It's time to finally share this joy. In Argentina, fresh fennel is sold as its white bulb with a couple of inches of stalk (treat it like a far superior celery) and a small smattering of leaves. I buy it ALL THE TIME. Here's one of the things I do with it.
Fennel and Nut-Stuffed Acorn Squash (by Sami)
Oven preheat: 375
INGREDIENTS
Half of an acorn squash, approx. 8 inches in diameter
3 TBSP olive oil or vegetable cooking oil
3 large cloves garlic
The stalks of one fennel plant, chopped (if this is less than a cup, chop up the bulb, too)
½ cup chopped onion
2 tsp cinnamon
Salt
Pepper (optional)
½ cup of shelled cashews or almonds
METHOD TO THE MADNESS
Wash all veggies…except the garlic. That would be gross. Especially if you do it while they’re still in the skins. Well, I don't wash 'em. Anyway…
Clean the seeds and membrane out of the center of the acorn squash, reserving the seeds (see Seed Snack below). Compost the membrane. Cut a flat surface on the bottom of the acorn squash so that when it sits like a bowl it doesn’t roll around (guess how long it took me to figure this out…just guess).
Fill a baking dish (wide enough to fit the diameter of the acorn squash) with a half inch of water. Place the acorn squash open-end down into the water. Cook in the oven for 30min.
While it’s cooking, chop the vegetables. Heat a pan over medium-low heat with the oil. Add garlic and cook until lightly gold, about a minute.
Add the chopped fennel stalks, onion, cinnamon, salt and pepper (to taste) to the pan. Cook and stir until the edges of the onion just begin to clarify. You want to just introduce the flavors to one another, no more. Take the pan off the heat and let it cool completely. Add the cashews and stir well.
It should be just about time to take the squash out. Lift it out of the pan so you can drain the pan (I do this by stabbing two forks into opposite sides). Add a little oil to the bottom of the pan to keep the acorn squash bowl from sticking. Set the acorn squash bowl into the pan, opening up. Scrape the insides off until the edges are fairly uniformly ¼ inch thick. Thoroughly mix the scrapings in with your vegetable and nut mix. No need to be exact on your scraping, it’s delicious even of some parts are a bit thicker. Try not to puncture the bowl, though, so that it will hold together.
Spoon the vegetable-nut-scrapings mixture into the bowl of the acorn squash. Put the whole thing back into the oven and reduce heat to 350. Cook for another half an hour. Check for doneness. If you like your veggies medium soft, take it out now. If you like them REALLY soft, leave it in for another ten minutes. Alternately, you can top your bowl with shredded parmesan or Romano cheese for the last ten minutes of cooking time.
Let the food rest outside the oven for a couple of minutes so it will cool a bit, and so that the flavors can keep deepening. Bring into the eating area with great fanfare, because this dish looks pretty sophisticated and cool for being so simple.
Serves two people who greedily hoard all leftovers, or 3-4 people who learned how to share. It’s filling and fairly complete by itself, but you should probably set out seasonal fruit if you’ve got a crowd.
Because it’s a fall dish, serve a mild red dinner wine with it (unless it’s an unseasonably hot night. Then try some Riesling. The fresh fruity flavor goes with…well….anything). Here in Argentina, we drink Mendoza-region Malbec with everything. It happens to go especially well with this dish. Or so I say after the glass and a half that got me through the cooking.
If you’re more of a beer crowd, serve with a red lager or a mildly sweet brown. It will complement the sweetness of the acorn squash and tie in nicely with the cinnamon and the hint of licorice flavor of the fennel.
Oh yeah! The Seed Snacks! (Lots of wine while I cooked, even more wine now that I'm waiting for it to finish...I kinda forgot)
Get all that slippery membrane off the seeds. A wire mesh strainer comes in handy for this. Drain, then drain some more on a towel. Spread them on a baking sheet, toss on a bit of cooking oil and salt. Use your fingers to mix them around, being sure to get your fingers nice and oily. Because it’s fun to get your fingers all oily. Lick your fingers after you're done. Or not.
Anyway, toss this in the oven while your acorn squash is cooking. Pull ‘em out when they’re light golden-brown. It’s hard to say how long, because here in Argentina ovens with temperatures labeled on the knob just don’t exist (nobody nay-say me on this, dammit! I would cry…). Just check on ‘em after 5 minutes, then again after 10 minutes. When they’re just cool enough not to peel the skin from your tongue, serve them to your guests. Or just eat them yourself. I mean, you cooked, you get the delicious treats of your labor.
Too much wine to keep writing. I think I got everything. Enjoy!
Oh! Wait! Keep the fennel bulbs (if you didn't end up chopping 'em up) for a roasted fennel dish and the leaves for a bastard child of cucumber yogurt soup (because there's no dill to be had in all of Argentina. *cries*)
