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On Foot: Shaved or sliced, seeds or pollen, fennel’s versatility affords chefs countless options

On Foot: Shaved or sliced, seeds or pollen, fennel’s versatility affords chefs countless options

Fennel has many incarnations on the plate. Shaved on a mandoline, fresh fennel becomes slaw-like and with its anise flavor lends itself to sprightly dressings. The bulb can also be sliced and baked in a gratin or stewed in oil to give it confit personality. There are fennel jams and pickles. And some chefs, including Guy Martin at Le Grand Véfour in Paris, make a fennel sorbet.

Additionally, fennel seeds frequently show up in sausages, and fennel pollen can be dusted on fish or other ingredients for a last-minute touch of color and flavor, or used in seasoned coatings.

Currently, tangles of shaved fresh fennel, paper-thin and lightly dressed, are garnishing all kinds of dishes. At the new Sanctuary T in New York, fillets of brook trout cooked in smoked tea oil come layered with red cabbage and pomegranate with a pile of shaved fennel on top. At the new Saltwater Grille in Stamford, Conn., apple-roasted farmed salmon fillet with an apple reduction is garnished with a fresh fennel salad.

At Volare in Louisville, Ky., a combination of caramelized onion and smoked salmon on cucumber is given added crunch with shaved fennel as a finishing touch. Mandaloun in Redwood City, Calif., serves baby Chioggia beets with shaved fennel, mint and watercress in a citrus vinaigrette. Martini House in St. Helena, Calif., combines marinated porcini mushrooms in a salad with crushed peas, shaved fennel and mâche in a Meyer lemon vinaigrette and Parmesan froth.

Rover’s Restaurant in Seattle combines Alaskan spot prawns with roasted bell pepper, fennel and garden greens. Solace in New York wraps pork tenderloin in prosciutto, roasts it, and plates it with raw orange-cardamom fennel and mission figs. And at Aix Brasserie, also in New York, seared diver scallops are marinated and sautéed with cane sugar, chile peppers and red cabbage and finished with a fennel salad.

Chef Matthew Gennuso of Chez Pascal in Providence, R.I., serves pork and fennel cocktail franks with house-made mustard and pickled fennel. At Bin 8945 in West Hollywood, Calif., cured Tasmanian sea trout is served with a jasmine rice tuile and pickled fennel salad.

Franco in St. Louis pairs pan-roasted foie gras with orange-fennel compote, pecan-sage tuile and wilted frisée. Cooked fennel is turned into a soup, combined with peas, fresh mint and Granny Smith apple, and served with a mango terrine, at Mantra in Palo Alto, Calif. The Borough salad at Borough Food and Drink in New York is made with poached rhubarb and fennel, Honey Locust greens, roasted duck, and grilled spring onions in a citrus dressing.

At Taste in the Seattle Art Museum a basic plate of greens with shaved pecorino, olive oil and verjus can be made more elaborate with white beans, sausage and roasted fennel. Treviso in Houston plates grilled double cut lamb chops with caramelized fennel, grilled Treviso, rosemary cannellini bean purée and a truffle-lamb reduction.

Fennel pollen is used at Atrio in the Conrad Miami hotel where an ahi tuna steak is dusted with fennel and togarashi, a Japanese spice blend sometimes called seven spices. At Il Buco in New York, imported olives are marinated in wild fennel flowers and fresh rosemary, sashimigrade tuna is crusted with wild fennel pollen and served over beans with olive oil and fresh parsley, and pigs are slow-roasted with wild fennel pollen and rosemary and served on ciabatta.

Even fennel seeds get in on the action at Vin in Houston, where flat bread is piled with fennel seed sausage, grilled fennel and herbed ricotta.

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