Braised fennel with lemon

For ➋ or ➍ (as side dish)

3 fennel bulbs, quartered

15-25 cl water**

8 cl olive oil

2 ts ground fennel seeds

2 tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice* 

1 tbs chopped fennel fronds

Arrange the fennel in a large skillet. Add enough water to the pan to come at lease halfway up the sides of the fennel. **

Drizzle the fennel with the olive oil, sprinkle with the fennel seeds and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 

Bring the fennel to a simmer, cover and cook over medium heat, shaking the pan every now and then, until the fennel is tender, 20-30 m.** 

Remove the lid for the last few m of cooking to allow the liquid to reduce and thicken. 

Stir in the lemon juice* and fennel fronds. 

Serve the fennel drizzled with the thickened cooking liquid. 

Serve with roasted chicken, grilled halibut or salmon, grilled or roasted meats. 

*Use fresh blood orange juice instead.

**Chop the fennel, add 4 tbs blood orange juice, 2 tbs olive oil, cover and cook in the microwave (about 7 m for 500 g fennel). Serve with cherry tomatoes and fregola, and roasted salmon.

Fennel & blood orange salad

For ➌
4 tbs hazelnuts or walnuts
1 medium-large fennel bulb, leaves and stems trimmed off
salt & freshly ground black pepper
juice of 1 lemon
2 large blood oranges (or any orange* or grapefruit*)
1 small shallot, peeled and cut into paper-thin slices
10 mint leaves
2 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 ts lime zest

Place nuts in dry skillet and cook over medium heat, stirring, to toast. Let cool. If using hazelnuts, roll them around in a dishcloth (or, if cool enough, in your hands), discarding any loose skins. Coarsely chop nuts. Set aside. (Add some walnut oil for toasting*).
Slice about 1 cm from bottom of fennel and discard. Slice fennel very thinly on a mandoline, or with a knife, starting with flat bottom side. Toss in serving bowl with salt, pepper and lemon juice. (Add a drop of Pernod)*.
Trim all peel and pits from oranges. Holding peeled fruit over bowl containing fennel, use sharp knife to cut sections from membrane and let them drop into bowl. Squeeze remaining membrane over bowl to sprinkle salad with remaining juice, and discard membrane. Add shallots, mint leaves, olive oil and reserved nuts and toss gently. Sprinkle with lime zest.
Serve a a salad or as a side dish to smoked salmon or grilled fish fillets.
Leftovers can be served a day later.

*Optional.

The fennel trick here is to shave it thinly and toss it with lemon juice and salt, it’s licorice vibe is neutralized, leaving just the refreshing part.

Quick sunny chicken @ wok

For ➋
200 g chicken fillet
½ fennel bulb
½ (blood) orange
½ large fleshy tomato
1 ts Thai curry mix**
½ ts pepper
½ tbs oil
1 tbs coconut milk*

Cut the fillet into very thin slices. Shave the fennel into paper thin strips. Cut the tomato into very small cubes, save the juice*.

Heat the wok. Heat the oil. Add the curry mix.

After 1 m, add the chicken pieces. Stir fry them for a few m. Add the fennel strips. Let them fry for 1 m.

With a fork, press the juice out of the orange, right into the wok. Let it become hot.

Add the tomato chunks.

Turn the heat to medium. Cook for about 8 m. The juice should become a tangy orange sauce.

Mix tomato juice* or coconut milk in the sauce*.

Serve with rice. Or put in the refrigerator for a cold salad.
*Optional.
**Or ½ ts coriander & ½ ts turmeric. Or 1 tbs fresh coriander, chopped & 1 tbs garlic, chopped.

Shrimps with blood orange mayonnaise & fennel

For ➍
1 large fennel
1 ts sea salt
36 medium shrimps (about 500 g)
2 blood oranges
5 cl rapeseed oil
seeds from ½ vanilla pod
mayonnaise:*
2 egg yolks
1 ts mustard
15 cl rapeseed oil
1 blood orange with bright red flesh
salt & lemon juice

Make the mayonnaise: put the egg yolks and mustard in a bowl and mix well with a mixer. Keep mixing and add rapeseed oil, drops first, then radiating the until the mayonnaise has thickened.

Grate the zest of ½ orange and squeeze the juice of the whole orange. Stir both in the mayonnaise. Season with salt and lemon juice.

Cut the fennel into quarters and cut each quarter into slices of 1 mm. Put them in a bowl and mix with the salt. Let stand 30 m.

Peel the blood oranges to the flesh. Cut the segments from between the membranes. Chop the slices into cubes.

Mix the vanilla seeds with the rapeseed oil. Rinse the fennel with cold water and drain. Pat dry and season with vanilla oil.

Grill or poach the prawns.**

Serve with the mayonnaise. Add the orange cubes to the fennel salad and a few tufts of green fennel.

*Or mayonnaise and add some juice.
**Or bake them, 1 -2 m each side. Or poach in microwave.

Monkfish with blood orange butter & fennel

For ➍
2 fennel bulbs*
4 tbs olive oil
salt & black pepper
4 chunks monkfish** with skin, 150 g each
juice 1 blood orange
juice 1 lime
100 g cold butter, cut in cubes

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Slice the fennel. Put the fennel in an oven tin. Sprinkle with half the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and bake 25 m at 200°C.

Heat the remaining olive oil in a pan. Bake the monkfish on the skin side. Set aside and keep warm.

Pour the juices in a sauce pan. Reduce to half.

Lower the heat. Beat the butter into the juice until the sauce becomes thick and shiny. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve catfish with blood orange sauce and roasted fennel. Decorate with a slice of blood orange.

*Or use green asparagus.
**Or an another firm fish.

Bloody Campari

For ➋*
2 or 3 large blood oranges, juiced, about 6 tbs (8 cl) juice
3 cl Campari
chilled sparkling brut white wine (prosecco, champagne, cava, cremant...)
blood orange peel or blood orange slice*

Pour 3 tbs (4,5 cl) of blood orange juice in a (chilled) champagne flute.
Add 1 tbs (1,5 cl) of Campari.
Top off each drink with sparkling wine (8 cl).
Garnish with a slice of blood orange and enjoy.*

*For larger quantities, mix the fruit juice and Campari (3 to 1) and chill in the refrigerator. Add sparkling wine in the glass.
**Optional.

A sophisticated 21st century twist on the popular 70's mix Campari orange mix. The herbal bitterness of the Campari, the tart sweet sourness of the blood orange and the sparkling bitter of the brut mix together well. Campari orange was mainly an American invention, quickly followed by Western European countries. In Italy, it is still drunk as an aperitivo, with soda water to release the bitter fragrances of quinine, rhubarb, ginseng, orange peels and aromatic herbs. The aperitivo was launched in the 1840's, to counter the bitter sweet cordials from Holland, spreading over Europe. It was mainly drunk as an opener, 'apertitiuvum' in Latin, to speed up the appetite for the coming dinner. Bitters have long been considered to stimulate digesting.
Campari is also used as a main ingredient for the Negroni (equal parts gin, white vermouth, Campari on ice) and James Bond favourite Americano (white vermouth, Campari and a splash of soda on ice) cocktails. It has become fashionable again, due to extensive marketing, including lush limited edition calendars.
Read more on twisted cocktails: fino martini, quick mint cider.

An almost Sicilian salad

For ➋
2 large naval or blood oranges
1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced
10-12 black & green cured olives, halved
fresh mint leaves
sea salt
1 tbs olive oil

Peel oranges, and cut into pinwheels, or slice into blocks. Discard the white skin. Save the juice.
Arrange orange and fennel slices.
Drizzle with olive oil and juice. Add mint leaves and salt*.
Serve with a handful of cold or lukewarm pasta, like spirelli.

*If the orange peel is edible, discard white skin, clean and cut into small strips. Add to the salad, along with some nuts, like walnuts or almonds.

Read more Sicilian dishes: Sicilian swordfish, Sicilian olive sauce, tartar of shrimps & artichokes, Sicilian broccoli, spaghetti with tomatoes, capers & mint.