8947 Preserving Fennel "Sotto Olio"

I have posted this thread on three different forums. I have just had a telephone call from the administrator of [url=http://www.medvilla.eu]Private Villas and Apartments to Rent[/url] where we list our rental apartment, saying someone called "Jane" has tried to reply by filling in the enquiry form for our apartment.

If the Jane in question is reading this, can she please post a reply here, as the listing site quite rightly feels it is not a personal messaging service:laughs:

trim & slice into quarters & blanch (rolling boil for about a minute). Thereafter, it depends what you're trying to achieve. If you want to preserve the "raw" fennel you could let it cool and freeze it as is - much less hassle than gallons of oil & big jars. Putting it under oil would also preserve it, but when you come to retrieve it later for use, it will be swimming in oil and not ideal for further cooking.

If you would prefer to have cooked fennel in jars for nibbling on without furhter cooking, I'd suggest that, after blanching, you pat dry, brush with olive oil, toss in salt & pepper and then chargrill (using a ribbed grill pan to produce seared lines on the flesh). Stop cooking while still very al dente, Leave to cool down entirely than store under oil in a jar with a proper rubber seal.

The grilling will make the end product look (& taste) good, and the fennel will be fully cooked and ideal when eaten as part of an an antipasti plate. If I were doing it, I'd lace the oil liberally with bashed fennel seeds, peppercorns and a pinch of dried chilli flakes too - fennel eaten on its own can be a bit bland and benefits from a bit of help.

caveat - haven't tried the above myself, but it's pretty similar to how artichoke hearts are done, so I'd say its worth an experiment if the mystery Jane doesn't surface :-)

Margaret -- Be careful about preserving sotto olio -- fennel is a low-acid food and is best preserved by pressure canning (temperatures must go above 235 degrees F in order to kill botulinus & clostridium) -- alternately, you can dry it or chop & freeze it, or mash and freeze. Admittedly, you'll get flavor without the crunch, but it's safer than sotto olio. My nonna only put high-acid foods under the oil, i.e., tomatoes, and occasionally a cooked food, i.e., mushrooms, for a limited amount of time, refrigerated. Hope this helps, Paola

[quote=MargaretM;84211]I presume it can be done, but does anyone know how? I've got the stuff coming out of my ears at the moment. Do I cook it first, partly cook it, or just bung it in the jars raw (washed first of course). Then do I need to heat it at all, or is the oil a good enough preservative on it's own?[/quote]

Yes you can conserve it nicely,personally i'd suggest that you make a "giardiniera" out of it adding pieces of diced carrot,celery,small onions or those great lampascioni that you have in Puglia...BUT
DO NOT LISTEN TO THOSE WHO SAY THAT OIL WILL PRESERVE ON IT'S OWN.
botulis one of the worst and most dangerous of common bacteria thrives in an anaerobic environment ( and it's not about being clean) the vegetables and esèpecially vegetables having a low acid content (the exception are tomatoes) MUST be briefly boiled in INDUSTRIAL vinegar first (home wine vinegar does not have a sufficiently high acid count.Then you can jar the vegatebles with some of the vinegar liquer a little wine and the rest pour on your olive oil.sterilization (boiling the sealed jars after is also advisable.your giardiniera will have a long life,they make cheap and "simpatici regalini" and can be eaten as a side dish or with salads prosciutto etc
There are lots of good books available on preserving veg and fruits and they ALL stress the need to be on your guard from botulism,there are quite a few deaths annually in italy eating nonna's home preserves!

[quote=Mathematician;84233]Margaret -- Be careful about preserving sotto olio -- fennel is a low-acid food and is best preserved by pressure canning (temperatures must go above 235 degrees F in order to kill botulinus & clostridium) -- alternately, you can dry it or chop & freeze it, or mash and freeze. Admittedly, you'll get flavor without the crunch, but it's safer than sotto olio. My nonna only put high-acid foods under the oil, i.e., tomatoes, and occasionally a cooked food, i.e., mushrooms, for a limited amount of time, refrigerated. Hope this helps, Paola[/quote]
One problem with freezing, first you have to get hubby to fix the freezer, been waiting 12 months already:madd:

Paola, come and teach me some Italian cooking/preserving sometime.

[quote=pigro;84232]trim & slice into quarters & blanch (rolling boil for about a minute). Thereafter, it depends what you're trying to achieve. If you want to preserve the "raw" fennel you could let it cool and freeze it as is - much less hassle than gallons of oil & big jars. Putting it under oil would also preserve it, but when you come to retrieve it later for use, it will be swimming in oil and not ideal for further cooking.

If you would prefer to have cooked fennel in jars for nibbling on without furhter cooking, I'd suggest that, after blanching, you pat dry, brush with olive oil, toss in salt & pepper and then chargrill (using a ribbed grill pan to produce seared lines on the flesh). Stop cooking while still very al dente, Leave to cool down entirely than store under oil in a jar with a proper rubber seal.

The grilling will make the end product look (& taste) good, and the fennel will be fully cooked and ideal when eaten as part of an an antipasti plate. If I were doing it, I'd lace the oil liberally with bashed fennel seeds, peppercorns and a pinch of dried chilli flakes too - fennel eaten on its own can be a bit bland and benefits from a bit of help.

caveat - haven't tried the above myself, but it's pretty similar to how artichoke hearts are done, so I'd say its worth an experiment if the mystery Jane doesn't surface :-)[/quote]
If it were swimming in oil could I not then fry or saute it in the oil.

Like the idea of grilling it - would my electric grill (alla George Foreman but not so posh) do the trick

[quote=MargaretM;84258]If it were swimming in oil could I not then fry or saute it in the oil.[/quote]
Yes, no problem, if you like it fried that way - doesn't sound too appealing to me though.

[quote=MargaretM;84258]Like the idea of grilling it - would my electric grill (alla George Foreman but not so posh) do the trick[/quote]

as long as it has a ridged surface (so that there will be distinct lines of charred/caramelised flesh and the excess oil can run off ratherthan saturate when cooking it should be OK. The lines are what gives this the look and smokey flavour. Not quite "al bracce" but worth a try if you have surplus.

However as per my previous post, I'm an amateur at this game, I don't do any 'long term' preserving, really just cook as described to eat over the course of a week or so in antipasti plates, so no boiling in vinegar for me. You'd better focus more for now on the other advice here about the preserving process and worry about the cooking part later!

You have some excellent fennel recipies in this link:

[url=http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/fennel.html]Mariquita Farm's Newsletter[/url]

The fennel and orange salad is superb.

[quote=Gala Placidia;84261]You have some excellent fennel recipies in this link:

[url=http://www.mariquita.com/recipes/fennel.html]Mariquita Farm's Newsletter[/url]

The fennel and orange salad is superb.[/quote]
Since we have a surplus of both at present it must be worth a look - thanks

More information on fennel:

[url=http://www.practicallyedible.com/edible.nsf/encyclopaedia!openframeset&frame=Right&Src=/edible.nsf/pages/fennel!opendocument]Practically Edible[/url]

Thanks again Gala. I have been asked by someone on another forum if I could reproduce the very sound advice given by everyone here. Would anyone object to this? I guess the easiest way would be to put a link to this thread on there.

Ronald, any objections from you?

[quote=MargaretM;84257]One problem with freezing, first you have to get hubby to fix the freezer, been waiting 12 months already:madd:

Paola, come and teach me some Italian cooking/preserving sometime.[/quote]

just a thought about freezing.the trouble is that it can be voluminous and you're using up precious and relatively expensive freezing storage for a load of finocchi..which could be used for say meat.
should you decide to invest in a new freezer i'd suggest vertical kind with drawers as it's much easier to
1. know whats in there.
2.see whats in there.
3. get the things out when you need them.
4. rotate foods ie. eat the stuff as chest freezers stuff lies in the bottom for too long and things shouldn't be in there too long...

good point well made. Another solution (which you just brought to mind) is to make loads of italian sausage (pork/beef mince loaded with garlic, cloves, chilli to taste and lashings of blitzed fennel - that gets rid of most of the bulk of the raw veg (its mainly water), and puts it into something that fits well in the freezer cabinet.