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Once I had bought my first fennel bulb, I took it home and cut off the stalks. I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do with them, but I did not want to just throw them away. I put them in a plastic bag and threw them into the produce drawer of the refrigerator. I had some chicken bones in the freezer and I thought I could use the fennel stalks the next time I made stock.
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And as usually happens when you try something new, that same week on her Food Network show "Barefoot Contessa Back To Basics" Ina Garten prepared a fennel bulb. The first thing she did after cutting the bulb in half was to cut out the core. So I did the same the next time I used it and it made all the difference in the world.
The next time I bought a fennel bulb was for the pot roast, which was a big success. I now had two sets of stalks and I was pretty sure I didn't want to put that much in my chicken stock. But I did have those two beautiful beef shanks with which I planned to make Vegetable Beef Soup. I used the stalks from the first bulb first and sliced them up about the same size as the carrots. Their flavor is stronger than the bulb so I really just wanted to capture the flavor, so using them for the braising seemed perfect. And that was one delicious beef soup, if I do say so myself.
After reading misreall's comment about how good blood oranges are right now, they caught my eye the next time I was at the grocery store so I brought a couple home with me. I know orange and fennel is a common flavor combination, so when I was getting ready to bake another chicken, I thought it might be good to combine the blood orange and the fennel.
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The juice from the orange had permeated into the meat, but it did leave the remaining segments somewhat dry, and surprisingly bitter. I would either just use the juice next time, or remove the remaining pulp before serving.
I thought couscous would make a nice accompaniment to the chicken, so I cooked up a batch in some chicken stock I had in the freezer. I combined it with the roasted vegetables. Once I got it on the plate, though, it looked kind of bland and monochromatic, so I diced a roasted red pepper to throw over the whole thing. Not only did it look much better, the peppers added a lovely zing of flavor.
I followed my usual method for baking the chicken. You can find a good description here, just use onions, garlic, and fennel. Add carrots and celery if you want - I would have if there had been any in my vegetable bin and then maybe there would have been more color. I used salt, pepper, thyme and marjoram for seasoning. For the couscous, I basically followed the package directions and then combined them with the vegetables. I used a jarred roasted red pepper. This is an easy dish and it works really well on a cold winter night.
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