Aniseed...must mean fennel

When I was a kid fennel grew wild along the railway tracks, we all knew the smell but we'd never think of eating it. Indeed I'm not sure that it was an edible variety. Then later I became used to the smell and the taste of fennel seeds in Indian cooking. The next stage in my culinary education was bulb fennel. I'd see the bulbs in the vegetable market but never buy them as I was unsure what I'd do with them.

Fennel is widely grown and widely available. I remember on my first trip to a little town south of Rome seeing a paddock with a crop with a feathery dark green leaf. At a distance I thought it was carrots. Asking my host I was told that it was finocchio. His English and my Italian weren't a match for solving the problem of exactly what finocchio was, however lunch a few days later provided the solution! Bulb fennel is sometimes called Florence fennel.

I suspect that many people find fennel interesting but they don't make it part of their diet through a lack of knowing how they will deal with it. It's easy really with lots of simple ways. It makes a great salad as long as you get a very young tender bulb, slice it thinly - paper thin - and put it into a salad with some citrus segments and a simple citrus and oil based dressing.

The most foolproof way of cooking it though is to braise it. Take a large fennel bulb and split it vertically down the middle - from head to root. When you do this you will see a wedge shaped piece of root in the base of each half. Remove this piece with a sharp paring knife and then lay the half on the board flat side down and slice the fennel thinly, starting at the root end. The slices should be 3-4mm thick and you should stop slicing when you start to get to the leaves which are darker green and have white pith in the stems. Do the same with both halves.

Heat a non-stick frying pan with some good olive oil - 100 to 150ml of oil, add the fennel and fry on a high heat moving it constantly. What you are doing is looking for the slightest browning on some of the fennel. When it reaches that point add a little water, reduce the heat and cover with a tight fitting lid. The fennel should now cook very slowly and not brown further at all. Add more water if required. After about 30 minutes the fennel will be translucent and much reduced in bulk, all the water will have cooked off. Check the seasoning, you will almost certainly need some salt and probably pepper, depending on taste.

Serve the fennel in a small bowl. It adds a flavour punch to the meal, a distinctive aniseed type flavour which is enhanced by the slow braising in olive oil. This dish is simple and just requires a little time. It tames the biggest fennel bulb!

Food, food, food...

I told you I liked food and cooking, so today you are getting a recipe. Nothing fancy just simple plain fresh food.

This recipe is for a very simple dish of Spicy Spanish Mackerel. I'd never heard about Spanish Mackerel until about 20 years ago when I was working in the Philippines where it is called Tangigue. We used to have it grilled over a small coconut shell charcoal brazier set up in the back yard. It was delicious. You can find out all about it here, including a little warning that is good for all fish (BTW that page is a US page but Spanish Mackerel is widely available around the world). The higher up the food chain a fish is the more organic mercury it will tend to accumulate. The Spanish Mackerel is a predator and so a little care is necessary - don't eat it every day.

Now to the recipe. Spanish Mackerel is almost always sold as steaks or cutlets in Australia. That is the fish is cut perpendicular to the backbone into slices about 18mm thick. For this recipe you can simply use the whole steak or you can remove the flesh from the bones - this will leave you with 4 roughly triangular pieces of fish from each steak. I also remove the skin, but again you don't have to. Once you have your fish ready just pat it dry with a paper towel.

Now prepare the spice mix. This consists of:

2 dessert spoons of powdered turmeric;

1 teaspoon of chilli powder;

1/2 teaspoon of salt;

Mix the spices together on a flat dinner plate. If you like your food spicy then increase the chilli in the mix, if you prefer a more bland taste then reduce the chilli. This dish relies on the synergy between the flavour of the fish and the turmeric, the chilli is just an added bonus! That amount should be enough for two steaks of fish.

Take the pieces of fish and press them into the spice mix - make sure they are fully covered with spice and shake off the excess. The fish is a little oily so it holds the spice mix well. Put the spiced fish pieces on a plate and leave them to stand for about 20 minutes so the flavour can develop.

To cook heat a non-stick fry pan and add the smallest amount of oil. I use rice bran oil. Put the fish into the pan and cook for a few minutes on each side. How long you have to cook it depends on the thickness of the steaks. Check by gently breaking one piece if you are unsure. Don't over cook. Also make sure that the pan is hot enough that the fish doesn't stew but not so hot that the spice mixture burns before the fish cooks. It should brown slightly only.

Serve the fish with lemon wedges, potatoes (or rice if you prefer) and salad.