roasted fennel

oh fennel, how i love thee. where have you been all my life? although toasted fennel seeds often find their way into my cooking, fennel bulbs are brand new to my kitchen. after reading about roasted fennel on one of my fave foodie blogs, rufus’ food and spirits guide, i just knew that i had to hunt down some fennel bulbs at the local farmers’ market. and i’m so glad i did. :)

kudos to rufus et al. for the fantastic, easypeasy recipe for roasted fennel. check out rufus’ original commentary or my coles-notes version below.

- preheat oven to 350F
- lightly grease baking pan w/ extra-virgin olive oil (evoo)

just a simple batch of ingredients:
- 2 bulbs of fennel
- 4 cloves of garlic (peeled, diced)
- evoo
- dash of sea salt
- season w/ ground black peppercorns

(tip: remove white fennel base from green stems & fronds. slice bulbs into quarters along the vertical and remove the inner core.)

roasted tomato bisque

tomato, tomato?

for most of us when we think of tomatoes, the vibrant colour of tomato red comes to mind… so when i saw this market crate of organic red/green, green/orange and yellow/green striped tomatoes, i couldn’t help but take a closer look. i wondered to myself, would these beautifully-striped tomatoes taste just as good as the regular shiny red tomatoes that we typically see at the grocery store?

so i picked up three of these striped tomatoes for another culinary experiment… adapted & inspired by fellow foodie blogger what a pavlova!‘s creamless tomato soup recipe, here’s my version of roasted tomato bisque… so smooth & creamy (even without the cream!). oh yeah, this recipe is also gluten-free and vegan-friendly! :)

- preheat oven to 400F

roast veggies:
add the following ingredients to large baking dish, ensuring that seasoning is incorporated well with the tomatoes.
- 3 large organic tomatoes (rough chop)
- 3 large shallots (rough chop)
- 2 cloves of garlic (rough chop)
- dash of sea salt
- season w/ ground black peppercorns
- drizzle of balsamic vinegar

(tip: i opted for shallots instead of red & white onions, and sea salt instead of sugar.)

- roast veggies in baking dish for 30min at 400F

creamy shrimp fettucine w/ white wine sauce

what do you do with a bottle of white wine that’s been left too long uncorked?

while i do enjoy the occasional tacky, kitschy souvenir, one of my fave things to try and buy when traveling is a fantastic bottle of local vino. a few years ago, i enjoyed an amazing bottle of french white wine with good friends while visiting paris. it was a spectacular white, and i was so excited to bring home a bottle from france to enjoy on a special occasion. fast-forward a few years later, when i decide to uncork the bottle with an old travel buddy visiting this weekend while watching the royal wedding (like everyone else and their dog!). special occasion, indeed. alas, the bottle of white had gone slightly off in taste. le sigh.

in the spirit of not letting good food or drink go to waste, i decided to use the slightly-off vino as cooking wine instead. typically, they say you should only use wine that you would drink, or wine that mimics the taste you are aiming for, so i guess it was a bit of gamble using this wine-gone-bad as a cooking ingredient. fortunately, this wine-infused culinary experiment was a success!