Lady Lunchalot

I’ve been a bit experiemental tonight. I made a casserole of some chicken breast I had in the fridge, mixed with some fresh blood oranges and chunks of fennel.

It was very quick. I just greased a casserole dish, juiced and zested a few blood oranges, chopped up a fennel bulb and mixed it all together.

I love blood oranges. They’re so dramatic. Did you know they originated from a mutation in an orange grove in Malta? My mother also originated in Malta, though presumably not from a mutation…

I chose a beautiful female fennel from the Vic Markets the other day. You can tell the difference between male and female fennel bulbs, because male ones are more oblong-shaped and female ones are nice and round. Female fennel has a softer flavour and is more versatile - you can eat them raw or cooked, whereas the male ones taste so sharp they are too harsh for eating raw.

Blood oranges are the perfect pairing for fennel. They have a deep flavour and sweetness that cuts right through the liquoriceness of the fennel.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 31st, 2006 at 7:42 pm and is filed under Recipes . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.