Arctic Char with White Beans, Wild Mushrooms, and Oven-Dried Tomatoes
Bon Appétit | October 2008
by Bruce Aidells

Arctic Char with White Beans, Wild Mushrooms, and Oven-Dried Tomatoes 3 forks 3.04
rate this recipe review this recipe yield: Makes 4 servings
Yes, fish can be autumnal, too. Fresh wild mushrooms and fennel pollen are the key ingredients in this elegant dish.

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Fennel Pollen Honey Salmon Salad
Serves 2

2 fillets of Wild Salmon (4 to 6 ounces each)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 teaspoon Canola Oil
1 teaspoon Fennel Pollen Honey (see recipe below)
2 cups Arugula
1½ tablespoons Balsamic Vinaigrette (see recipe below)
6 each Raspberries, Blackberries, and Blueberries
3 tablespoons Chèvre Cheese
Fennel Pollen Honey
¼ cup Honey
1 teaspoon Fennel Pollen or Fennel Seeds
Place in a saucepan and simmer over very low heat for 15 minutes. Strain and reserve. (This mixture is also great on fresh bread, toast, or muffins.)
12-Year-Old Balsamic Vinaigrette
2 tablespoons 12-year-oldBalsamic Vinegar
½ teaspoon Garlic, minced
1 teaspoon Shallot, minced
1 teaspoon fresh Thyme, minced
½ teaspoon Dijon Mustard
1/3 cup Olive Oil
Salt to taste
Mix the vinegar, garlic, shallot, thyme, and Dijon mustard. Drizzle in the oil and season. In a medium mixing bowl, toss arugula with balsamic vinaigrette and place on plate.

Salmon Preparation:
Season salmon fillet with salt and pepper. Brush with fennel honey. Heat oil to medium high heat in a fry pan. Sear the salmon on either side for 3 minutes or until honey caramelizes.

Place the salmon over the arugula and garnish with the chèvre cheese and fresh berries.

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Alder Roasted King Salmon with Wild Fennel Pollen

Recipe courtesy Johnathan Sundstrom

Cook Time:
20 min
Level:
Intermediate
Yield:
10 to 12 servings

Ingredients:
1 (12 to 16 pound) King salmon, filleted into 2 halves with the skin on.

Brine:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup kosher salt
2 quarts water
1 cup anise flavored liqueur
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons wild fennel pollen or ground fennel seed
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1/2 tablespoon fresh ground black pepper
2 large Alder or Cedar planks

Directions:
Mix sugar, salt, water, and anise flavored liqueur. Pour over salmon halves in a 3-inch deep pan. Marinate, chilled, in the brine mixture for 4 to 8 hours. Remove from brine and pat dry. Brush the salmon with oil. Season with wild fennel pollen, salt, and pepper.

Place on Alder plank and soak in cold water overnight. Sometimes a nail through the tail end is used to hold the salmon in place. Lean the plank against an Alder wood fire that has mostly died down to very hot coals. Be careful not to let the plank catch fire. The heat and the smoke from the fire will cook and season the salmon. Serve right off the plank.

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Pan-seared Salmon with Fennel Pollen

Fennel Pollen and seafood have a real affinity for each other. This quick & easy recipe goes from the refrigerator to the table in about 15 minutes. It's fresh, flavorful and low in calories - and high in healthful Omega-3 fatty acids.

Ingredients:

Two 6 oz fillets of fresh salmon, skin on (preferably wild-caught)
2 Tbsp fennel pollen
1 tsp crushed red chile pepper (optional)
Sea salt & freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Preparation:

Remove pin bones from salmon, if any. Mix fennel pollen, crushed chiles (if using), salt and pepper. Sprinkle generously over cut side of salmon, patting gently to make sure it adheres to the flesh.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Place salmon in the pan, fennel pollen side down. Allow to cook for about 6 minutes, reducing heat slightly if necessary. Turn salmon onto skin side and continue to cook for about 4 minutes longer.

Do not overcook - remember, the salmon's internal heat will continue the cooking process for another minute or two.

Remove immediately to a serving plate and serve with wedges of lemon.

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jgreghenry's blog - Kabob Party-Wild Fennel Pollen Salmon Skewers
02 Jul 2010
Posted by jgreghenry

My kabobs keep clicking. This is Day 5 in my weeklong series dedicated to everything skewered and grilled. Today I have Grilled Salmon Skewers with Wild Fennel Pollen. But this is Day 5 and I have pretty much covered all the details you may ever need to know about the humble kabob. Everything from cooking simple one-ingredient skewers all the way to how to choose and prep ingredients when there are several choices stuck on the stick. So I have decided to use the power of the kabob to highlight an ingredient that you may not be familiar with, or perhaps you just don’t use enough. Wild Fennel Pollen.

Now the name is pretty self-evident ‘cuz Wild Fennel Pollen is exactly what it says it is. The pollen from wild fennel! It is a typical Tuscan ingredient, where it is called finnocio. Hand collected from the flowers of wild fennel growing on the coastal and inland fields and open spaces in warm weather climates like Tuscany and California.

As a cook, Fennel Pollen is a new ingredient for me. I was given a sample by Justin at Marx Foods. I've never tasted anything else quite like it. It is intensely flavorful, reminiscent of anise but not quite the same. It is both sweet and pungent, though it has floral notes that smell deeply of everything you love about fennel and then some. It's exhilarating– intoxicating even.

Having trouble picturing it? It looks like fluffy, yellow colored sand. It is surprisingly easy to use too– mix it with a pinch of sea salt and fresh cracked black pepper and sprinkle it on to chicken, fish, potatoes or almost anything before cooking. It's the quintessential Tuscan ingredient for anything made with pork, especially salumi. I have even seen it is used to make fennel pollen pesto. I need to research that recipe because I’d like to try it.

My grilled salmon kabobs are brined in an anise flavored sweet and salty mixture. I am threading thin slices of fennel bulb with the fish too. You could blanch the fennel first if you prefer a milder flavor. But I like the crunch and the sweet licorice flavor that comes from adding them to the skewers raw.

RECIPE: Kabob Party-Wild Fennel Pollen Salmon Skewers
Serves 4

1/4 c brown sugar
3 T kosher salt
1 q cool water
1/2 c anise liqueur
1 1/2 lb salmon, skin removed and cut into 1 1/2" chunks
2 small fennel bulbs, trimmed, quartered & cored
1 T wild fennel pollen or ground fennel seed
salt and pepper to taste.

To brine the salmon:
Combine, sugar, salt, water, in a non-reactive bowl. Add salmon, cover and refrigerate 4 to 8 hours. Remove from brine and pat dry.

Separate the outside layers of the fennel bulb quarters from the inside softer heart. This should leave you with several shaped pieces all about 1 1/2" in size. The variety of shapes is good and will give you a variety of textures.

Thread the fennel and the fish onto water soaked bamboo skewers. Alternating them. Make sure to include some of the flat outer pieces of fennel as well as the soft interior pieces on each skewer. Sprinkle each skewer with wild fennel pollen and plenty of salt and pepper.

Prepare a charcoal grill until the coals are white but are still glowing red and quite hot. Spread the coals into a single layer and cook the kabobs, for 3 or 4 minutes per side. You goal is for the salmon to be charred a bit on the outside, but remain medium-rare and succulent on the inside. The fennel will also get charred but should remain a bit crunchy.

Serve warm.

From: SERIOUS FUN FOOD
Greg Henry
Sippity Sup
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Scallops with Fennel Pollen, Leeks and Bacon

Adapted from the Campanile cookbook
Serves 4

http://saraskitchen.blogspot.com/

I bought my fennel pollen at a specialty foods store in the Bay Area. You can order it online from them, or buy it at Amazon. It’s a little pricey because it’s very labor intensive to pick, but a little goes a long way. Fennel pollen is primary used in Italian cooking, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t use it elsewhere. You can use it in place of fennel seeds in quite a few recipes, although I would stick to simple preparations to let its flavor shine.

One of my favorite combinations is fennel pollen and pork. Apparently Anne Burrell and Mario Batali agree. Nancy Silverton puts fennel pollen in roasted vegetables. You could also use it on fish or chicken.

Here’s a recipe I adapted from the Campanile cookbook. The original didn’t call for fennel pollen, but I thought it would pair well with the scallops. I loved this dish – if you’re a leek fan like I am, give it a try. If you want to make this but don’t want to buy fennel pollen, just leave it out.

1 ½ lbs sea scallops
2 tsp fennel pollen
4 slices of bacon, cut into ½ inch pieces
6 leeks, cleaned and lengthwise into 1-2 inch pieces
1 T grainy mustard
½ a lemon
Salt and pepper

Cook the bacon in a large pan until crisp, transfer to paper towels. Divide the bacon fat between two large pans; you should have about 1 tablespoon per pan. Drain some of the fat off if you have too much. Warm both pans over high heat. In one pan, add the leeks and turn the heat down to medium, sauté until browned and tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Turn the heat down to low, and add the mustard. Cook for about 1 minute, then add the bacon and juice from the lemon.

Make sure your scallops are dry before you start. Sprinkle the scallops with the fennel pollen, salt and pepper. Sear the scallops in the other pan over high heat in a single layer for about 3 minutes. Turn the scallops to the other side and cook for another 2-3 minutes, or until done. Serve the scallops over the leeks.

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Seared Bay Scallops With Fennel Pollen Recipe

(makes 4 tasting portions)

Natasha from 5 Star Foodie brings us the second round of her three course fennel pollen menu. She started us off with her Cauliflower Soup Recipe, and finishes the meal with a Fennel Pollen Pot de Creme Recipe.

February Fennel Pollen Friday: Seared Bay Scallops with Fennel Pollen Air

Culinary foams help to concentrate a lot of flavor in just a spoonful of this magical air. A foam made with already intense fennel pollen is incredibly flavorful. Adding the fennel pollen air foam to the seared scallops changes this simple dish into an excellent seafood course that could be part of a tasting menu in a 5-star restaurant.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 cup small Bay scallops
Coarse salt to taste
Chives (optional)
1/2 cup stock
1 teaspoon lecithin
1 teaspoon fennel pollen

Directions:
Melt butter in a skillet until foamy. Rinse the scallops and pat them dry. Sprinkle with salt. Sear the scallops for 1-2 minutes per side until golden brown.

Meanwhile, add stock, lecithin, and fennel pollen into a mixing cup. Blend with immersion blender until the foam forms. Let it stand for a few minutes and then scoop just the foam and gently place on top of the scallops. Garnish with chives if desired.

Posted by Matthew on Feb 19, 2010
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Shrimp Ravioli with Fennel Pollen Cream

Christo is back with a guest post and is as creative and delicious as ever. I wish he lived in Seattle and not New York City, because I’d love to spend some time with him in our kitchen. If we ever do an iron chef type contest, Christo will be the guy to beat. Here he is:

Let me start of by telling you that the minute I tasted this dish I got on the phone and had to call someone, when my friend answered I was so relieved because I thought I had died and gone to ravioli heaven. I am probably going to have to crack out the thesaurus because I don’t know nearly enough words for “perfectly delicious.” This dish was so easy to put together, has only 7 ingredients and tastes like it came from some far away kingdom.

Without further ado here is the recipe for 4 appetizers or two pasta courses:

Peel and pulse 6 large Louisiana gulf shrimp with a generous slice off a fennel bulb some salt and pepper and a pinch of fennel pollen. (if you are counting we are at 5 ingredients already).

Make some pasta dough (these ingredients dont count)
Make raviolis and boil them until al dente.

For the sauce:
Finely chop some fennel and place into a saute pan with a dollop of butter and a little salt and heat until aromatic. Once it graces your nose add cream to warm and its ready (the butter and cream brought us up to 7)

Pour some sauce on a plate and place the cooked ravioli on top of the sauce, put another small pinch of fennel pollen on top of everything and a few slivers of fennel for crunch – invite some kings and diplomats and enjoy.

If you think of better words for “perfectly delicious” now is the time to say them.

.Posted by Ryan on Feb 01, 2010