The waltz of the Fearie and the Fennel

Guess what? Today I have a recipe for you!
Not one of mine, of course. It still happens quite rarely that I make something that is a) actually my own invention and b) good enough to be shared.
But the Chef whipped up this great dish yesterday and I asked him to write it down so I could blog about it. It is really, really good!

So without further ado, I will open Master's recipe book for you:


The waltz of the Faerie and the Fennel
(Fish filet in a sauce of Absinth, with Fennel stew and cabbage)

You need (for 2 people)

about 300g of firm fish filets (Master says, monkfish would be good, for which shark is a cheap substitute. We had trout)
10 small (cherry) tomatoes
1 small jar of capers
fresh dill
fresh yoghurt
half a head of savoy cabbage
some cloves
cayenne pepper
2 fennel bulbs
absinthe
3 spring onions

1) Bake fennel (sliced in thin stripes) with some olive oil, salt and pepper about 1h in the oven by 150 °C. It shold be quite dry and crisp on the outside.

2) Cut cabbage and boil with some olive oil, cloves and dill until done

3) Dice tomatoes and cook in oil with capers and dill, as soon as the pieces start to soften add the fennel

4) Mix yoghurt, cayenne pepper, some absinthe (we had quite little, so it just showed), salt, pepper and some good quality olive oil. Add a little water.

5) Preferably in a wok, Cook spring onions (cut into 15cm stripes) until browning, add fish (cut in 2cm broad pieces) and a dash of absinthe.

6) Add sauce when the ingredients start to cook dry.

I put the fennel in the oven in the early evening, but everything else was done in about 20 minutes, so although it sounds quite complicated it is really an easy and quick recipe!

The combination of cabbage and cloves ist just lovely, and I could eat the fennel stew every day now! ^^ Loved the fish as well, especially since you can really *just* trace the absinthe, it gives the last little twist on your tongue, but is not too strong (I don't like absinthe so much)

Bon app' !! :o)