Fennel Fills in for Salads in Fall.

[elleng]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/26/dining/using-fennel-in-autumn-salads.html?hpw

[beac]

1. I love raw fennel in a salad. Alas, mr. beac is not a fan.

:(

He does enjoy it cooked, luckily. So I've been making a lot of fennel, mushroom & onion sautes.

This week, I served it as a side dish on day 1, then in the center of a halved acorn squash on day two (mushing it into the squash flesh as we ate it.) On the third day, I warmed the last of the mix in some sherry until hot, then added some non-fat dry milk reconstituted in 1/2c water at about 3x the normal ratio (so more dry milk than usual).

Forgetting the laws of science for a second, I added the milk mix to the hot sherry/mushroom/fennel/onions and it turned into a kind of soft cheese that all glopped together. WTH, I thought, and went ahead and blended it anyway as I'd planned.

After a few minutes, it pureed up nice and smooth and I returned it to the pan to reduce a bit more and served in over Naked Chik'n Cutlets topped w/a couple of reserved mushrooms. Delicious (and would have made a yummy soup, which will be my next fennel-y meal. :) )

[elleng]

2. Hey beac, I think I'd visit you and your experiments!

:hi:

[beac]

3. OK, but be warned...

not all are successes.

My attempt to make leftover roasted tomatoes, raspberry-pepper jelly and sesame oil into a sauce resulted in...

Naked Chik'n w/hastily-composed yogurt-dill sauce.

Tom-jelly-sesame experiment went into the circular file (tasted like a tomato lollipop, LOL. :) )