6 tom kay recipes

Very tasteful culinary adventure.. Something completely different than my everyday soups.. Thumb up..

Ale-poached salmon trout with butter-tossed button onions, mushrooms, and carrots in a rich reduced ale sauce. A classic Irish monastery-style fish dish with rustic elegance.

Hearty vegan soup with black-eyed peas, split peas, pearl barley, carrot tops, mustard greens, and leeks. A thick, nourishing potful that uses the whole carrot, greens and all.

Liz and Tom's crab boil: hard-shell crabs steamed over a citrus-and-spice broth with potatoes, corn on the cob, bay, and galangal. A summer seafood feast built for a crowd.

Molded cranberry relish with raspberry Jello, fresh cranberries, grapes, celery, and crushed pineapple. Served with a fluffy cream cheese and marshmallow whipped dressing. A retro Thanksgiving and Christmas centerpiece.

There is a bit of confusion about these two plants. For some reason,the fennel plant, which resembles celery with fern like tops, has been called sweet anise in produce markets. The true anise is cultivated only for its seeds. So what you see labelled "sweet anise" in your market is probably fennel, but no matter what you call it, this is a highly interesting vegetable. Every part of this aromatic plant has a taste and aroma similar to licorice. The stems are eaten like celery,uncook, or cooked and served as a vegetable (heavenly with apples in waldorf salad) available from September to May.