Fennel risotto

This risotto is delicious. If you like the liquorice-like taste of fennel, this recipe is for you!

Ingredients for 4 people:

2 large fennel bulbs, sliced
olive oil
3 TBSP butter
1 onion, finely chopped
400g arborio rice
150-200ml vodka
1.5 litres vegetable stock
80g Parmesan cheese, grated
6 TBSP lemon juice

1. Fry the onion and fennel in the oil and butter until tender.

2. Add the rice, mix well and add the vodka. Mix well.

3. Gradually add the stock until the rice is cooked.

4. Add the lemon juice and Parmesan. Serve immediatly.

Fennel and celery risotto

This risotto was nice, even though I had ran out of arborio rice and used wholegrain rice instead.


Serves 4 people:

1 bunch of celery, sliced
1 fennel, diced
25g butter
10 cl vodka
400g arborio rice
1 litre vegetable stock
50g Parmesan, grated
Olive oil, pepper, herbs

1. heat the oil in a deep pan and fry the celery and fennel until tender then set aside.

2. melt the butter in a big non-stick frying-pan, pour the rice and coat with the melted butter until transculent. Add the vodka at once while stiring.

3. Gradually add the veg stock until the rice is cooked.

4. Add the Parmesand, herb of your choice (I used marjoram this time) and freshly cracked black pepper. Serve in warm bowls and sprinkle with parsley (and this one was coming straight from the garden, directly from the producer to the consumer, within a minute!).

Fennel seed biscuits

Believe me or not, as I was starting to reconsider jogging, it started to snow! It has been almost 20 degrees all last week (had 2 lunches outside on a sunny terrasse wearing short sleeve shirt in Salzburg), and as I think of going out, it starts snowing...

This gave me an excellent excuse to stay in and try these biscuits. They are not the ones I had in mind earlier on but I am trying these for the first time too. They are quite surprising in taste, and if you like fennel seeds like me, delicious!

Based on Cléa's recipe! (Her photo looks much better. Actually, ALL her photos are fantastic!)

200g flour
50g freshly ground almonds
80g demerara sugar
1 tsp vanilla powder or extract
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 egg, beaten
40g milk
40g extra virgin olive oil

1. Mix together the flour, almond, sugar, vanilla and fennel seeds. Make a well and pour in the beaten egg, milk and olive oil.

2. Make a dough and roll it into a big sausage shape.

3. Place in the freezer for 30-40 minutes.

4. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees.

5. Cut the sausage into thin slices (5mm) and place on a baking tray.

6. Bake for 13 minutes.

Why not try this with a cup of fennel tea?


Pour la version francaise, allez donc faire un tour chez Cléa !