Uses for fennel seeds

[heidih]

A friend gifted me with some of her fennel seed harvest. They are dried. There is only about a heaping tablespoonful. Any ideas for showcasing them in a savory application?

[ChrisTaylor]

- pork meatballs, sausages, et al

- some curry powders

- mouth freshener

- planting

[patti]

When I roast cauliflower, I throw in some fennel seeds. I've also added them to tuna salad. Don't know if either of these applications would be considered showcasing them.

[heidih]

For the above suggestions would you toast them first in most of the applications?

[ChrisTaylor]

Yeah.

[janeer]

I use fennel seed in cookies and crackers.

[MaryLA]

With pork crackling, no need to toast the seeds first. Pork and fennel are soulmates.

Yotam Ottolenghi has a marinade in Plenty for buffalo mozzarella that includes toasted fennel seeds, fresh origanum, lemon zest and basil I am planning to try the next time I collect seeds. If I can't get fresh mozzarella, feta might work.

[Keith_W]

I love fennel seeds!! These are some of my applications:

- sous-vide carrot with fennel seed. The fennel really adds a dimension to carrot. (As an aside, carrot is like a blank canvas if you SV it. You can do it with ginger, horseradish, cumin, and cloves. Your guests will never know what you did to your carrots).

- salt baked chicken. Sprinkle fennel on the chicken before the salt crust goes on.

- sprinkle fennel seeds on vanilla ice-cream. The Indians eat candied fennel seeds as dessert. You will be surprised how well this works.

[patrickamory]

Try a Kashmiri lamb curry. Delectable.

[CeeCee]

There was a sauce in a natural remedies book by an antropological dr from the 70's that fascinated me. Something like pernod set a flame, that heat intensifying the fennel flavour like nothing else.

[Panaderia Canadiense]

I'd be rolling them into small, laminated brioches.... Ooh, and now that I think of it, what I'd actually do is extract about 1/4 of them into butter, allow that to solidify, and then use the fennel butter as the laminating fat.

[heidih]

All great suggestions. The weather has been miserably hot so not much cooking was happening. I remembered finding an old jar of anise seeds (somewhat similar) in a beach rental home and using them successfully in poaching liquid for large freshwater shrimp. I added some of the fennel seeds to my broth for shrimp today and was quite pleased with the subtle but distinctive note. As it cools down (eventually I hope) I will try the remainder with meat in some fashion using the tips above.

[Paul Bacino]

I use mine in artichokes!!

[GeneMachine]

Schüttelbrot! A southern tyrolean flatbread made from rye and wheat flour together with shred rye, leavened with yeast and seasoned with fennel seed, fenugreek, anise, coriander and caraway seeds. Let raise, portion off, shake it in your hand until flat, then bake and dry afterwards. Keeps for ages, makes a crunchy snack together with some Speck or in fact any decent charcuterie, together with some red Lagrein or St. Magdalener.

Edited October 29, 2012 by GeneMachine (log)