22 Apr Kitchen Wins: More ulu, loving fennel, and collard wraps

I don’t know why it took me so long to try cooking with fennel! Sautéed or roasted fennel is so amazing – such a light flavor with just a hint of sweetness. We started using fennel in a lot of dishes, but this was one of my favorites! I boiled an ulu for about 45 min, let it cool, then cut it up into wedges. The ulu was already fairly ripe (soft prior to boiling) which mean it would be more likely to turn to mush once cooked, and also taste a little sweeter. To keep the ulu closer to a potato texture, I put the wedges in a pot on med-high heat with olive oil, salt and pepper to get the outside a little crispy. In the cast iron pan, we sautéed onion, garlic, fennel, green onion, mini bell peppers, thyme, parsley in a mixture of coconut oil, olive oil, and butter. Once the ulu were all seared, we combined the two pans together, and lastly fried two farm eggs to go on top! Fennel is definitely one of my new favorites.

Collard Wraps

Jiva gave me the idea to use collard greens as wraps by blanching them! Not only do they hold up really well, but also super easy to make with any leftovers inside. For this wrap, we used leftovers from the super yummy dinner Aaron made the night before: rice pilaf with beats, carrot, onion, garlic, lentils, ginger, turmeric, curry leaf. I made a couple scrambled eggs and added some goat cheese to the wrap filling. The collards just need to be dunked in boiling water for about 1-2 min, until they turn bright green, then dried a bit (either by air or paper towel). I used two collard leaves for each wrap, folding the top and bottom stem of the leaf towards the middle first, then rolling the rest of the wrap up. They held together very well and make for a great trail lunch!