First time I ever saw a full Fennel Rhizome in my life was in late summer 2017, at Hudson Farmers Market where we do our direct sales on Saturdays. Our neighboring tent was an amazing vegetable stand run by our friend Sue, an incredible farmer of Blue Star Farm. When I looked at the strangeness of its appearance , a big rhizome bulb grow upwards into many branches of stems , leaves, flowers and seeds and then it’s pleasing aroma, I kind of instinctively fell in love with it.
Fennel seed is a spice that I always love to use in my cooking. One of my favorite dish that my mother made at home was a mixed vegetable stew with coconut milk, fennel seeds and bay leaves . This is a preferred accompaniment when she makes the morning staple, Idiyappam, a steam rice noodle cake.
Fennel is a great companion in my ten spice combination which I use mainly to cook meat or root vegetables. It is the third in the list and weight of a combination of Black Pepper, Coriander, Fennel, Cardamom, Cloves, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Anis, Bay Leaves and Turmeric. This combination that I have developed has its origin from various such spice combos to cook meat in different parts of India. A variety of this combo is known in North India as Garam Masala, in Kerala as Meat Masala.
There are many Sweets I remember using fennel and other aromatic spices along with dry fruits as in popular Laddoo. But my all time favorite is the bowl of roasted sweetened fennel seeds placed on the cash counter of many Indian restaurants. I always love to eat a pinch of fennel as a kind of after taste prayer for good digestion. It works as a magic, as soon as the fennel seeds juice reaches the gut, gas trapped deep down in the digestive tract comes out with a sound, in Malayalam we call it as Empakkam. Sometime I felt that fennel refreshes my mind to forget the heaviness of the restaurant bill.
Fennel is an important vegetable / spice one can easily found in any number of Ayurvedic medicines in various forms and has been prescribed as an important medicine for various disorders and has always recommended as part of food spices. Fennel seeds in boiled water called Fennel Tea is my preferred hot drink in the Cumin family Teas made from the seeds of normal Cumin, Black Cumin, Ajwan and Dill . These five cumins are the main ingredients in a popular Ayurvedic medicine known as Pancha Jeeraka Gudam which is based on the pharmacopoeia explained in classical Ayurvedic text Ashtanga Hridyam composed by seer Vagbhada. . Fennel is an integral component in many popular digestive pills known as Vayu Gulika ( Gas Tablet) which is still a home remedy as well as local traditional medicine in many parts of India
Fennel is one of the three main ingredients in my all time favorite liquor Absinthe, along with Wormwood and Anis, was the first drink that Carrie and me shared together, in our life.
So I began to experiment with Fennel stems that I bought from the farmer’s market. First, I cut the bulb out from the whole body and then separated small stems, leaves and seeds. The bulb was funny looking like a huge onion made of many layers of white fleshy leaves attached in the bottom to the hard woody part of rhizome. I started experimenting with each parts of it . The leaves remain stable for only few hours in ordinary temperature and go bad quickly than Cilantro leaves. I do not like the refrigerated taste of the leaves. So I first tried to make a chutney of the leaves by adding little ginger and cilantro leaves. I did not like the taste of it so I gave up that path. Secondly I tried to cook the stems with meat , pork and it came out very tasty. Then I cooked the fennel stems with different root vegetables as part of the ten spice combo It also came out very well . But fennel stems did not go well alone with squash and beans . In this process, I have observed that the Fennel stem and bulby leaves dominate the combined taste to make the dish distinctly sweet.
In the botanical principles of Ayurveda, Fennel is classified as a medicinal plant with following properties such as ;
Guna (qualities) -Laghu (easy to digest), and Snigdha (creamy, oily),
Rasa (before digestion/ raw)- Madhura (sweet), Katu (hot/pungent), Thikta (bitter),
Vipaka (taste after digestion)- Madhura (sweet) ,
Veerya(potency) -Ushna (hot )
Effect on Tri Dosha- Balance Vata and Kapaha
Quoted from Malayalam book , Medicinal Plants, Volume 2 by Dr. Nesamani Published by State Institute of Languages, Kerala, India
Playing with Fennel Rhizome cutting into various sizes and shapes taught me that the rhizome has plenty stored liquid, which I thought could be released with salt. So I mixed few pieces of fennel stem with salt and did my usual lacto fermentation. A fortnight after when I opened the glass jar filled with slices of Fennel rhizome, it remain intact and beautiful. The jar is almost filled with Fennel juice. I felt happy with this experiment .
Then I began to think about the spice combination which could be added to the pickled fennel stems. I know from my practice that bitter herbs such as mustard, fenugreek , turmeric does not go together with as Fennel belongs to aromatic group of herbs with a final sweet taste. Suddenly an idea came to my mind to look at the pharmacology combination of the famous Ayurvedic medicine called Pancha Jeeraka Guuda.
This medicine uses five cumins and host of other spices. Following that recipe, I have developed the present combination of adding 7 aromatic spices such as coriander, cardamom, anis, cumin, ajwan, dry ginger, asafoetida (gf). In order to balance the taste of bitterness, as a grand finale as Carrie says, I added some sugar. It created a wonderful taste, which I immediately liked. Carrie accepted its complex taste and finally we brought it out to you a shelf stable product! Fennel Fermented and Preserved!
A Google search on Fennel takes to you the listed nutritional facts. It is a rich source Vitamin C and A with Potassium, Iron, Calcium, Magnesium.
Fennel looks like a huge vase of natural medicine.
Botanical properties of Fennel can be found here. Another amazing story of Fennel in European history can be found here.
A good review of Its Botany, Phytochemistry, Pharmacology, Contemporary Application, and Toxicology can be read at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4137549/S