Seasonal local food recipe No.154: Fennel and potato bake
This simple and satisfying dish comes from Veg Box Recipes. They say: “It’s a comforting dish for rainy weather and the combination of flavours helps make the fennel’s aniseed more subtle.”
Serves 2 (as a main dish)
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Ingredients
4 large potatoes (or 6 small), scrubbed
1 bulb fennel
2 gloves garlic, crushed or minced
300ml semi-skimmed milk, or 300ml single cream, or 150ml of each
1 free range egg
butter, for greasing
salt and freshly ground pepper, nutmeg to taste
(optional) tomato slices to garnish
Method
Preheat oven to Gas Mark 5 / 190C.
Slice the potatoes and fennel very thinly – ideally using a mandolin. Grease a large baking dish with the butter and arrange the potato and fennel slices in alternative layers with garlic and lots of seasoning in between each layer.
Mix together the cream and / or milk, egg and nutmeg with lots more seasoning. Pour the mixture over the vegetables already in the baking dish, cover and bake for about 1 ½ hours, removing the cover for the last 30 minutes until the top has browned nicely.
