Fennel and Garlic Purée – I’m begging you….

…to try this dish. It’s too good to keep to myself. In recent times, I have been making the case for keeping it simple. This has been more of a reflection of how I am trying to live my life (trying and failing) than for any higher gastronomic purpose. In an effort to prevent world shortage and escalating prices, I have tried to dissuade you from buying beef short ribs. You discouraged yourselves when it came to monkfish cheeks. So you might be surprised when I highly recommend you try something of truly spectacular quality and ease of preparation. 

The dish I have in mind is Fennel and Garlic Purée. I served it this time with pan-fried John Dory (How else do you fry something but in a pan?), boiled potatoes and shop bought pre-cooked beetroot. The ingredients list is very short indeed, as befits my current fashion for simplicity;

• 3 fennel bulbs
• 250ml (half a pint) of cream
• 1 or 2 cloves of garlic
• Salt and pepper to season

The instructions are also pretty simple too. Chop the tops and tails off the fennel bulbs.

There is very little to do in preparing this dish. Hence the shot of chopping veg.

Quarter the remainder. Chop the garlic quite fine. Put these into a saucepan and pour in the cream.

Fennel and garlic purée deserves one decent pouring shot.

Then simmer until the fennel is starting to get quite soft and the cream has reduced by about a third.

The kitchen fills with a beautiful aniseed aroma. Then it’s done.

Tip the lot into a blender and blend until smooth.

This is as complicated as it gets. Turn the switch to ‘ON’.

The other things going on involve frying the fish, chopping the shop bought beetroot and boiling the potatoes.

Truly the star of the show. Helped by the addition of the fennel leaves for decoration.

I love John Dory but the star of the show by a number of galaxies is the fennel and garlic purée. It has a fantastic flavour. I entreat you to try it. I reckon there’s enough fennel and cream to go around, so no excuses please.