fennel
A crisp, pale-green bulb vegetable with a mild anise or licorice flavor that mellows and sweetens considerably when cooked. The bulb is sliced thin for raw salads or cut into wedges and roasted or braised; the celery-like stalks flavor stocks; the feathery fronds work as a fresh herb.
Buying guidance
Choose bulbs that feel firm and heavy for their size, tightly layered rather than splitting apart, with no browning or slimy patches. Fresh green fronds still attached are a good sign of recent harvest -- yellowed or missing fronds suggest an older bulb even if the bulb itself still looks fine.
Substitutions
- Celery plus a small pinch of fennel seed or crushed anise seed -- approximates the crunch and licorice note without the bulb shape.
- Bok choy stems -- similar crisp texture, much milder, no anise flavor.
- Celery alone -- fine for the crunch if the anise note isn't essential.
Tips & common mistakes
Fennel's anise flavor is sharp raw but mellows and sweetens considerably as it cooks, so a dish built around raw fennel's bite will taste quite different if the fennel is roasted or braised instead -- the two forms aren't interchangeable within the same recipe.
Storage
The bulb and the stalks and fronds keep at different rates -- the stalks and feathery fronds wilt within a couple of days even refrigerated, while the denser bulb keeps considerably longer. If only the bulb is needed right away, trim the fronds off and use them as a fresh herb garnish rather than saving them for later.