I don’t know about you but I adore fennel! I love its aniseedy flavour. I often steam it and then add a bit of crème fraiche and grated parmesan to it. Simple and delicious. But today I was in the mood to try something new. Cast your eyes on the left hand side of the picture to see what the final result looked like. Ignore the rest. I was impressed with how nice this way of cooking fennel was. Ok, I confess: it’s a bit of a faff and your kitchen will look like a bomb site by the time you have finished ( you have to dip it in three different things before frying it) BUT it’s worth it. I had it with salmon and mangetout, as you can see, but I think these delightful slices of breadcrumbed fennel would go equally well with some sort of dips as a starter or indeed as an accompaniment to any roast. Try it for yourself!
INGREDIENTS
2-3 fennels
2 eggs
2 tbspoons milk
plain flour
fine breadcrumbs (pangrattato, in Italian)
seasoning
100 ml oil for frying (I used a mixture of olive oil and sunflower oil)
METHOD
Cut the top bit of each fennel and cut into 8 slices. Parboil in salted boiling water for 5 minutes. Drain and let it cool.
In a bowl mix the eggs with the milk and season. Put some plain flour in another bowl and the breadcrumbs in a third.
In the meantime heat the oil in a large frying pan.
Dip the fennel first in the flour, then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs.
Shallow fry the coated fennel slices until golden brown for approximately 6 minutes.
Finocchi impanati? Mai fatti! Ma soprattutto sarà un modo per far mangiare i finocchi che i miei non amano un granché? Appena arrivano nella cassetta li provo subito!