Zawazawa Kitchen

Two Fennel Recipes

For the past few years we have been hosting parties during the Tour de France, usually during one of the mountain stages. This year we hosted one party ourselves and went to another hosted by Mamiko and Ben. For some reason fennel featured at both parties.

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Fennel Salad

Simple but delicious, this is becoming one of our favourite salads.

• Fennel bulb
• Shallots
• Neutral Oil and a Strong Vinegar (Balsamic is fine)
• Sea Salt
• Pears
• Blood Orange

Make a basic dressing of oil, vinegar shallots and sea salt.

Slice the fennel bulb into very thin slices, let marinate in the dressing for a few minutes.

Peel and slice the pears, peel and section the orange, lay in the bottom of a bowl.

Dump the marinated fennel on top, garnish with a few wisps of the fennel fronds.

We ate this at Kasumi's farewell dinner. Also on the menu, steamed crab, BBQ mussels, BBQ pork, asparagus with chanterelles - some cava, some Okanogan whites (from around Oliver).

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Fennel Braised with Thyme & Black Olives - Mamiko-fu 

Mamiko has hosted two Tour de France parties now, both with recipes that made it into this blog! As you can see, Mamiko provides much better instructions than I do.

• 3 large or 4 medium fennel bulbs (about 3 pounds total)
• 3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup pitted oil-cured black olives, such as Nyons or Moroccan
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 5 to 6 anchovy fillets, minced
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
• 1/3 cup dry white wine or dry white vermouth
• 3/4 cup chicken stock

Heat the oven to 325 degrees.

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Trimming the fennel: If the fennel came with the feathery green stalks attached, use a large knife to chop these off right down at their base, where the bulb begins. Reserve a few of the brightest and freshest-looking fronds for garnish. Cut each bulb in half through the core and then halve again, into quarters.

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Browning the fennel: Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large heavy-based skillet (12-inch) over medium-high heat until it ripples. Add as many quarters of fennel as will fit without crowding, one cut side down. Leave the fennel undisturbed for 3 minutes -- moving the pieces around will only slow down the browning process. With tongs, lift a few quarters to check to see if they've browned in spots. because of its uneven surface, the fennel won't brown evenly: you're looking for patches of caramelization. Turn the quarters onto the other cut side and leave again until browned, another 3 to 4 minutes.

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Remove the quarters from the pan and arrange them browned side up in a large gratin dish or shallow baking dish (9- to 10-by-13- to 14-inches). Add the remaining oil to the skillet and brown the remaining fennel. Add this batch of fennel to the gratin dish, arranging it as best you can so the wedges line up in a single layer. It's OK if the wedges are a bit cramped; they will collapse and shrink some as they braise. Season with salt and pepper. Scatter over the olives.

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The aromatics and braising liquid: Combine the garlic, anchovies, thyme, fennel seeds, and coriander in a small saucepan, and smash the mixture against the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to make a rough paste. Add the wine, bring to a boil over high heat, and boil until reduced by about half, about 2 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a simmer.

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The braise: Pour the seasoned liquid over the fennel, cover tightly with foil, and slide onto the middle rack of the oven. Braise until the fennel has collapsed and a small knife penetrates the core of the wedges with no resistance, about 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Serving: If you reserved the feathery tops, chop them to give you about 2 tablespoons, and sprinkle them over the top of the braise. Serve warm or at room temperature.

 

Beerzuke

Yoshie and I have been working a lot over the past few weeks. On work days we often have a beer instead of wine (depends in part on what we are cooking) and some nights we fall asleep before we even finish our beers. Sigh. This leaves the question of what to do with the stale beer the next morning. Our dear friend Susan has come to the rescue with a simple way of making pickles, a rather Japanese style pickle, but quite delicious.

• Beer, one bottle, stale is fine
• 1 cup miso (experiment with red or white)
• 1/3 cup salt
• 1/3 cup sugar (again, try different types)
• Various vegetables, inlcuding eggplant (Japanese or Italian), carrots, cabage, daikon ...)

Mix the sugar and salt, add other ingredients, add vegetables. They are quite good after 48 hours and will improve for several days. These are surprizingly good and similar to conventional Japanese pickles. And they go well with more beer!

Flounder with Lime Chives and Dulse over Pea Sprouts

We celebrated Yoshie's return to Boston with this recipe. We found a nice piece of flounder and some fresh dulse and put them together with what we had at hand.

We were looking for a play of different colours and textures and with different ways that salt comes into food.

• A small-grained purple rice (we used a Chinese rice but there are some good Thai rices of this type)
• A variety of onions or shallots
• Pea greens
• Garlic slivers
• Sea salt
• Flounder (or other white fish like sole)
• Corn starch
• Chives
• Dulse
• Lime oil

We began with a bed of rice. We cooked it in a rice cooker with small bits of onions and shallots.

For the pea sprouts we first cooked up some slivers of garlic in grapeseed d oil then flash cooked these with the pea sprouts in a wok.

The flounder we dredged in corn starch into which we had grated lime and chopped fresh chives. We then pan fired it quickly in the oil we used to cook the garlic.

While cooking the fish we also crisped up the dulse in a hot pan.

To finish we made a bed of the rice, layered the pea sprouts on top and placed the fish on this. On the fish we sprinkled the dulse, added some fresh chopped chives, squeezed on some lime juice and added a few drops of lime oil.

We accompanied with a bottle of 2007 Aigle from Switzerland.

Chicken Cake Yoshie-Fu

Most winter's Yoshie cooks a simple cake made from ground chicken. She often does this with left over ground chicken from a Nabe or shumai. This is easy to make, delicious and keeps well. It also goes well with sake, a good winter drink.

• Ground chicken, about one kilogram (you can mix in ground pork as well)
• Ground tofu, about one-third the amount of chicken
• Corn starch, one tbsp
• One or two eggs 
• Ground ginger, about three centimeters
• Shredded carrots, one or two (or even beets!)
• Minced garlic, three cloves
• Minced green onions, two
• Sesame seeds, a good sprinkling
• Mirin or sake, two tbsps
• Roasted sesame oil, one tsp
• Salt and pepper to taste

Mix ground chicken and if you are using it ground pork and ground tofu with all the other ingredients. Heat frying pan to low heat and press the ground chicken mixture in. Leave at low heat until some of the moisture comes out (about five minutes) and then raise the heat to medium. Let the moisture steam off (cooking the chicken cake) and keep cooking untill the bottom is golden brown.

Serve sprinkled with sesame seed and scatter with the green part of the green onions. Cut in wedges.

Eat with a good sake like the artisan crafted ones from Granville Island.

Two Rilke Sonnets on Fruit

From Sonnets to Orpheus by Rainer Maria Rilke translated by Edward Snow.

Sonnet 13

Ripe apple, blackberry and banana,

nectarine ... These all speak

death and life into the mouth ... I feel ...

Read it in the features of a child

who's tasting them. This comes from far.

Does all grow slowly nameless in your mouth?

Where words once were discoveries flow,

set free from the fruit's flesh, amazed.

Dare to say what you call "apple."

This sweetness that first condenses, thickens,

and then, finely sublimed in the taste,

grows clear, awake, transparent,

double-sided, sunny, earthly, native --:

O knowing, feeling, happiness--, immense!

Sonnet 15

Wait ..., this taste ... Already it's escaping.

... A bit of music, feet tapping, a hum --:

You girls, with your silences, your warmth,

dance the knowledge of the tasted fruit.

Dance the orange. Who can forget it,

the way it fights, drowning in itself,

against its sweetness. You've possessed it.

Its deliciousness has entered you.

Dance the orange. Fling the warmer landscape

out from you, so the ripe fruit may glow

in its native breezes! Aglow yourselves, peel

perfume from perfume. Create a kinship

with the pure, reluctant rind,

with the juice that fills the happy fruit.

Yoshie's Fall 2008 Salads

In the fall of 2008 Yoshie began experimenting with a new style of salad. She was looking for something more substantial than our normal salad, one with more flavour and texture contrasts, that could stand up as the center of the evening meal. With work busy we were eating rather late in the evening, and wanted something more than a snack but less than a full meal.

The new (to us anyway) approach that she developed changed the three main parts of the salad, what we think of as the spirit, the body and the ground.

The spirit, also known as the salad dressing, became more complex. In the past we have used a roughly fifty-fifty balance of oil and vinegar, leaning a bit towards more oil. The main exception would be dressings using lemon juice as the acid, where there would be relatively more oil. In the new style we go for about two-thirds vinegar to one-third oil. They key, though, is to mix vinegars to call out new flavors. One approach is to start with some black rice vinegar and then add in a gentle apple vinegar. Here we generally do one-fifth black vinegar for four-fifths apple. Another style is to use a mixture of champagne and red wine vinegars, blending for balance and high lighting with herbs. We have also upped the amount of shallots in the vinegar and added an edge by putting in very small amounts of various citrus peels. This mixture needs some time to blend and merge flavours, at least an hour and it does well over night, so we begin with this. Once the tone of the vinegar is established we mix oils to match, usually a neutral oil, grapeseed is good, with a hint of a nut or sesame oil, but sometimes an olive oil, preferably one with a bit of a bite.

The body is something added to give the meal substance. Our preferences lean to a medley of dry roasted mushrooms, preferably three or four kinds, with some minced garlic thrown in, or a roasted Japanese eggplant, maybe with a hint of miso and mirin. The stems of broccoli, boiled in heavily salted water, is something we often use. Beets are good too of course, small beets do best, or any other roast vegetable. A grilled fish or some chicken can add the necessary protein. Thai style crispy deep fried fish, broken in small pieces, is a nice change.

For the ground we have been using some of the heavier and crisper vegetables. Thinly sliced cabbage, combining colours, is exceptionally good. With cabbage we find it helps to let it marinate in the dressing for five minutes or so before serving. We also use French beans or asparagus as a base for these salads. Frisee can work as well. In any case, the ground should have some crunch in it and contrast with the taste of the body while highlighting the dressing.

As with all foods, it helps to pay attention to colours, and make sure that there are bright and dark shades in the meal.

We have been eating these slowly, talking, and drinking wine. The evening passes smoothly into night and the street sounds fade into the background of our voices and maybe some music.

Baked Whitefish

Lionette's Market around the corner from our Boston apartment now sells local, sustainable fish. This is a great thing for us as good fish are surprizingly hard to find in Boston. And sustainable fish are scarce anywhere. We developed this recipe using things we bought at Lionette's over the summer of 2008 and ate it outside on the deck on hot summer evenings. This recipe was influenced by fish dishes we had in Sestri Levante when we visited in June 2006.

• Whitefish, we have been using haddock
• Prosciutto
• Fennel root or white onions
• Young potatoes
• Garlic
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Coarse black pepper
• Paprika
• White wine

Boil potatoes (starting from cold, salted water) until firm. Set aside.

Rinse fish, pat dry, check for small bones and remove (keep for a fish stock if you can), cut in serving-sized pieces.

Oil baking dish with a bit of olive oil. Slice fennel root or white onion in one centimeter slices and layer bottom of baking dish. Add fish and potatoes (sliced in eighths), season with sea salt and pepper. Stud fish with slivers of garlic and bits of prosciutto. Sprinkle on a bit of paprika and a good splash of white wine. Drizzle with olive oil.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes then broil for 3 to 5 minutes until fish just flakes.

Baked Baby Beets Mamiko-fu

We celebrated this year's (July 2008) Tour de France by having a little party at Mamiko and Ben's apartment in Cambridge. Mamiko works with me and her husband Ben is former roadie and hardcore cycling fan (though he rides a Trek for some reason). We picked the day the Tour went over the Col du Galibier and Croix de Fer then up the Alp D'Huez, the classic mountain stage. I had cheated and followed the stage on a blog and knew that Carlos Sastre had won so I brought a lot of cava. But the hit of the party were Mamiko's roasted baby beets. Simple but they tasted of summer.

• Baby beets
• Sea salt
• Olive oil
• Herbs

Trim the beets so that one or two centimeters of the stem remains (stir fry the leaves with some garlic). Scrub them hard so that the skin is clean and scraped down.

Put the beets in a foil pouch, sprinkle with sea salt, drizzle with olive oil, add some summer herbs. Bake until the beets are tender (about thirty minutes at 400 degrees).

Eat with fingers, the crunchy stems are especially delicious and the colours of the beets on your fingers will look lovely.

Melting Onions Crisping Onions

Every time I try to melt onions I think of Micheline Gill. Micheline has been one of our best friends since we have moved to Vancouver. Over the years she has given us, especially Yoshie, the kind of deep spiritual support that only an older person can provide. In part it is her love of life that has moved us and taught us. In her 80s she can stay up drinking, talking and dancing until well after midnight. And as the night ages she becomes more graceful with it.

One of our most treasured things is a piece of needle work, lace actually, half finished, still on its pencilled pattern, that Micheline inherited from her own grandmother. What is it about our aesthetic that wants things incomplete? No doubt part of it is the opening of space (ma no torikata in Japanese). And them there is the potential that something incomplete has - not final, not ended. I think of this each time I see the tattered lace on its yellowed paper, and think of things to come, even if they have been left in the past.

Micheline is one of the best cooks we know, and one of the things she does better than anyone is onions. Her onion tarts, compotes, sauces, whatever are smooth, rich and sweet and just onion. If Yoshie is the kami-sama of tomatoes then Micheline rules over onions. Not surprizing I suppose, as she is originally from Belgium and came to Vancouver with her husband Jimmy (who we still miss) after WWII. And people in Belgium know their onions.

To melt onions all one really needs is good yellow onions, some oil, some butter, some salt, a knife and time. Mostly time. Slice the onions into rings paper thin. Soak them in ice cold water, dry and sprinkle with lots of salt. In a pan melt butter and stir in olive oil under low, low heat. As low as you can get and still melt the butter. Then stir in the onions and let them cook. This will take at least an hour. The onions will soften, become transparent, then slowly turn a softer yellow white. At the end, if you like, though it is hardly necessary, bring up the heat to medium and add some white wine (I am drinking a cheap Spanish Rioja from 100% Viura grapes as I write). Use on steaks, with scallops, spread on toast ... Onions are basically good things.

Onions are such good things that it is good to have several ways to prepare them (and of course red or white onions are good sliced thin and raw into many salads). Another approach we are using a lot in Boston is to cook them over medium low heat on a dry pan. Again, slice them thin, add salt, have the pan a little hotter but still below medium, and dry them until they are almost crispy. This makes a great garnish on any meet or a more robust fish. It is good in salads too.

Onions.

Eat Drink Man Woman (飲食男女) - Film directed by Ang Lee

Food is about more than how you make it or what it tastes like. Maybe the most important thing is who you eat it with. One of the things I miss most living in Boston is cooking with and for our extended family, with all the people who hang out at the house in Kitsilano and cook with us, eat with us, talk around the table or out in the garden. It has always been a diverse group and the house rule is that if you are at the house when dinner comes around you are welcome to stay for dinner but you have to (i) help in some way and (ii) sit down with the rest of us.

Eat Drink Man Woman is one of the great food films. It is by director Ang Lee (who also did Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) and is set in Taiwan where a widowed, aging master of Chinese cooking and his three daughters come to terms with themselves, their sexuality (food and sex go together) and each other. The second daughter Jia-Chien and her father have an especially wrought relationship. She is the one who is the most like him, and who can cook, though at the beginning of the film he is the one who cooks, his daughters eat. But he is losing his sense of taste and working by instinct, an instinct that is not always on. At the end of the film, Jia-Chien cooks for him and for the first time he can taste what she is serving (I know it is a bit sappy, but it works for me). I can see elements of this in my relationships with all three of my kids.

The first scene, before the credits, where Master Chu is preparing Sunday dinner for his daughters is a wonderful montage of Chinese cooking. Watch carefully and you will see how much we all have to learn about ingredients, knife skills and the many layered ways to cook things. The part where he inflates the duck (or is it the chicken) is priceless.

We are happy to add posts on other films (and books, songs, poems ...) to this blog so send them in.