?Cream? of Fennel

Photo by sasshradish

I have a very interesting Dietetics course this term, called “Food Theory Applications” — aka cooking class! This is a course that allows us to try out different recipes, modify the ingredients, alter the cooking techniques and observe how the final products will turn out. Through experimenting and tasting, we learn about the different cooking principles that make food turn out the way they do and gain hands-on experience on how to make delicious food!

On our very first day, we were taken to a local supermarket for a guided tour. This was an opportunity for everyone to get familiar with grocery shopping (since some of my classmates have never cooked before, so it was much needed for them). Although it seemed very silly at first, the tour actually turned out to be quite informative. The dietitian who led us around was very knowledgeable about food and she told us many tips on how to help people choose healthier options among the dazzling selection of food items on the shelves. She also offered some practical advice on how we can better prepare ourselves to become food experts in the future.

The advice she gave at the fresh product section was the most memorable piece to me. She told us to stroll around and pick out a fruit or vegetable that we had never tried before. As I walked around, a large fennel bulb caught my eye. (Growing up in a traditional Chinese family, fennel was never on our menu and so I had no clue how fennel tasted at all.) Others picked out some pretty exotic looking produce, some of the items I could name, but many of the choices I had no idea whatsoever. After we gathered up, the dietitian went over each item and talked briefly about how they would taste and how she would prepare and eat them.

The purpose of this activity was to get us to realize that there are so many different kinds of fresh produce available on the market, so even though we think we eat a diverse diet, there is actually still a lot of foods that we have never tried before! Especially as (future) dietitians, it is important for us to be constantly on the lookout for new foods, to try these foods and understand their flavours so we develop a large food knowledge database, making it a lot easier to help others make smart food choices.

This activity was definitely an eye opener for me. Despite calling myself adventurous, I realize I have not truly been venturing out of my comfort zone. Instead, I have just been safely dancing in my safe zone, working with foods that are fairly common and playing with flavour combinations that I am familiar with. This exercise has really enlightened me. It has made me realize that there is a whole lot more culinary experiments waiting for me to explore!

With a strong flame inside pushing me to try new things, I boldly placed the fennel bulb in my shopping basket and in my mind, I assigned myself a very difficult challenge: try the fennel and make it taste good.

First attempt: Salad

The dietitian described fennel as a common ingredient in salads, and so I decided that I should first try it raw.

I wanted to cut the fennel into small pieces, but after staring at it cluelessly for a good five minutes, I had to google it to find out how to cut it up; thankfully I found a visual tutorial that clearly showed me a way to thinly slice the fennel bulb. After overcoming this mini obstacle, I was finally ready to try fennel for the first time in my life (seriously, first time)!

Crunchy? Yes. The texture was very much similar to that of celery. (So if you like celery in your salads, you will possibly enjoy fennel.)

Flavourful? Yes, but definitely not the flavours that I enjoy. It had a faint licorice taste that lingered in my mouth, kind of stingy on my tongue?

The end result: I don’t enjoy raw fennel at all, and there is no way I would consider putting the rest of the fennel slices into my salad. No way.

Second attempt: Soup

I wanted to find a recipe that incorporates fennel as a key ingredient so that the flavour of cooked fennel could really stand out.

I chose to make a fennel soup. I found a recipe that had many positive reviews. Many people commented that they “rediscovered” fennel and reported that they would make it again, claiming that the soup recipe was one of the easiest and tastiest way to enjoy fennel. Really?? I was doubtful but since I had all the ingredients already, I quickly whipped up a large batch of soup using the remaining fennel slices.

At this point, I did not have high hopes that cooked fennel would taste any good, I just hoped that it would just lose the raw, stingy licorice flavour and have a more bearable flavour.

The end result: I was delightful surprised! The strong licorice taste of raw fennel disappeared and only a very faint trace of it remained in the soup, giving the soup a very unique aroma and flavour that I found quite tasty (partly probably because I chose to use a strong flavoured homemade vegetable broth too). From this trial, I learned that cooked fennel definitely has distinguishably different taste from raw fennel, a huge improvement in flavour actually.

Incorporating fennel into a soup is a better way to use it, but it still wasn’t the best way to consume fennel. I enjoyed the soup but I did not like the big fennels chunks floating in it; it was not very appetizing. Thus, I needed to modify this soup recipe to make it more visual appealing and then it would qualify as the winning method to enjoy fennel.

Third attempt: Pureed soup

The soup was very flavourful already, so I simply needed an extra step to make the fennel chunks disappear. I poured the soup contents into my blender and pureed it, turning the runny soup into a “creamy” pureed soup.

The end result: A homey, warming “cream” of fennel soup. I was completely satisfied with the results and this certainly was really one yummy way to enjoy fennel!

Conclusion: I will probably never eat fennel raw again, but I can already imagine myself making the soup over and over again. After 3 trial runs, I can proudly declare that I have found a good way to enjoy fennel. Mission accomplished!

“Cream” of Fennel

What you’ll need:

A large fennel bulb, coarsely chopped (about 4 cups)
Vegetable broth (about 2 cups)
Cooking spray
Salt and pepper, to taste
Lemon juice

What to do:

Heat a large pot, spray it with cooking spray and saute the fennel until golden brown, about 5 – 10 minutes.
Pour in vegetable broth, just enough to barely cover all the fennel chunks. Bring to a boil.
When it boils, reduce the heat and let simmer for 15 – 20 minutes, until fennel is softened.
Let the soup cool down slightly. Then pour about half of it into a blender, blend until smooth. Repeat with other half. (You can also just stick an immersion blender into the pot and blend it until smooth).
Pour pureed soup back into pot, reheat to desired temperature (no need to bring to a boil).
Add a drizzle of lemon juice, and season with salt and pepper before serving. Makes about 4 giant servings.