Eat This, Not That

I don't think that Americans eat fennel until one day I went to our local farmers' market. I was walking around a veggies booth, a box with big light green bulbs caught my attention instantly. It's fennel. What's a surprise! Although there are few leaves on it, I still recognize them. And I realize that we all eat fennel but different part--we eat leaves, they eat bulbs.

Usually, we use fennel leaves to make dumpling (饺子) or Chinese pizza（馅饼）. We cut leaves into tinny pieces, mix them with ground pork, salt, sugar, ground white pepper, soy source, sesame oil, cooking wine, and a little bit finely chopped ginger as filling. The rest of job is very easy. You can make wrappers at home or (to save time ) buy them directly from a Chinese supermarket, like 99 Ranch. If you want to make Chinese pizza, you may have to make the wrappers by yourself because they are much bigger, and there is no way you can buy them.

In terms of the seeds, we both use them as a seasoning but in different ways. We use the whole seed heavily when cook pork, chicken or beef. Europeans and Americans, however, use them to make spice saucages or sauces.

I learned a brief history of fennel. It has been grown for cooking at least since the time of the ancient Romans, who introduced the plant to England. In Italy, the seed is used whole to spice sausages, ground for tomato sauces of all kinds (especially pizza sauce), and also used for pork roast. The English use fennel in almost all fish dishes, especially court bouillon for poaching fish and shellfish. Fennel has an even longer history as a medicinal. The toasted seeds are often chewed as a digestive aid. Whole fish can be baked on a bed of fennel branches for a aromatic and flavorful presentation.

Want to know how to choose good ones? Please see the Food University.