Dominique Rizzo | Bespoke Food Tours
This is a delicious gutsy lemon & fennel relish recipe suitable for cheese plates, serving with baked, fried or battered fish, cold chicken, and roast meat. It’s also ideal for use on sandwiches and baguettes to give a fabulous tang to the simplest of fillings. The relish will keep for up to a couple of months in the fridge in a sealed jar and makes a great gift to give a neighbor or friend if you find you have an abundance of lemons. My recipes produce a lovely thick relish, that really stands on its own. If you prefer the relish to have a little more liquid simmer it for only about 20 – 30 minutes.
Using a peeler, peel the skin only from 3 lemons and slice into fine strips, cut away the pith of all the lemons and segment them into a bowl squeezing out as much juice as you can and discarding the seeds and membrane. Combine the lemon segments, rind, juice, fennel, fennel seed, celery, sugar, vinegar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 40-45 minutes until most of the juice has been reduced. Store in sterilized jars in the pantry or in a air tight jar or container in the fridge.