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You’ve seen it before. Some onion-looking thing that that smells ever so subtly of licorice. The stalks look like fern-like celery. What on earth do you do with fennel?

It turns out you can do quite a lot. You can saute, braise, bake, grill, or eat it raw. It kind of has the consistency of celery with the bite of licorice. When you cook it, the licorice taste becomes a lot more subtle, replaced with sweetness.

After watching an episode of Iron Chef last weekend, I decided I’d do one by myself and have Paul, my boyfriend (and photographer of most of my food), choose the ingredient. He said anise, I countered, “How about fennel?” What resulted were three courses all using fennel bulb. The appetizer and dessert were fennel-altered takes on famous recipes from New Orleans restaurant, Mr. B’s and Yountville bistro, Bouchon. I’ll be posting all of these shortly.

On a recent trip to Mexico, we stayed at an all-inclusive resort called Bahia Principe near Tulum. One of my favorite parts of the trip was going to their amazing restaurants, Arlequin and Don Pablo’s. They are a MUST if you go there.

At these restaurants I was introduced to lovely pink peppercorns. These are a bit of a misnomer as they are not actually peppercorns. They are dried berries from the Schinus terebinthifolius plant. Once I got past my initial assumption that they were dried lady bugs, I fell in love.

This spice can be ground or served whole. It has a delicate flavor that balances a little bit of spice with a little bit of sweet. It is wonderful when mixed with citrus, particularly lemon, or dry white wines. It also makes a perfect foil to creamy, rich foods, such as cream cheese or an Alfredo sauce.

There was a little bit of controversy over this spice, and for a while said to be toxic by the FDA. The berry comes from a plant that is related to a pest species in the Southern US, called Brazilian Pepper or Florida Holly. Some people may have alergic reactions. Therefore, it’s good to know who you’re serving this to, and if they have any alergies to things like poison ivy. I’ve used about 10 for one serving and felt fine. Enjoy in moderation, but definitely enjoy.

This is a great instruction book for intermediate to advanced cooking techniques. There is a humongous amount of useful information presented and without cooking a single dish you can learn the subtleties of cooking. I like the fact that this book focuses on French techniques with an American flair due to Julia Child’s background. The wonderful pictures step you through difficult techniques like making meringue mushrooms for Bûche de Noël. Additionally, the book is set up so you have Master recipes/techniques with suggestions for variation. For example, Pâte à Génoise (aka Genoise cake batter) is a master recipe that sets the stage for a number of other cakes: The Santa Clara (a 3-layer cake with apricot filling and white mountain frosting), The Cambridge Cake (Genoise layer cake with mocha buttercream frosting, chocolate walls and bow), The Queen of Sheba (a chocolate almond cake), and of course roulades (including Bûche de Noël).

This cookbook is a great reference book for the solo cook. All the recipes are scaled for one and there is exceptional shopping advice and leftover suggestions specifically for single cooks. The recipes are what I would call “regular” – there’s nothing too fancy here but nothing gross (i.e. using lots of processed products) either. This book is kind of like the Joy of Cooking for single cooks.

This cookbook is among my top 5 favorite cookbooks. The vegetarian dishes presented are bold, flavorful, and complete. A huge variety of foods, all presented originally, are covered – from Indian to American to Thai. And while you may hit a recipe gone bad, this book is invaluable for the ideas and resources it provides. For example, sidebars throughout the book provide instructions for making mexican hot chocolate, reviews of vintage books, and other valuable information.