January is one of our favourite months for produce in the year, full of sour citrus and bitter chicories. Essentially salad based negronis! Here’s a larder project for January for you: a pickle and a salad that will have your tastebuds tingling.
Pickled fennel
Ingredients:
800g of sliced fennel. (Not too thin.) Keep the ends for soup.
1200g water
30g Maldon sea salt
500ml vinegar (raw cider, or even sherry or white wine)
50g sugar
Blood Orange zest
Star anise, fennel fronds, black pepper, fennel seeds, pink pepper.
Instructions:
Slice the fennel, keep it a bit crunchy.
Whisk the salt and water to dissolve the salt.
Chill the fennel in the brine overnight in a large bowl in the fridge
Bring the pickle to a boil quickly & rest overnight on the counter.
Next day: Strain off the brined fennel. Mix all the spices, fronds and orange zest. Squeeze it all into the 1 litre jar and pour the pickle over the top.
The pickle will be ready in a couple of days. Or hours if you’re peckish.
Goes brilliantly with beef, fish or in the following little salad.
Puntarelle, pickled fennel, anchovy & blood orange salad
Feeds 4
200g puntarelle, thinly sliced
200g pickled fennel (see recipe above)
1 blood orange, peeled and sliced
1 small tin of anchovies
1 small chilli
1 clove of garlic
50g Panzer’s olive oil
1/2 a lemon
Puntarelle is a bitter winter veg from Italy and tastes a bit mad on its own. But it will balance the sweet fennel and sour orange for the salad equivalent of a negroni!
Warm the olive oil in a pan gently, grate in the garlic. Slice the chilli thinly and add. Now add the anchovies and stir to break apart. Once it smells garlicky and fishy, it’s ready. Pour into a nice bowl. Throw the rest of the ingredients on top and toss lightly. Serve with your favourite glass of wine.
