplished a frico on a vegetable – this simple oven method did the trick. Oh boy, so salty and lemony but also a vegetable, I gobbled up my plate. Sadly my husband cannot eat cheese, so I am not sure I will be making this regularly. But I would not hesitate to put this on a menu for just myself or for cheese-eating others.

One note to end – this recipe uses three fennel bulbs but makes only about two portions, turning this into a rather expensive recipe, as fennel is over $3 per bulb ’round these parts!

Until next time, fennel friends!