Fennelicious Fish.

The boy came home with a fennel bulb a few days ago, something I have never knowingly cooked or eaten before, so I was intrigued.  Apparently this vaguely celery like, aniseedy vegetable goes wonderfully well with fish, so I did a little research and came up with a recipe that sounded promising.  I forget where I got this recipe now, it wasn't from a well known chef but something someone had posted in cyberspace, which just appealed to me.  So I shall "retweet" it for your viewing pleasure.
(I hate all those Twitter terms, don't you?  I am on Twitter but update it about once a year, which kind of defeats the object....I'm just not interested enough in the witterings and twitterings of the likes of Jonathan Ross).
This recipe didn't even have a title so I shall call it Baked Fish with Fennel.
(Quantities for 4)
250ml olive oil
500g fennel bulb, finely chopped
700g leeks finely chopped
1 bunch of spring onions finely chopped
500g tomatoes skinned and finely chopped
salt and pepper
4 fish fillets. 
Any firm, white fish will be good for this.  Given the topicality of sustainable fishing (Jamie's Fish Supper, Hugh's Fish Fight, Gordon and his sharks)  I decided to give the poor Cod a wide berth, (I do anyway, we always have Haddock from the chippy) and chose Coley instead.  I've made fish curries with Coley before but this recipe is more delicate, something where the flavour of the fish is really on show.  I found it completely delicious and can't understand why Coley has such a bad (catfood) rep.  It is totally undeserved.  The fillets I bought from my friendly, Derby fishman were large and firm and cost me less than a quid each.  Can't be bad.

Preheat your oven to gas mark 6 (200C / 400F)

There is quite a bit of chopping to do to start off with, but the boy pitched in so it didn't take us long. 

1. Chop all your veg and skin the tomatoes (plunge into boiling water for a minute or two before doing so, much easier).
2. Heat 100ml olive oil in a deep frying pan, then add the fennel, leeks and spring onion and saute.  After a few minutes add the tomatoes and simmer until the mixture thickens.
3. Spread the mixture evenly in a roasting tin or dish.  Place the fish fillets on top and drizzle with more olive oil.  Bake for 15 minutes, until fish is cooked through.
4. Remove from the oven and let the fish cool down for a few minutes.  Dress with the remaining olive oil.

Cest ca!  So easy.  We had ours with diced, roast potatoes, but this would go with  other things I think, brown rice if you are trying to be virtuous?  I was worried the flavour might be too aniseedy, but the cooking and the sweetness of the leeks, olive oil and tomatoes turns it into something mellower altogether.  The fish was delicious, beautifully firm, thick white fillets, which held their shape and flaked to perfection.  Jamie is right; Coley is the new Cod.  Try it.  Fennel and fish is a winner.