Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Duck with Olives

Recipe Source: Clements, Carole & Elizabeth Wolf-Cohen.  French.  Anness Publishing, 2006 p. 141

So I've been trying for some time to lose weight and that has meant restricting certain parts of my diet.  I've been trying to reduce the amount of meat in my life, for one thing.  When I do eat meat I try to make sure that it's a lean protein - fish or turkey or something along those lines.  Even red meat, such as beef or lamb, can be lean if you play your cards right.  Of course, I've had absolutely no success whatsoever, and this is frustrating to me.  Every once in a while, I admit it, I lose patience, let my frustration boil over and eat something that is firmly on the no list.  I don't do this very often because frankly my system can't handle it all that often, but sometimes you just have to let go and indulge a little.  It makes it easier to be good the rest of the time.  One food that is very firmly on the "no" list is duck.

Duck just isn't healthy.  I've never found a duck that hasn't been just full of fat.  In fact, that's been an ongoing problem in our attempts to cook duck.  Still, if I'm going to indulge I might as well go all the way, right?  I decided a few weeks ago that we were going to enjoy some duck and that was all there was to it.  I found a recipe that worked for me and I went with it.  This one looked simple enough, but it needed a few additions.  I added two small zucchini because I had them left over from some other adventure and I didn't want them to go to waste.  Besides, adding vegetables to a dish is always good, right?  I added some garlic.  Rather, I added quite a lot of garlic.  My bouquet garni was sage, rosemary and thyme.  I'm very much aware that that is not a traditional bouquet garni but that's what I had on hand.  I had it on hand because that's what I like.  I also used vegetable broth because that's what I had on hand.  Finally, I only used one duck.  There are only three of us, and duck is plenty rich without overindulging.

The end result was a pretty tasty dish if I do say so myself.  I certainly enjoyed it.  My husband ate quite a bit of it and the daughter declined to share it with the dog, which is about as much as you can ask of a kid that age.

Duck with Olives (serves 6; approx. $6.02/serving)

1 very large duck, cut into pieces

1/2 pound pearl onions

14 garlic cloves, whole

2 tablespoons whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups red wine, plus extra for the cook if so desired

2 cups vegetable broth

2 small zucchini, sliced

about a handful of a combination of sage, rosemary and thyme, tied together with kitchen twine

1 cup green olives with pits

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large Dutch oven

1. Put the duck pieces, skin side down, in the saute pan.  Cook over medium heat until well browned, turning frequently.  Work in batches if you need to - I did.
2. Pour the fat off the pan and reserve.
3. Return 1 tablespoon of the duck fat to the pan and reserve the rest for another use.  (You'll see what I did with it tomorrow.)
4. Add the onions and garlic.  Cook over medium-low heat until browned.  You should cook this in a covered pan but still stir frequently to prevent burning.  I know it sounds fussy and it probably is but it is definitely worth it in the end.
5. Sprinkle with the flour and cook uncovered another 2 minutes, stirring frequently.
6. Add the wine.  Bring to a boil.  (Be careful here!)
7. Add the duck pieces, broth and your little bundle of herbs to the pot.  Return to a boil.
8. Reduce heat, cover and simmer VERY gently about 40 minutes.  Stir from time to time.
9. Add the olives and zucchini to the pot.  Continue cooking another 20 minutes.  The duck should be very tender.
10. Transfer the duck pieces, olives, garlic, onions and zucchini to a plate.
11. Discard the bouquet garni, strain the cooking liquid and skim off as much fat as possible.
12. Return the liquid to the pan.  Bring to a boil and reduce by 1/3.
13. Return the duck and accompaniments to the pot and heat through.
14. Serve.

Recipe: Roasted Squash and Potatoes

Recipe Source: Holuigue, Diane.  Savoring Provence.   Oxmoor House, Menlo Park 2002 p. 189

Potatoes get a kind of a bad reputation, and I don't think that it's really deserved.  They're often seen, particularly by those who portray themselves as nutritional authorities, as nothing but empty carbohydrates looking for a place on the hips and bellies of the unwary.  It is true that potatoes are a very starch vegetable.  It is also true that potatoes can grow in environments considered otherwise pretty marginal without much tending.  This makes them a valuable source of nutrition in certain environments.  There is a very good reason that the population of early industrial Ireland, for example, became so very dependent on the potato (leading to the disastrous potato famine of the 1840s, the Irish Diaspora and ultimately to the growth of both the country and the urban area in which I currently reside.)  Furthermore, the skin of the potato contains a great deal of valuable nutrients and fiber.  So don't write the potato off as a source of future fat just yet.

I found this dish while considering food for a Sunday open house.  Being a huge fan of potatoes I decided to make it, but I wanted to make it a little healthier.  I left the skins on the potatoes to retain those nutrients I mentioned earlier.  I also added some Golden Nugget Squash.  I'd love to tell you that I bought the squash just for this recipe but I'd be lying.  I bought it because it was bright and shiny and I thought it looked good in the cart.  I knew I'd think of something to do with it.  I had some tarragon left over from another recipe so I added it here, and I increased the garlic because garlic is good.

This dish turned out pretty well.  My husband hogged all the roasted garlic, but everyone forgave him because they enjoyed the squash and potatoes.

Roasted Squash and Potatoes (serves 8; approx. $0.67/serving)

3/4 pound waxy small potatoes, sliced thin

1 nugget squash, peeled, seeded and thinly sliced

4 tablespoons olive oil

1/2 bunch fresh rosemary, leaves only

1 bunch fresh tarragon, roughly chopped

16 garlic cloves, unpeeled

Equipment:

• Large roasting pan

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Arrange the potato slices and squash slices in alternating rows in your roasting pan.
3. Stick the garlic in between slices of potato and squash, scattered throughout the pan.  Repeat for the rosemary and tarragon.
4. Pour the oil over the ingredients.
5. Bake 35 - 40 minutes, until the potatoes are beginning to become crisp.
6. Serve.

Recipe: Potato Cake

Recipe Source: Wilcox, Kip. Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant. Simon & Schuster, New York, 1990 pp. 555-6

This is another Sunday dinner dish. I wanted something relatively mild, since I suspected that one of our guests was someone who doesn't care for strong flavors. I also wanted something with carbs, because many of our guests are there for a particularly intense workout. This dish fit the bill nicely. I made one significant change in that I used Parnassos cheese in place of Swiss. It has a similar texture to Swiss but a different flavor, one I personally prefer. I also increased the amount of basil I put into this. The result was a popular and delicious side dish.

Potato Cake (serves 8; approx. $1.48/serving)

6 large potatoes, thinly sliced

1 large Spanish onion, thinly sliced

2 bay leaves

¼ cup olive oil

½ pound grated Parnassos cheese

½ teaspoon grated nutmeg

1 pinch kosher salt

40 grinds fresh ground cubeb

½ cup finely chopped basil

Equipment:

• Large roasting pan
• Deep-dish pie plate
• Aluminum foil
• Bowl

1. Preheat your oven to 350 ̊.
2. Combine the potatoes, onions and bay leaves in the roasting pan with the olive oil. Toss to coat, then smooth into a single layer.
3. Cover with aluminum foil and bake 20 minutes.
4. Remove the foil and bake another 15 minutes.
5. Combine the remaining ingredients in a bowl.
6. Lubricate the pie plate, then layer the potatoes with the cheese mixture. The final layer should be cheese.
7. Cover with more aluminum foil and bake 15 minutes.
8. Serve.

Recipe: Basil Palmiers

Recipe Source: Holuigue, Diane.  Savoring Provence.  Oxmoor House, Menlo Park, 2002 p. 36

This is, I promise, the last Easter recipe I have to post.  It's essentially a savory cookie.  My favorite Sesame Street character was always Cookie Monster (and the Count...) so serving cookies just makes sense to me.  I do feel kind of ashamed of having used store-bought puff pastry, but given all the chaos surrounding Easter this year and the short time frame I had to prepare the meal, it just made the most sense.  The only change I made was to double the amount of garlic, and I used kosher salt instead of sea salt.  Since I only used 2/3 of the package of puff pastry for this recipe, I was able to use the remaining 1/3 package for the lamb pockets I made the next day. 

Basil Palmiers (makes approx. 20 cookies; approx. $0.54/cookie)

20 fresh basil leaves

8 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1/4 cup olive oil, plus more for brushing

1/2 pound puff pastry, thawed if frozen

Equipment:

• Cookie sheet
• Rolling pin
• Pizza cutter
• Food processor (a mini-prep works just fine)

1. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine the garlic and basil in the food processor and process until a paste begins to form.
3. Add the olive oil and process to a smooth paste.
4. On a floured work surface, roll out your pastry into a rectangle about 15x12".
5. Spread the paste over the pastry surface.
6. Figure out where the halfway point on your sheet is.
7. Roll the 2 ends of the pastry sheet inwards to that halfway point.  Don't roll too tightly. 
8. When the rolls meet at the center, press together very lightly and freeze 20 minutes.
9. Lightly lube your baking sheet.
10. Remove the pastry roll from the freezer and cut crosswise into pieces about 3/8" thick.
11. Transfer each pastry piece to the baking sheet.
12. Sprinkle each piece with kosher salt.
13. Bake 15 minutes or until golden. 
14. Cool completely before serving.

Recipe: Provencal Braised Beans

Recipe Source: Holuigue, Diane.  Savoring Provence.  Weldon Owen, Menlo Park, 2002 p. 204

When it was decided that we would be holding a dinner party that would focus on pork and bacon, I had some serious thinking to do.  The fact of the matter is that I really lost my taste for pork when I started dating my husband.  He, of course, had no interest in pork until he discovered Barbeque.  I wanted there to be something on the menu that contained no trace of pork whatsoever.  The truth of the matter is that this was entirely for my own pleasure.  I was able to justify it when I learned that a friend would be joining us who is unable to eat meat for medical reasons.  Furthermore, given the vast quantities of bacon to be consumed, I wanted to offer something with some fiber.  This recipe fit the bill.

I made a few changes, of course.  I didn't have two cans of chickpeas.  What I had was one can of chickpeas and one can of black beans.  That's what I had, so that's what I used.  I reduced the amount of oil (because we REALLY weren't going to need it!) and used canned, fire-roasted tomatoes instead of fresh.  I used savory when the option of thyme or savory was given, and marjoram instead of oregano.  I also increased the amount of red bell pepper used.  I made a few procedural changes as well. 

The result was decent, but I wouldn't say it was spectacular.  It really wasn't that strongly flavored at all, and of course I prefer nice, bold flavors.  Still, it did taste good, and it provided everything I wanted it to so I'd still call it a success. 

Provencal Braised Beans (serves 12 as a side dish; approx. $0.49/serving)

1 15-oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 15-oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 onions, sliced

3 canned, fire roasted tomatoes, broken up

5 tablespoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon tomato paste

3 fresh savory sprigs

1 fresh marjoram sprig

1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and cut into matchsticks

Equipment:

• Large, shallow saucepan

1. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in the saucepan. 
2. Add the onions and saute until softened.
3. Add the tomatoes and garlic.  Stir.
4. Add the beans, tomato paste, herbs and bell pepper. 
5. Add salt and pepper to taste as well as 2 cups water. 
6. Bring to a boil, partially cover, reduce heat to low and simmer 15 minutes or until the beans are tender. 
7. Serve. 

Recipe: Cauliflower Toulonnaise

Recipe Source: Holuigue, Diane.  Savoring Provence.  Oxmoor House, Menlo Park, 2002 p. 176

First, let me apologize to regular readers if I've been a little distant lately.  I was summoned back to Syracuse last weekend to visit my grandmother, who is not doing well.  She's been ill for a while and has begun to decline rapidly.  (She is also nearly ninety and has had a good and full life.)  I'm glad that I was able to see her, spend time with her and enjoy her company while she was still lucid and awake.  At any rate, my parents being Luddites without an Internet connection, I wasn't able to be online much and therefore couldn't really go visit my favorite sites. 

My parents have really been burning the candle at both ends since New Year's really.  They've been working - they're both hard-working individuals - and helping to deal with my grandmother's needs.  As a result, they haven't always been paying as much attention to their nutritional needs as I personally would like them to.  For my last night there, I decided that I was going to make them dinner.  It needed to be something that could be reheated quickly after we all got back from the nursing home and something that would not make an ungodly mess in my mother's kitchen.  I decided on a chicken dish (to be posted at a later date) with this cauliflower dish as a side (because they need more vegetables.  And more tomatoes.) 

The original recipe claimed that it served 6; I would say closer to 8, possibly more as a side.  You could serve this as a side dish one night and then heat it up and serve it over pasta or rice as a main course the next day.  It was actually pretty tasty, if I do say so.  I made a few changes.  I decreased the amount of oil.  I used canned tomatoes, because tomatoes are even more out of season in Syracuse than they are in Boston.  I increased the peppers - the original called for 1/2 of each type of pepper, but I didn't want to stick my mother with half a pepper in her fridge.  I increased the garlic (because I get my love of garlic from somewhere...) and I switched marjoram for the thyme originally required.  I also used white wine in place of the water, because I'd bought it for another recipe and wanted to minimize the waste when I left.  I also had to make some procedural changes, as my mother did not have a steamer basket (and guess what she's getting for Mother's Day.) 

Cauliflower Toulonnaise (serves 8; approx. $1.64/serving)

1 head cauliflower, cut into florets

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 yellow onion, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced

1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced

3 canned whole tomatoes

6 garlic cloves, crushed

1/4 bunch marjoram, leaves only

"Nu-Salt" and black pepper to taste (feel free to substitute kosher salt here; my mom can't have salt.  I find the stuff offputting, but what are you going to do?)

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 heaping tablespoon tomato paste

Around 3 ounces garlic-stuffed kalamata olives

Equipment:

• Large skillet with lid

1. Heat the oil in the skillet.
2. Add the onion.  Saute until the onion is softened.
3. Add the peppers.   Stir to coat with the pan mixture and saute another 2 - 3 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, garlic, majoram, pseudo-salt, pepper and wine.
5. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low.
6. Arrange the cauliflower on top of the pan mixture. 
7. Cook until the cauliflower is tender, 5 - 7 minutes. 
8. Remove from heat.  Add the olives and serve.  You can also store and reheat this later. 

Smoked Salmon Beignets

Recipe Source: Wright, Clifford A.  Little Foods of the Mediterranean.  Harvard Common Press, 2003, pp. 261-2 and 476.

I've been wanting to make this recipe for a while.  I had initially wanted to make it for our holiday party.  Unfortunately it really needed to be made the day of serving.  We got a bad snowstorm that day, and my husband was unable to help me clean and decorate the house (because he was trying to excavate our driveway.)  So I had to scrap a couple of dishes, and this was one of them.  Unfortunately, I had already bought the ingredients, to include smoked salmon which can be a little on the pricey side.  Fortunately, my friends Ruth and Troy decided to have a New Year's Eve party, so I was able to make this for them. 

This might have been the most complicated recipe I've tried to do in a long time, especially judging by the state of my kitchen afterward.  It was made substantially easier by my discovery of a marinade injector somewhere deep within the recesses of our kitchen.  I don't know where it came from, but it really helped with filling the beignets.  Which brings me to a second point: the use of the term beignets.  I have previously been used to thinking of beignets as fried little bits of dough.  These seem more like savory cream puffs.  That said, I'm using the term beignets because the author used it, and he's pretty knowledgeable about these things.  I doubled the recipe, although I misread the number of eggs. 

The dish was certainly a success, although the arrival of another winter storm meant that there were a lot fewer people to enjoy it.  My husband, who is very fond of smoked salmon, particularly enjoyed the dish. 

Smoked Salmon Beignets (makes 36 puffs; approx. $0.41/each)

2 cups whole milk

1 cup unsalted butter

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

2 cups all purpose flour

10 eggs

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

6 ounces smoked salmon

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons unflavored gelatin

1/2 cup shrimp stock (mine was left over from making gumbo)

2 tablespoons lemon juice

4 tablespoons brandy

1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

Equipment:

• Stand mixer with whisk attachment
• Food processor
• Bowls
• Small saucepan
• Baking sheets lined with tin foil
• Marinade injector

1. Put the milk, butter and salt in a large, heavy saucepan and turn the heat to medium-high.
2. Once the butter has melted, add the flour all at once.
3. Stir with a wooden spoon until it creates a dough, pulls away from the saucepan easily, and the butter begins to ooze a little, 1 1/2 - 2 minutes.
4. Transfer to a bowl.
5. Preheat the oven to 400.
6. Beat the eggs into the flour mixture, one at a time, beating vigorously with a fork and making sure each egg is absorbed and the dough is smooth before you add the next one.
7. Sprinkle with nutmeg.
8. Butter a baking sheet and, using a tablespoon, drop large tablespoonfuls of the dough in rows on the sheet 1 1/2 " apart.  Each droplet should be about 1" in diameter for small ones.
9. Bake until golden brown, 22 - 25 min.
10. Do not peek into the oven.
11. In a food processor, puree the salmon, butter, cayenne and nutmeg together until very crumbly.
12. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside.
13. In a small saucepan, soften the gelatin in the shrimp stock and dissolve over low heat.
14. Let cool.
15. Add to the salmon mixture, along with the lemon juice and cognac.
16. Fold the whipped cream into the salmon mixture until well blended.  Check for salt.
17. Stuff the beignets using the marinade injector and serve or refrigerate up to 4 hours.
18. Serve at room temperature or a little colder.

Recipe: Seven Hour Lamb

Recipe Source: Holuigue, Diane.  Savoring Provence.  Oxmoor House, London, 2002 p. 141

 

This weekend I craved lamb.  I wasn't sure what it was that I wanted to do to the lamb, but I knew my husband very much wanted to use the Big Green Egg.  I found this recipe in the above-mentioned book, and decided to use it as a launching pad.  Most of the changes that I made were procedural, because there weren't many ingredients in the first place.  I probably used a little more garlic than called for, maybe 45 cloves.  I used duck stock because I had homemade duck stock in the freezer and that's for free. 

 

The original recipe called for the lamb to be browned in the pan before being roasted for seven hours.  This is not what I did.  My husband has told me that browning the meat before using the Egg inhibits the smoke from penetrating the meat, so I left that step out.  Instead, I prepared a quick rub consisting of thyme, kosher salt and black pepper.  I rubbed this all over both sides of the lamb and let it sit out while we were preparing the egg.  If you do this in your oven, brown the meat first in the pan before roasting.  To solve the drippings problem, we put a clean drip pan under the meat in the Egg and used those drippings to make the sauce.  I don't think I'm bragging when I say that the resulting dish was absolutely wonderful.  The lamb didn't have that kind of melting texture that a lot of slow-cooked meat gets, but it was amazingly soft and succulent and delicious. 

 

Seven Hour Lamb (Serves 6; approx. $6.95/serving)

1 boneless leg of lamb, about 5 lb.

1 tablespoon dried thyme

1 tablespoon black pepper

2 tablespoons kosher salt

2 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

3 tablespoons brandy

45 garlic cloves, peeled

2/3 cup dry red wine

2/3 cup duck stock (you can substitute chicken stock here)

2 tablespoons dried rosemary

Equipment:

• Big Green Egg (optional; you can also make this indoors, but it won't be nearly as good)
• Small saucepan
• Long match
• Small strainer
• Drip pan

1. Mix the thyme, pepper and kosher salt together in a bowl.  Rub all over the lamb. 
2. Set up the Big Green Egg for indirect cooking with a clean drip pan.  We added a couple chunks of hickory wood to increase the smoky flavor.  Heat the Egg up to 225 degrees.  If you must cook this indoors, preheat the oven to 250 degrees and brown the meat in the pan you'll use to roast it. 
3. Roast the lamb for about 7 hours. 
4. Take the lamb from the Egg and let it rest, tented under foil.  (Indoor cooking: Remove the lamb from the pan and transfer to a cutting board.  Tent with foil and allow it to rest.)
5. Make the sauce.  Melt the butter with the oil in the saucepan.
6. Add the pan drippings from the drip pan.  If you're cooking indoors, you can do all of this right in the pan you used for roasting.
7. Add the brandy.  TURN OFF THE HEAT and, using the long match, ignite the brandy. 
8. When the flames subside, return the pan to a medium-low heat and add the garlic, stock, wine and rosemary. 
9. Bring to a boil slowly and boil until the garlic is soft. 
10. Strain the sauce into a small bowl, pushing on the garlic with the back of a wooden spoon to ensure that you get all that garlicky goodness.  Vampires will not be a problem for you or your guests tonight! 
11. Carve the meat and serve, with the sauce passed alongside. 

Technorati Tags: Big Green Egg recipe,lamb,roasted food,sauces,garlic,Provencal food,recipe

Recipe: St. Remy Tuna (well, sort of)

Recipe Source: Doeser, Linda.  Fish & Shellfish: Superb Ways with Seafood.  Anness Publishing Ltd., London, 2003 p. 148

 

This is an amazingly easy recipe to throw together.  I make it fairly frequently, because it's very healthy and very quick to cook.  I typically make several changes to the original.  First, I use frozen tuna steaks.  Second, I use minced jarred garlic.  Third, I used canned diced tomatoes.  Fourth, instead of dried herbes de Provence, I used a mix of thyme, oregano and nigella.  As a result, it comes together quickly and tastes wonderful.  On this most recent pass, I also added about half a jar of marinated artichoke hearts that I rescued from the trash pile at camp this year.  This gave the recipe a little variation and added more vegetables to boot. 

 

Not Really St. Remy Tuna (serves 2; approx. cost per serving not available)

2 frozen tuna steaks, thawed

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 tablespoons minced jarred garlic

1/4 cup white wine

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 jar marinated artichoke hearts, probably about 2/3 cup

1 teaspoon dried oregano

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon nigella seeds

Kosher salt and black pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Large skillet

1. Season the tuna steaks with salt and pepper.
2. Heat the oil over high heat in the skillet.
3. Add the tuna steaks and press down gently, then reduce the heat to medium.  Cook 6 - 8 minutes, turning once. 
4. Transfer the steaks to a serving platter and cover to keep warm.  If your oven has a warming drawer, this would be the time to use it. 
5. Add the garlic to the pan and cook around 20 seconds. 
6. Pour in the wine and cook until it reduces by about half. 
7. Add the tomatoes, artichoke hearts and herbs.  Cook 2 - 3 minutes until bubbling.
8. Pour the mixture over the tuna steaks and serve. 

Technorati Tags: French food,Provencal food,tuna,fish,seafood,tomatoes,recipes,easy recipes,quick recipes

Recipe: Roasted Fennel

Recipe Source: Holuigue, Diane.  Savoring Provence.  Oxmoor House, Menlo Park,  2002 p. 192

This recipe came about as the result of a screw-up.  It was supposed to be a fennel and cucumber salad.  Actually, that was the name of the dish: Cucumber and Fennel Salad, only in French.  Unfortunately, while I thought I had purchased enough cucumbers to get me through that week, I appear to only have purchased enough to get me through my in-laws' visit.  While I could have bailed on the dish entirely, that wouldn't have been much fun and we would have wound up with vaguely ouzo-scented slime in the crisper drawer.  Instead, I decided to go ahead and mix this up without the cucumbers. 

I made a couple of other changes besides omitting the cucumbers.  I halved the amount of olive oil, and I used a full head of garlic rather than the six cloves called for in the original.  I did both of these things mostly from habit, although I think that the additional garlic really helped the dish.  I also omitted the parsley; I didn't think that the flavor would add much value, although the green specks would have added something visually.  I think that one of the things I liked best about this dish was the fact that most of the work could be done ahead of time.  Roasting the garlic at the same time as the fennel did prove to be a little problematic, but popping it into the microwave for 30 seconds solved the problem once the time came to serve the dish.  We served it with a somewhat oily dish, or at least a dish that was oilier than we would ordinarily eat, and the fennel really helped keep our stomachs on an even keel. 

Roasted Fennel (serves 4; approx. $1.52/serving)

2 large, round fennel bulbs

6 tablespoons olive oil

1 head garlic, cloves separated but unpeeled

1 tablespoon capers

4 tablespoons lemon juice

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Equipment:

• Potato masher
• Small bowl
• Baking sheets

1. Trim the fennel bulbs by removing the stalks and fronds.  Reserve them for another use (foreshadowing much?).  Trim the base of the core; I can't think of a valid use for this part besides compost. 
2. Preheat an oven to 375 degrees. 
3. Slice the bulbs into thin slices, about 1/8" thick. 
4. Arrange the slices in a single layer on the baking sheet. 
5. Top the fennel slices with the garlic cloves.
6. Drizzle the olive oil over the vegetables and cook about 20 minutes. 
7. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.  Transfer the fennel to a serving vessel.
8. When the garlic is cool enough to handle, squeeze the cloves into a small bowl.  (Alternatively, if you allow the garlic to cool completely, you can microwave the cloves on high for about 30 seconds to loosen the skins and soften the cloves.  Peel into the bowl.)
9. Add the lemon juice to the bowl and mash with the potato masher.  You could probably do this in the food processor, but you won't get those nice big chunks of garlic. 
10. Drizzle the mix over the fennel.
11. Add the capers, salt and pepper and toss to mix. 
12. Serve.

Technorati Tags: Fennel,easy recipes,make-ahead recipes,vegetarian recipes,vegan recipes,salad,side dishes