Inspired by a menu: fennel puree

Ok, those of you who go BLECH at the thought of anise or licorice flavored things, can stop reading now. Annalena cannot be all things to all, and sometimes, there is a recipe that simply will not appeal to you. The licorice haters will not want this one. But if you, like Annalena, grew up on the flavors of anisette, and other licorishy flavors, you will love this . (Now, interestingly enough, while I love all of the fennels and anise flavors, I cannot stand tarragon. Who can figure?)

Every cook goes through "dry spells" when s/he will find him/herself thinking: "that again?" or "OH NO. I am SO sick of that." Raise your hand if you have felt that way. I know you're out there. I went into one of those phases this week. I had our Monday dinner planned out, but looking ahead...Oh boy. What the hell, am I gonna cook?

So, I did what I do when that happens: I went to the collection of menus I keep, from restaurants. I did not necessarily EAT what is on those menus, but they serve as inspiration. And I found a main dish, from Chez Panisse, which suggested dinner for tonight. That happens a lot by the way. If you enjoy cooking, I suggest you bookmark their web page (www.chezpanisse.com), and check the cafe' menu. Every day.

So, what were they serving that was the suggestion: quail with fennel puree.

Hmmmm. I didn't jump to the quail right away ,but the fennel puree. Now THAT sounded interesting. I had no idea how to make it, but ... A little internet research and then... there we are.

I have a blog entry from the early years called "fennel, what is fennel?" trying to copy my spiritual sister Gertrude Stein and her essay "Nickel what is nickel?" which is a reference that I'm sure NONE of you got. It's ok. Go read "Tender Buttons." It will make you laugh.

OK, enough of that digression. Anyway, I haven't written much about fennel because mostly I put it in salads, or rip off big hunks of it and crunch on it when I'm cooking. I didn't think of pureeing it. So I found a few recipes, and made my way to this one, which is an original synthesis.

For it, you need a BIG bunch of fennel, the truly grown up stuff. None of these minibunches that work so well in salads, or fish risotti, ok? Clean it up by getting rid of the fronds and the stems, and then cut it into big chunks. You don't have to be surgical here, because you're going to puree it. Get it into a big pot, with a few tablespoons of butter, and just enough water to cover it. Put it on a medium flame, cover the pot, and then let it cook for about five minutes. While that is happening, peel about twice the amount of potatoes, and cut them into chunks. Then, get those into the pot with the fennel, and add a bit more water. This time, add a nice teaspoon or so of salt. Again, let the thing cook , and check the water level. You don't want to drown the vegetables, but you do want them just barely covered.

The reason why you add the veggies at different times, by the way, is because the fennel is more fibrous and it will take longer to cook. You want this to cook away until you can pierce both the fennel and potatoes, easily, with the tip of a knife. When you get there, you're done. Sort of.

Let this mass cool, then, if you're feeling particularly homespun and old fashioned, pass it through a food mill. If, on the other hand, you just want to get it done, use the food processor and pulse it. Pulse it because if you run the machine at full, the potatoes will get gummy (trust Annalena on this). The foodmill will give you a chunkier, rougher dish, the processor, a smoother one. But you can control that with pulsing . Season it, as you like.

There is no dairy in this preparation because, in my opinion, the dairy cuts the fennel flavor. If that is something you WANT to do, by all means, add some whole milk or light cream. Do not go near the lowfat stuff with a puree like this. If you want to push the flavor of the fennel up, however, find those fennel seeds on your spice rack (in fact, you could add them at the start. When we were kids, we drank fennel seed tea a lot. The flavor comes out in the liquid, and, as Nana would say, 'it's good for what ais ya.' You know what that means, so don't use too many of them).

And that's the dish. In fact, I WILL be making quail with this. I'm not sure what that preparation will be, but rest assured, Annalena will keep you posted.