Fennel, honey, blue cheese, and lemon recipe

[Keith_W]

The original idea for panfried fennel came from Ottolenghi's Land of Plenty. However, I have modified this dish so far from the original recipe that I can call it my own. I designed this one as an entree (rather than a side dish envisioned by Ottolenghi), so its flavours are much more assertive and interesting than the original recipe.

Lately I have come to respect chefs who can elevate humble vegetables into interesting creations. It is easy to serve meat, because everybody loves meat. Creating an interesting and delicious vegetarian dish is much more of a challenge! Great examples of making a humble vegetable the star include - Ben Shewry's "Potatoes cooked in the earth they were grown in", Dan Hunter's stuffed Jerusalem artichokes, and the various vegetarian recipes by Rene Redzepi.

For this recipe, you will need a frypan which is oven safe.

I think vegetarian dishes should be innovative and exciting, and I particularly like playing with strongly flavoured vegetables and combining them with new and unexpected flavours. This recipe is simple to make yet offers an interesting study in contrasts - there is the aniseed of the fennel with the creamy richness and fermentation of blue cheese, with the sweetness and perfume of honey (if you use Manuka honey as I did), and with the freshness of lemon and fig.


INGREDIENTS - serves 4
- 4 baby fennel, cleaned and halved lengthwise
- 2 figs, cut into quarters
- 1/2 lemon
- 50g blue cheese (preferably St. Agur or Roquefort)
- 50g honey, diluted with 10mL water (use a good quality honey)
- 20g butter

METHOD
- Preheat oven to 180C
- Melt the butter over low heat and place all the fennel in the pan, cut side down
- When the fennel is nicely browned (about 4-5 minutes), turn the fennel and sprinkle some salt over. Cook in the oven for 4-5 minutes. The fennel is done when a knife passes cleanly through.
- Crumble blue cheese on top, then drizzle honey. Grate lemon zest over, then add a squeeze of lemon juice. Garnish with fennel fronds.

 

[puroagave]

delish.

our neighbor gave us a few dozen black figs from their tree, got any good savory or sweet recipes under your hat?

 

[rockitman]

A classy and very tasty looking dish. Well done.

 

[Keith_W]

delish.

our neighbor gave us a few dozen black figs from their tree, got any good savory or sweet recipes under your hat?

What I love most about figs is their freshness. Dried figs and cooked figs are delicious, but a fresh fig is really something else. Whenever I have fresh figs I tend to avoid doing anything too much to it - I certainly do not want to cook it or dry it, or do anything to it beyond enjoying it in its natural, raw state.

Here are a few:

- figs. Just eat it as it is

- fig and ice cream (you can make a fig ice cream if you have a lot of figs, or you could use cheaper dried figs to make your ice cream), or figs with yoghurt. You can make a simple crumble for some textural contrast. To make a crumble: rub together flour, muesli, sugar, and butter until you get a crumb-like texture. Bake until golden and sprinkle on your ice cream.

- figs and cheesecake. You want a particularly cheesy and light type of cheesecake. Japanese cheesecakes do very well.

- salad with rocket (called "Arugula" in the USA), prosciutto (or serrano, or bresaola), fig, and balsamic.

- figs with cheese - it goes particularly well with blue cheese, gorgonzola and stilton (you get the idea), also with harder cheeses like cheddar and manchego. I have even tried it with a really good Burrata, but it needs a bit of salt to help it along.

If all these suggestions sound a little simple, that's because that's how I believe a fig should be eaten. You will never find me cooking a fig. Over here, figs are expensive and rare - if I have a fresh fig, I want to eat it as it is.

 

[puroagave]

What I love most about figs is their freshness. Dried figs and cooked figs are delicious, but a fresh fig is really something else. Whenever I have fresh figs I tend to avoid doing anything too much to it - I certainly do not want to cook it or dry it, or do anything to it beyond enjoying it in its natural, raw state.

Here are a few:

- figs. Just eat it as it is

- fig and ice cream (you can make a fig ice cream if you have a lot of figs, or you could use cheaper dried figs to make your ice cream), or figs with yoghurt. You can make a simple crumble for some textural contrast. To make a crumble: rub together flour, muesli, sugar, and butter until you get a crumb-like texture. Bake until golden and sprinkle on your ice cream.

- figs and cheesecake. You want a particularly cheesy and light type of cheesecake. Japanese cheesecakes do very well.

- salad with rocket (called "Arugula" in the USA), prosciutto (or serrano, or bresaola), fig, and balsamic.

- figs with cheese - it goes particularly well with blue cheese, gorgonzola and stilton (you get the idea), also with harder cheeses like cheddar and manchego. I have even tried it with a really good Burrata, but it needs a bit of salt to help it along.

If all these suggestions sound a little simple, that's because that's how I believe a fig should be eaten. You will never find me cooking a fig. Over here, figs are expensive and rare - if I have a fresh fig, I want to eat it as it is.

you gave me some good ideas, im going out to whole foods market for some cheeses i have some serrano ham (iberico) stashed that will go well with it. all thats left is to raid my brother in laws wine stash

we have a green (white) fig tree and we collected our first harvest this morning. they're large, fleshy and kinda sweet but lack flavor we end up eating those fresh/raw.

 

[Steve Williams]

As always Keith, a terrific narrative followed by wonderful photos makes this an irresistible dish