Fennel is a versatile root vegetable that can be used to make sweet or savory dips. Recipes typically include fennel, shallots or chives, butter, and additional ingredients such as tomatoes, cheese, or spices. The dip can be served with various proteins or used as a dessert topping.
Fennel is a heavily sweet root vegetable with a leafy green top. It tastes a little black licorice, though roasting often brings out the sweetness and makes its sharp flavors more subtle. Many cooks love using fennel to make salsa, especially when serving delicate proteins like chicken, fish, and pork. Most fennel dip recipes are relatively versatile because they can be combined with an array of flavors. Cooks can combine it with capers and olives to provide a salty-sweet flavor combination or enhance its sweetness with acids such as tomatoes. Other recipes may also call for spices that turn fennel sauce into a dessert topping.
Most fennel dip recipes start with a bulb or two of chopped fennel, shallots or chives, and butter. Fennel and shallots or chives are usually browned together in a pan before the cook adds some white wine or chicken stock for the glaze. This step is typically where the sauce takes on its main flavors. At this point the chopped cherry, grape, or Roma tomatoes can go to the pan, along with a soft cheese or cornstarch-cream mixture. Rosemary, tarragon, thyme and dill can also be added to the sauce, along with salt and pepper.
The tomato sauce above could also be wonderful with a few cloves of crushed garlic added to it. Cooks who use cheese to make their sauce creamy can choose cream cheese, mascarpone, or brie with the rind removed. Once hot and creamy, this particular fennel dip recipe could be the finishing touch to grilled lemon chicken, rosemary potatoes, spicy pork, flounder, or tilapia.
Those who enjoy the combination of savory and sweet flavors may opt to substitute the tomatoes for capers, green olives, and an Italian pickled greens salad. The additional ingredients should typically be chopped and added to the pan before the cook adds the liquid or cheese. This fennel sauce recipe would likely taste delicious with a cheese base, but cooks could also try a white wine and cream reduction. Saltier Fennel Sauce might be delicious on pork, salmon, or herb-crusted pasta.
The sweetest fennel sauce recipes can be served with mild protein as an appetizer or as a topping for a dessert. Adding a little lemon juice, salt, black pepper and cinnamon or nutmeg usually brings out the sugary flavors in fennel, making it a good match for crab or lobster. Once cooled, this sauce can be delicious on a plate of cold pasta primavera or a combination of fish and rice. Omitting savory spices and adding cinnamon and sugar could create a fennel sauce that might taste good over thick chocolate cake or topped with raw fruit.
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