UPDATE: December’s Beet ‘n Squash YOU! winners are announce. Check out Bouchon For Two for all the participants entries. Congrats to The Bite Me Kitchen, Nastassia from Let Me Eat Cake, and Quasi Serendipita on winning this month’s fight! January’s battle is napa cabbage. Come join in on all the fun!

It’s that time of the month again! Maybe that’s a bad sentence to start this post, but I just don’t know how else to word it. For the past 30 minutes as I’m writing this, I’ve been typing and pressing backspace faster than Sandra Lee can pour hot water on dried onion soup mix and call it stock. ZING!!! I’ve been feeling very tired and uninspired to write and cook lately, and finding myself getting caught up on things that shouldn’t be weighting me down. It’s been only a few days into December and I’m starting to feel this might be my hump month. I’m ready for a new year. So, as I was saying, it’s that time of the month again! It’s Beet n’ Squash time, a monthly food fight competition hosted by two lovely ladies, Mel of Bouchon for Two and Leela of She Simmers. This month is battle fennel and I’m ready to defend my winning title. I might have “beet-ed” my competition last month with my Braised Beef with Beets entry, but can success be repeated? This time I’ll be throwing eggs at my competitors and hopefully it’ll be a winning hit.

I have a suspicious feeling that both Leela and Mel are giving me some tough love by picking vegetables that I have no experience cooking with in these battles. First it was beets and now it is fennel. I started cooking with the vegetable this summer when Lan of Angry Asian Creation tweeted about grilling it. I was curious and gave it a try. Instead of the liquorice taste I read about and feared, the grilled fennel had a warm sweetness to it. I can’t really pin point the exact flavors, but it was something surprisingly good. Lan has a great simple recipe for a Grilled Fennel Salad on her site.

When it was time for battle fennel, I knew I wanted to grill it or roast it, but before I knew it Thanksgiving was over and hello December. I needed to make something quick and easy.

Breakfast instantly came in mind and after a quick search on the web I came across a recipe for Fennel and Sweet Potato Omelette on JamieOliver.com. Like the same feeling I had about grilled fennel, I didn’t expect much from this omelette. Once again I was proven wrong. The most delicious part about this omelette are the caramelized slices of fennel and onion coming together with the sweet potato. Each vegetable just mingles so well with the other.

Fennel and Sweet Potato Omelette

Inspired by Sweet Potato and Fennel Omelette on JamieOliver.com

Take the time to caramelized the slices of fennel and onion. The two vegetables comes together so well with the sweetness of the sweet potato. Although, no measurements are given, I sliced more fennel than onions. Also keel in mind that both the onion and fennel so shrink down as they cook.

Beets did not only added a natural earthy sweetness to the beef, but it also gave the dish a lovely warm ruby red shade. While I used a crock pot to tenderize the meat in the beginning and switched over to stove cooking towards the end, this dish could be cooked solely on the stove.

Ingredients:

Fennel

Sweet potato

Red onion

Bacon

Cumin

2 eggs

1 tbps milk

Finely julienne the fennel, red onion, and sweet potato into even sizes. Slice the bacon into small bite sizes. Set aside

In a bowl beat 2 eggs together with 1 tbps of milk and a dash of salt. Set aside.

In a pan, add a drizzle of olive oil and the sliced fennel and red onion. Cook until the vegetables turn are a light brown color.

Add in the sweet potato and bacon. Cook until the bacon is done and the sweet potato is tender.

Add a generous dash of cumin in the pan and mix well.

Evenly spread out and flatten the mixture. Add in the whisked eggs.

Twirl the pan around so that the egg mixture is evenly distributed. Cook on a medium flame.

After the bottom part is cooked, carefully flipped the omelette over to cook the other side. If you are cooking the omelette in a oven proof pan, you can finish cooking it off in the oven.

Serve on a plate with ketchup if desired.

Related posts:

1. Japanese Sweet Potato Gratin with Aged Asiago Cheese: Adventures in Gluttony’s Cheese of the Month Challenge
2. Braised Beef with Beets
3. Cremini & Shiitake Mushroom Ravioli with Mentaiko Sauce