I love Fennel and at the Farmer’s Market in East Hampton, Sang Lee Farms,(www.sangleefarms.com) an organic farm on the North Fork, had gorgeous fennel bulbs with beautiful and highly aromatic fronds fully attached. You could smell the anise everywhere in the kitchen when I brought them home. This recipe was the first time that I’d cooked fennel the way Melissa does here. Melissa, for those of you who don’t read the New York Times, is a highly inventive cook whose foraging in her refrigerator always yields wonderful, flavorful and easy to achieve recipes that I love to try. Here, she slow cooks the fennel with some onions, then re-inforces the flavor with both fennel seeds and Pernod. The chicken thighs are browned and then their cooking is continued atop a bed caramelized fennel, onion and Pernod. The result would be one of the most monochromatic plates you’ve ever put on the table were it not for Melissa’s finishing touch: She purees the fronds with garlic, lemon zest and olive oil. It not only adds color to the dish. The garlic and lemon zest are a nice counterpoint to the sweetness of the vegetables. It takes all of 45 minutes to get this dinner on the table, much of it passive as you slowly caramelize the fennel and onions. I added some roasted fingerling potatoes to our menu. I guess I just like monochromatic plates.
Not wanting to purchase a bottle of Pernod (I'd run over & relieve you of one of your two… but – distance, you know!) What would be a good substitute?
Your Montreal "bubbles".
The best thing to do is to go to the Liquor store and buy one of those airline-sized bottles of the stuff. It won't set you back much…as long as the QLC carries that size. Any pastis would likely work. Anisette, ouzo and there actually is non-alcoholic anise flavoring that you can find in spice stores and specialty markets. Enjoy!
Many thanks. Great suggestion. I keep forgetting about those small bottles.
Made chic recipe this evening. YUM-YUM. Replaced Pernod by soaking anise seed in vodka.
FYI: QLC – now known as SAQ
Montreal "bubbles"