Sea Salt Fennel Chips
2 fennel bulbs1-2 t olive oil
sprinkle of sea salt
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Trim the stalks off the fennel (you can save or toss, I don't care!), and cut off the ends. Divide each bulb in half, then peel the leaves from the core. Toss them on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.
When baking chips from veggies, it's best to be conservative with the salt. The leaves shrink as they dessicate, and the salt taste can quickly become overpowering if you were too heavy-handed.
Remember, you can always add salt, but you can't taketh away.
Bake on the middle rack, stirring them occasionally, until dry. You will probably have to remove the smaller leaves before the thickest ones are done, otherwise they will burn. It should take about 20 minutes to a half an hour.
I actually couldn't resist tasting them as I checked on them, and didn't finish baking them because they were just so good as is. With some moisture still in the middle of the big ones, they tasted kind of like fennel fries rather than chips. Delicious either way.
Baking the chips was a really great way to make the strong anise taste of fennel a lot more mild. You could still taste it, but it wasn't overwhelming.
From: A Full Measure of Happiness [archive.org]
