Tuesday, June 28, 2011

I'm a CopyCat - Swordfish with Fennel

Yesterday my niece Stephanie posted a photo of her dinner of swordfish with a topping that included fennel. I love swordfish, but it's not always readily available, and it is often out of my budget. As I was driving down 64 anyway today, on my way home from visiting my mom, I popped in to Trader Joe's as they always have frozen swordfish steaks and they are not too dear. Not cheap either, sadly, but they do seem to be fresh and of good quality.

To copy Steph, I also grabbed some fennel for the very first time. Until today, I had neither cooked it nor even tasted it, though I knew it to be licorice-flavored. I chopped up a bulb and tasted a raw piece and I do not think I shall be eating it raw. Way too strong a licorice flavor for my tastes. Anyway, I sauteed an onion and a fat clove of garlic in olive oil, then added the chopped fennel, a chopped tomato, some fresh basil chiffonade, a palmful of chopped kalamata olives and a big spoonful of capers, plus salt and pepper.

Cooked with all these other ingredients, the fennel completely mellowed out and was only left with a very faint licorice flavor (a good thing in my book). It was a lovely topping for a nice dense piece of fish. 

I totally cheated with the side vegetables and used a frozen mix, but it was a pretty good one, with lots of asparagus.

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