Witchy Kitchen

Tag: fennel

  • Snow White Roasted Vegetables and Sausage with Red Wine Reduction

    Snow White Roasted Vegetables and Sausage with Red Wine Reduction

    In the same way folklore transforms over time, 2018’s Suspiria is a thorough retelling of the classic 1977 Dario Argento Giallo horror. Though both films tell the twisted fairy tale of a beautiful, talented and determined American ballerina coming to an elite, witch-inhabited dance school in Germany, the space between the plot points is distorted and the tone completely shifted. The original is drenched in a vibrant, almost garish color palette and an intense, powerful Goblin soundtrack, while the reimagining directed by Luca Guadagnino is soft and de-saturated with the dreamy, droney sounds of Thom Yorke. More in the Nightmare on Filmstreet review.

    Much like the films, this dish is heavily inspired by Snow White. Indeed our heroine, Susie Bannion (played in 1977 by Jessica Harper and in 2018 by Dakota Johnson), is a modern Snow White, who wanders into an enchanted world and has to fight attempts on her life from a jealous crone. As the Grimm brother’s Snow White tale comes from Germany and Suspiria takes place in Berlin, I definitely wanted the dish to have a German leaning, so chose a mixture of vegetables to roast with sausage.

    Color is so symbolic in both films, with the sweet ingenues often dressed in white, and red used in violent, jarring ways. The veggies used here are all white: darling little creamer potatoes, fennel, turnips and garlic. To accompany them I made a rich red wine reduction, also reminiscent of the wine Susie’s doctor gives her to drug her when she becomes too suspicious….it’s suspiciously delicious.

    Snow White Roasted Vegetables and Sausage with Red Wine Reduction

    For the veggies and sausage
    • 1 1/2 pounds yellow creamer potatoes, halved or quartered
    • 2 large bulbs fennel, trimmed and chopped into large chunks
    • 2 medium turnips, peeled and chopped into large chunks
    • 7 large cloves garlic, gently crushed and peeled
    • olive oil
    • 2 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
    • 1 teaspoon coarse salt
    • 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
    • 1 pound peppery or sweet German or Eastern European-style sausage (we made this vegetarian by using Polish-style soy sausages), thickly sliced

    Heat oven to 425°. Divide potatoes, fennel, turnips and garlic into two large baking dishes. Drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and white pepper, toss with your hands and spread into a single even layer. Bake for 20 minutes, then stir/flip, making sure to scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the dish, spread evenly again and bake for 20 minutes more.

    Meanwhile, heat a little olive oil in a pan and brown the sausage in batches, removing to a plate. After the first 40 minutes of roasting, reduce oven heat to 350° and divide sausage between the dishes. Bake for another 20 minutes. Check the veggies at this point; they should be very soft, some gently caramelized, and the potatoes and turnips not mushy but easily pierced with a fork. Bake another 10-20 minutes until they reach desired doneness. Transfer to a serving dish.

    For red wine reduction
    • 2 tablespoons butter, divided
    • 1 medium shallot, finely chopped
    • 1 cup vegetable broth
    • 1 cup red wine

    In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon of the butter and cook shallot until golden. Add vegetable broth and red wine and stir. Bring to a low simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture has reduced to about a third of its volume. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining tablespoon butter.

    To serve, spoon vegetables onto a plate and drizzle with the red wine reduction. Serve with warm, crusty bread.

    Suspiria is now playing in theatres.

    First published on Nightmare on Film Street.

  • Capitol Pumpkin Soup

    Capitol Pumpkin Soup

    As reality and dystopian fiction become closer to indistinguishable, it’s no surprise that it is #DISHTOPIA Month: Eat Like It’s the End of the World, Fandom Foodies theme hosted by the lovely Catherine at The Gluttonous Geek – check out the linkup for more foodpocalypse!

    For the Hunger Games, unless you’re really into fried squirrel or nettle tea, the best food is going to be found in The Capitol. Obscene feasts are thrown regularly from the wealth of resources flowing in, which probably include spices, so when I set out to make the creamy pumpkin soup sprinkled with slivered nuts and black seeds that Katniss samples, that’s exactly what I imagined.

    I used canned pumpkin (LAZY! Like Capitol people) and a whole can of coconut milk (RICH and DECADENT! Like Capitol people).

    Paanch phoran, or five-spice powder, is made from cumin, fenugreek, fennel, mustard, and black seeds called kalonji (or nigella seeds, or onion seeds, or black seeds, etc. It’s the seed of many names), so that’s what I used as the seasoning for my soup. I much recommend seeking out the curry leaves (NOT bay leaves, even though they look similar) at your local Indian market, they will give your soup a delicate and delicious fragrance and really take it to Capitol level fare.

    May the soup be EVER in your flavor…

    Capitol Pumpkin Soup

    • 2-3 tablespoons coconut oil (or a flavorless cooking oil)
    • 1 onion, diced
    • 1 inch ginger, chopped
    • 2 garlic cloves, chopped
    • 1/2 teaspoon each cumin, fenugreek, fennel, mustard, and kalonji seeds
    • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
    • 1/2 teaspoon red chili
    • 3 tablespoons ground almonds or almond meal
    • 1 can pumpkin puree
    • 4 cups vegetable broth
    • 1 can coconut milk
    • 1 cinnamon stick
    • 4-5 fresh curry leaves
    • sliced almond and a sprinkle of kalonji for garnish

    Heat the oil and saute onion until it just starts to turn golden. Add ginger and garlic and stir for a minute or two, then add all seeds and cook until they start to sizzle (be careful not to burn). Add turmeric and red chili, stir for a minute, then add almond meal, pumpkin puree and a cup of the chicken broth. Heat through.

    Blend the mixture thoroughly and return to the pot along with the rest of the chicken broth, the coconut milk, cinnamon stick, and curry leaves. Mix well, gently heat and cook on a low simmer for about 20 minutes. Serve hot, garnished with sliced almonds and kalonji.

    This dish was first posted for Fiction Kitchen Episode 25: THE HUNGER GAMES in which Carrie and Diana discuss The Hunger Games books and movies, including from Greek mythological child sacrifices, Katniss’s practical hairstyle, social commentary, and the scarcity of goat milk.

  • Hotroot Soup

    Hotroot Soup

    As a child I somehow missed the Redwall books, Brian Jacques’s fantasy series of anthropomorphic animals in medieval times running around adventuring, which is unfortunate because I would have loved them! I’ve started two separate books (I started the first one, Redwall, and then – record scratch – the dish I wanted to make is well described in the fifth, Salamandastron, so then I started that one) and they’re just so beautiful and immersive and I can’t wait to find out more about the richly detailed world as I work my way through the series.

    There’s lots of food in the series, which is how I because aware of it in the first place as Diana of Fiction Food Cafe and Catherine of The Gluttonous Geek were talking about it on Twitter. They both have cooked from it, and planned a #RedwallAugust event where we could all cook and share; of course I was all over it, I love that medievally forest food.

    Hotroot soup is a dish that’s sprinkled throughout the series, and is especially beloved by the otters. It’s described as being a pot of “shrimp and bulrush soup, flavored with watercress and hotroot pepper, simmering gently on the embers of the kitchen fire.”

    For mine, I built a lovely flavorful broth; though you can’t simmer shrimp a long time because they’ll be rubbery, the trick is simmering their shells for a briny shrimpy flavor. The shrimp are gently poached and the greens wilted right before serving.

    Green onions stand in for the bulrush, and the titular hotroot here is a favorite of mine, Kashmiri chili. It’s deliciously smokey and spicy, gives a gorgeous red color, and can be powdered – which would make sense as in the book the little otters have a hotroot soup-eating contest and are scooping it in by the pawful!

    Redwall Hotroot Soup

    • 1 pound shrimp, rinsed and deveined
    • 1 onion, trimmed, peeled and quartered
    • 1 carrot, trimmed, peeled and cut into large chunks
    • 1 stick celery, trimmed, peeled and cut into large chunks
    • 2 fat cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
    • 2 sprigs rosemary
    • 4 sprigs thyme
    • 1 teaspoon carom seeds (can sub celery seeds)
    • 1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
    • salt
    • 1 tablespoon ghee, clarified butter, or butter
    • 2 green onions, whites sliced and greens cut into long strips
    • 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chili (can sub half paprika/half cayenne, or a combo tweaked to your spice level)
    • 1 small bunch watercress, roughly chopped
    • lemon slices for serving

    Peel shrimp and save in the fridge, reserving shells. Bring 6 cups of water to a boil with the shrimp shells, onion, carrot, celery, garlic, rosemary, thyme, carom and fennel seeds, and a teaspoon of salt. Lower to a simmer and simmer, covered, for at least one hour, preferably two hours.

    Strain and reserve the broth. In the pot, on medium, heat the ghee, clarified butter, or butter. Gently cook the green onion whites until softened. Add the Kashmiri chili, and cook for about a minute until fragrant, stirring and being careful not to burn. Add the broth to the pot and bring back up to a low simmer. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Add onion greens and cook until soft. Add shrimp and half the watercress (reserving the rest for garnish) until shrimp is pink and watercress is wilted, about two minutes.

    Serve hot with watercress and a nice spritz of lemon.

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  • Spiced Carrot and Fennel Soup

    Spiced Carrot and Fennel Soup

    This month for MENA Cooking Club, the lovely group I’ve been cooking with to try more Middle Eastern and North African recipes, the country was Oman, hosted by Rafeeda of the mouthwatering blog, The Big Sweet Tooth.

    This month also happens to fall during Ramadan. As I’ve been reading about Ramadan traditions around the world, it seems most Middle Eastern countries have a traditional iftar (fast opening meal) of a light soup of lentils and/or vegetables, humble food to kind of adjust the digestive system, gently bring it back to life. Makes sense, seems very peaceful and measured…then the Pakistani tradition, as far as I can tell, is party food: pakoray, dahi baray, papri chaat, rooh afza! Fried goodies and sugary drinks, at least we’ve got some watermelon or fruit chaat to balance it out, and I’ve been throwing in some roasted veggies or a fresh tomato salad as well.

    Anyway, since this month was Oman and one of the suggested recipes was a vegetable soup, that’s what I chose to make because it seemed like an appropriate iftar dish. I focused on carrots and fennel and added some Middle Eastern spices. Several of the soup recipes I looked at were thickened with oats, which I found interesting, so I tried that here. It gave the soup a nice creamy texture that I’m sure is much healthier than actual cream, so I might be trying that trick more often. I’m happy with the garnish too, I shaved a carrot and fried the shavings into crispy little carrot chips to sprinkle on top – I always garnish, it makes even the most mundane dish a little special.

    Please, friends, I’d love to hear more about your iftar traditions!

    Spiced Carrot and Fennel Soup

    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 large onion, chopped
    • 3 cloves garlic, chopped
    • 2 small bulbs or 1 large bulb fennel, sliced
    • whole spices: 1 teaspoon ajwain seeds (you could sub a little dried thyme), 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
    • powdered spices: 1/2 teaspoon turmeric, 1/2 teaspoon red chili
    • 1 pound of carrots
    • 1/4 cup quick cooking oats
    • 4 cups chicken broth

    In a large pot, heat butter/ghee and saute onion and garlic until the onion is translucent. Add fennel and cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes or so until fennel is softened. Add whole spices and stir for a minute, add powdered spices and stir for a minute more.

    Add carrots, oats, and 2 cups of the chicken broth. Stir well, bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and simmer until carrots are very soft. Puree in a blender and return to the pot. Add the remaining 2 cups of chicken broth and heat back through.

    Serve garnished with crispy carrots (below) and chopped fennel fronds.

    For the crispy carrot garnish

    Peel and trim a medium carrot. Shave carrot into thin slices with the peeler. Heat a pan with oil and shallow fry the carrot in batches, until no longer bubbly and is beginning to turn golden. Remove to a paper towel lined plate.