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Battle Fennel!

By now, most people are familiar with Iron Chef, the campy Japanese cooking show, since adapted to American television, which pits two master chefs in battle where each has one hour to create a series of dishes using a single secret ingredient. Earlier this week, we had our own version of Iron Chef: Battle Fennel.

Yes, I’ve already spoken previously of my love for fennel, and this battle showcases two more of our favorite uses for it. Why the battle? Why such hostilities in an otherwise peaceful Carpenter kitchen? Was The Lovely Suse (henceforth known as TLS) trying to put me in my place? Well, it’s a lot simpler than that. The main star of the evening was a lovely grilled pork tenderloin, and with two whole fennel bulbs crowding the veggie crisper in the fridge, we knew what would be accompanying it. That’s where the agreement stopped however. TLS was in the mood for something light, crisp, cool, and crunchy: a shaved fennel salad. I wasn’t really feeling it, I wanted something a little more substantial and bold, and after all of the rain that we’ve been getting, I wanted to spend a little more quality time with the grill. A grilled fennel salad would do the trick.

So off we went, each to our own corner of the kitchen to whip up what we each thought would win over the celebrity judges. I cut my fennel into 1/4 inch lengthwise slices, seasoned them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and then hit the grill. After a quick high-heat grilling on each side so that nice grill marks appeared, I moved the lot of them over to a corner of the grill where they could finish cooking through. This also allowed them to get that sweet, caramelized, but still crunchy flavor and texture. Back in the kitchen, I sliced them up into matchstick sized pieces, tossed them with scallions, parsley, lemon, olives, and more olive oil and salt and pepper. Amazingly, we had never done this with grilled fennel. Usually we just grill it and eat it as-is. I was in uncharted territory here.

Meanwhile, TLS broke out what is possibly our favorite secret kitchen tool, the Japanese plastic mandoline slicer. All of those perfect little julienne that you see in our photos? All of those perfectly thinly sliced vegetables? They are all thanks to this slicer. No kitchen should be without one. Just watch your hand. We’ve both bloodied ourselves on it, so we never use it without our trusty cut-proof glove. Trust me, use it. She thinly shaves the fennel, tosses it with fresh herbs, fennel fronds, garlic, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper (and maybe a few other secret ingredients when I wasn’t looking).

It was judgement time. The celebrity judges (um, us) too their places around the table and sampled a bit of each. As promised, the TLS’s shaved fennel salad was as crisp and light and refreshing as always. It’s a perfect accompaniment to a piece of grilled fish, chicken, or in this case, pork. During blood orange season, segments of them will also appear and take it to a whole other level (not to mention turn the whole thing pink). The grilled fennel salad was also a hit. The sweetness and smokiness from the grill, along with the strong flavors of the scallions and olives made it a new part of our rotation.

So who was the winner? I believe it was a tie, although I hear that promises of dessert may have nudged mine adead slightly in the voting. Luckily, the judges weren’t swayed by TLS’s fancy bowl. In any case, both were enjoyed by all, and we can look forward to the next battle in kitchen stadium.

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I Love Trash

Ok, back to more stories of eating whole creatures from the sea. For some reason, I love “trash” fish. Historically poor people’s food, things like squid, octopus, anchovies, and sardines (at various points in history, oysters and lobsters fell into this category as well) hold a special place in my stomach. Maybe it’s the ways that people have learned to cook these seemingly unappetizing sea-dwellers into delicious treats, but anytime a menu item includes of them, I can’te hlp but order it.

One of the tougher to find but possibly my favorite of them all is baby octopus. These aren’t the giant submarine-sucking, ink-spouting monsters of the movies, but little baby eight-legged morsels of fun. I’ve occassionally seen them at Whole Foods, and they will special order them if you ask them to, but I always have luck at Super 88 or other Asian markets. They’re incredibly cheap, about $3/lb., and even I have to admit that they’re not the prettiest things to look at. Or smell for that matter. They are however incredibly easy to cook and the murky skanky smell disappears from the finished product (although it tends to linger in your house for a while).

The first step is to simmer them in boiling water for a good 25-30 minutes. The only thing you need to add to the pot is a cork. I have no idea why, but Mario tells us to, claiming that Italian grandmas think that it helps tenderize the octopus. Hell, who am I to argue? I just do it. If I don’t have one around, I just skip it, or I use it as an excuse to open (and finish) a new bottle. They should be tender and should easily be able to be cut with a fork when they’re done.

At this point, you could simply squeeze some lemon over them, drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper and enjoy, but my favorite thing to do is marinate them and then grill them. Drop them into a bowl with lemon juice, olive oil, finely diced chilis, fresh parsley and mint, garlic, salt and pepper, and marinate for an hour or two. Fire up the grill, get the marinated octopus on the fire, and let them get all charred and crispy around the edges. Don’t overcook them as they’ll completely dry out and burn. About 5 minutes total should do it. Remember that they’re already fully cooked, so the grilling is just for the charred flavor and texture. Sprinkle some more fresh herbs and squeeze some fresh lemon over the top and you’re done.

We served these up with some charred eggplant puree (grill eggplant slowly until soft, scoop out the flesh, puree with lemon, olive oil, parsley, mint, salt, and pepper), and some amazing arugula from the Farmer’s Market for what is thus far, my favorite meal of the summer. It’s still early though, so there’s plenty of time for me to find more weird stuff to grill up. Stay tuned.

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