Fennel Seed, Fennel Frond, Fennel For Spice, And Beyond

Fennel seeds, fennel bulbs, fennel fronds–fennel is a vegetable, an herb, and a spice

My mother, at some point in her cooking tenure, decided that fennel seeds were the ingredient which converted browned beef in tomato sauce from just that to pasta sauce.

To be clear, she was a Polish Catholic from Detroit and knew of Italian cooking only that which the Good Housekeeping Cookbook showed her.

I always enjoyed the fennel seeds in our pasta sauce. That licorice flavor was good and came to mean mom’s spaghetti sauce. A funny thing about regional colloquialisms: in Michigan, pasta was noodles. Always. Spaghetti, fettuccine, elbow macaroni are noodles. It is from there to ask, which kind? Like this: What’s for dinner? Noodles. Which kind? Spaghetti.

The Big Garden

My step-father Gordon loved to garden: flowers, vegetables and herbs. The small garden was just outside the house and in it we grew tomatoes and radishes and onions and garlic.

Perspective is necessary: the small garden was 3,500 square feet of tilled, weeded garden. The big garden, the one out back down the road in the field, well, that was bigger. I am not sure we ever measured it except by how many curse words it was from end to end, but I would guess it to be 4 times the size.

This was the garden for a row of popcorn—don’t do that—and three rows of corn, 4 rows of green beans, 1 row of wax beans, 1 row of rutabaga, 1 row each for acorn and butternut squash, random pumpkins, and fennel.

Gordon thought it wise to ask us kids what we wanted to grow, thinking if we had a stake in the garden we would be more willing to help keep up the garden. Let’s just leave that happy memory alone.

We grew fennel for the aforementioned reason. We also grew, by unanimous agreement, rutabaga. I know of no vegetable which grows in magnitudes from the size of it’s puny seed. That’s a story for another day.

Fennel Is A Vegetable

The early 1980s were not a food revolution and even if it were, my small hometown mightn’t have cared too much. Fancy things like fennel were fine for the restaruants in the next town–no kidding, The Rowe Inn and Tapawingo—but no such needs at home. So, I was surprised by both it’s curious base and how darned tall it grew.

Welcome To The Family

Fennel fronds look for all the world like dill. And caraway. Care to guess why? You got it, they’re family. The carrot family, of whom parsnips, an all time personal favorite, is a member as well as cumin, parsley, chervil, coriander, and any philosopher’s most feared, hemlock.

The fennel we see in the stores is Florence fennel, or finocchio. Florence fennel is very rounded at the bottom and has slightly darker green stems poking up, as in the photo at the top. Sometimes you’ll see the frilly ends which look like dill. These are the delicate herb which is excellent in salads or chopped and added at the end to vegetable or pasta dishes.

The best part of the fennel is the inside which is the whitest and most tender and sweet. I enjoy this as my treat and munch on it. The whole bulb, with the exception of the brown spots, can be diced or sliced and used as a vegetable in soups or stews or as a vegetable on its own. The stalks can be a bit thready, like celery, but if cut small enough, make a good addition to vegetable mixes or use them as an additional vegetable in soups. The core has flavor but needs to be diced small. The only waste is the brown bit on the end and any brown blemishes on the outside.

As Old As The Hills

Fennel dates back to at least Roman author and historian Pliny. He thought fennel good for eyesight. In the England of King Edward I, fennel seeds were used as appetite suppressants during “Church mandated ‘fastying dayes’” so the penitent would stash fennel seeds and nibble on them during services, a trick brought to use by the Puritans.[1]

The fennel seed trick might be so given the popularity of candied fennel seeds in European cultures.

Since they are hard, they grind very well. Grinding is useful for a variety of spice mixes, including Chinese 5 spice powder. Five spice powder is a well utilized spice mix in both China and Taiwan, but may contain a few more ingredients or some preferences for particular spices in various regions. That is to say, there is more than one way to season minced pork. The 5 represents the five flavors: sweet, salty, bitter, sour, and pungent.

 

[1] http://www.ourherbgarden.com/herb-history/fennel.html