The other day as Fig, Cedar ( our newest sous chef; aged 3 months) and I were doing a bit of grocery shopping we stumbled upon a Mandarinquat. Mandarinquats, as the name suggests, are a Mandarin and Kumquat hybrid. And since I’m a sucker for over-priced produce with fancy names I bought as many as would fit in a produce bag and hauled it home.
Fig loves fennel and will eat it raw but he’s especially keen on braised fennel. So we decided to do our usual braised fennel dish but with the lovely addition of our new citrus friends.
Since both the fennel and the mandarinquats are a bit tough to cut I pre-chopped everything for Fig so it was a bit easier for him to handle. Of course, he did a little dicing and slicing but mostly shoved everything in his mouth as fast as he could.
Ingredients:
- 1 fennel bulb
- 3 mandarinquats (kumquats will also work if you can’t find mandarinquats)
- 1 tsp of olive oil
- salt to taste
Directions:
- Chop up fennel and Mandrianquats in even uniform pieces.
- Sear the fennel in a pan at medium to high for about a minute or two with olive oil and salt.
- Turn down the heat to low. Add the Mandrianquats.
- Fennel is ready when its juicy and tender. This could take around 20-25 minutes depending on the thickness of the fennel.
- Serve warm.
Toddler Friendly Parts of this Recipe:
- Chopping ( however, its best if everything is pre-chopped for easier handling)
- Adding chopped pieces to the pan.
- Adding a dash of salt when vegetables are in the pan.
I want to make this with my toddler just so I can teach him the word “mandrianquat.”
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Had to laugh, I’m the same way the bigger and weirder the name of the piece of produce the more likely I am to buy a lot of it. Never heard of a mandarinquat but now I have to find them and buy a big bag of them. Your fennel dish is really wonderful, I think the fennel and citrus are a great match,
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Yes! I hope you find them…they are so delicious. We are all out of them and now I must go buy more!
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I love the beautiful simplicity of you blog and recipes. So inspiring. And you inspired me to buy mandarinquats! I have never tried them before and just picked some up 😊 I look forward to tasting a new fruit!!
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Thank you! I hope you liked them as much as we did!
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My boys love their dog knife! My oldest son (4.5yo) started with it and has graduated to being able to use a small paring knife. Love that they can really help with food prep.
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Yes! So much better to teach knife skills early on. My toddler forgets 95% of everything we tell him, but he knows never to mess around with a knife or a hot stove/oven!
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