My Love Affair with Fennel, pt. 2

Last weekend I drove to Ann Arbor to help Jacob move. I didn't do much in the way of packing but it was nice to spend time with him. I decided to contribute by cooking Jacob and his two roommates dinner.

I've been kind of tired of my "usuals," so I looked up something new to try. By now you know that I love the recipe section of the Williams-Sonoma website. It's a gold mine for finding new recipes to try and for looking up things you might not be sure of, like cooking times on meat.

I settled on this recipe for grilled halibut with potato-fennel puree and we went to get the ingredients at Whole Foods.

Halibut is not a very cheap fish. Luckily Jacob's roommate was paying for the groceries. You can really use this recipe as a sort of marinade or rub for any white fish. If you're just cooking for yourself, splurge on one 6 oz. fillet. It's not that expensive if you're not feeding four people.

By the time we were done shopping it was pouring out! I ran to the car and picked up the others and we drove home slowly, splashing through the puddles. Unfortunately, when we got back to the apartment the power was out and as the stove is electric that put a damper on our dinner plans. We had a little party in the hallway where the generator kept half the lights on, and ate the cheese and crackers we had bought.

Finally around 11:00 the power came back and I got to work on dinner. We were all happy that the halibut we had just bought didn't have to spend all night in a powerless fridge. This was the delicious result:



This is another recipe which capitalizes on the fennel/citrus combo, using orange zest as well as anise seed. Chervil is also called for which is really hard to find these days for whatever reason. Chervil is a relative of parsley with, you guessed it, a hint of licorice flavor. I just used flat-leaf parsley instead. Also, as you can see I don't have access to a grill (especially not in the rain) so I pan-seared it with a little butter, about 3 minutes on both sides.

The potatoes are EXTREMELY addicting. I couldn't stop eating them. I didn't use mayonnaise like the recipe calls for. I know it's just egg and oil but I'm still a little wary of warm mayonnaise. I just used a little extra butter and half & half instead.