A recipe for a surprising fennel salad

This time, sans alcohol

Before beginning this, I would have told you that fennel and blood oranges seemed like, if not a natural pairing, then certainly a pairing that didn’t shock me. But when I googled the phrase a few minutes ago, I discovered half a dozen similar-ish recipes from reputable sources, making me wonder if this is some kind of semi-classic pairing I’d just been missing out on. It’s definitely not something I ate as a kid—imagining the look on my face as a child, literally covered in ketchup, being told I was going to have Fennel and Blood Orange Salad for dinner, really makes me laugh.

I dug around a bit to see if I could figure out where this extremely detailed recipe came from, and guess what, it’s the good old New York Times, the Gray Lady, vamping for fennel and blood oranges, Amanda Hesser putting pen to paper in The Essential New York Times Cookbook: Classic Recipes for a New Century. This prompted me to yet again wonder WHY certain recipes were included in this compilation; this one makes the whole thing feel particularly random, as if, when my dad pulled it together, there were some he’d made once, or seemed to think he’d like. Less of a Fave Recipe, and more of a Some Faves and Some Whims.

I decided to make this guy for our holiday party, realizing that I needed a recipe for the newsletter and we also needed something that wasn’t cheese-based to eat. First things first: I had to google “Pernod or Ricard” and still don’t know what that really is. Per Wikipedia, the people’s dictionary, “Pernod Ricard is a French company best known for its anise-flavoured pastis apéritifs Pernod Anise and Ricard Pastis. The world’s second-largest wine and spirits seller, it also produces several other types of pastis.” Okay! We were already buying a fair amount of alcohol and I did not want to add one more thing I would never use again to the list so that was skipped. Plus, alcohol in a salad? This isn’t France.

Next—can you see where this is going?—the grocery store didn’t have blood oranges! So we made do with oranges and an on-its-way-out grapefruit in the fridge. Obviously (or not obviously) I skipped the fish, though I bet this would be great with that. Everything else I did correctly, save for the detailed instructions outlined about the pith and the fruit, because we all know I’m not doing that. Oh and not using a mandolin—they’re strictly verboten in my house because of what they do to fingers. So yet again, most of this I did not do according to book.

[Ed note from my mother: I remember eating this. With pan grilled salmon. It was delicious‚ nice contrast between the salad and the fish. 

It must have been for a dinner party because, you’re right, your dad wouldn’t have tried it on you and Emma. And I’ll bet he substituted regular oranges and probably didn’t use Pernod, either!]

Lastly, I don’t like it when people get rid of all the green stuff from fennel, even if you can use it in other things (a bag of which is still sitting in my crisper drawer, waiting) so I took some of the fronds and scattered them on top for color and also taste. Truth be told, I doubted anyone would eat the salad, just given the bounty of other less healthy, possibly more appealing options, and after hours of cooking and grazing, I had but one bite of it myself, only after I was told I absolutely had to eat it if it was going in the newsletter. It was good! And then most of it was gone.

Donations Time: Last month, $185 went to Heart of Dinner. This month, it’s our annual time to donate to Feeding America. You can switch your subscription to increase the amount we donate each month for $5 a month or $30 a year right here.