Bobby Moore menus this Dungeness
crab and pickled peaches salad that
includes fennel shaved super-thin and is
topped with fennel pollen.
coriander, which we put in our stewed
peppers with our market fish dish,”
Gurman says. “The seeds are also great
with our braised short ribs, along with
clove, allspice, rosemary and thyme.”
FENNEL ON THE SIDE
Barking Frog serves a fennel confit with
its Anderson Ranch rack of lamb with
Israeli couscous risotto, green beans
and a shallot/lamb demi-glace. Moore
confits fennel in extra-virgin olive oil. “We
include bay leaves, peppercorn, garlic and
fresh thyme,” he says. “This softens the
fennel up. Then we put it on a flat top to
get it crispy. We plate the risotto topped
with two lamb chops, and lean the fennel
confit up against it.”
At The Lazy Goat, Moore uses a lot of
roasted fennel in the fall and winter months.
“I love the flavor of roasted fennel with
other fall root vegetables, like beets, turnips,
carrots and parsnips,” she says. “I do a
brick chicken with roasted fennel, Brussels
sprouts, butternut squash, sweet and golden
beets, fingerling potatoes and couscous,
along with a hint of pumpkin pie spice.
contest in July for his Grape Fennel
Flan ( www.tablegrape.com/docs/
FirstPlaceRecipeGrapeFennelFlan.pdf).
“It sounded like a good idea,” he says. “I’ve
never eaten fennel and grapes together,
but I thought by blistering the grapes with
fennel flavor, it would bring a savory quality
to the dish to balance it out.”
“I haven’t seen fennel in a lot in desserts,
but I’ve seen a lot of anise-flavored
desserts, which is what fennel tastes like,”
Gurman says. “And I like doing desserts
with unusual things like vegetables.”
Kathryn Kjarsgaard is a freelance food
writer based in Forest Park, Ill.
FENNEL DESSERT
Gurman won the California Table Grape
Commission’s foodservice recipe
He used fennel seeds in the winning recipe
for flavoring, steeping them in cream and
removing them before making the flan.
