Fennel 'Steaks' with roasted broccoli and potatoes

I took my Abel and Cole cook book (free with my first veg box!) with me for a bit of light reading on the train on the way to Coventry to see The Boy and came across a recipe for Fennel Steaks.  Given that I'd got some fennel in my veg box this week I thought I'd give it a go.

I also had some broccoli left over after tea the day before, and a cosmos potato from lasts week's veg box and given I had a free evening I thought I'd roast them.

My thoughts on fennel- I'd mentioned that I had some fennel to The Boy's mum who mentioned it had an aniseed flavour. I've never had fennel, or smelt/tasted aniseed so I wasn't sure what to expect.  But as soon as I cut into it DEAR GOD I NOW KNOW WHAT ANISEED SMELLS LIKE! This made me a bit apprehensive about how it would taste as I now know I do not like the smell of aniseed. I followed the recipe for fennel steaks, but as I decided to try the rapeseed oil with it that I picked up at the East Midland's Food Festival.

After watching one an Abel and Cole's video on fennel, in which they demonstrate fennel steaks I thought I would try cooking the lemons in the pan along with the fennel before drizzling the juice on them before serving.

The smell either eased off during the cooking or was masked by the smell of the lemon. Either way when it came to eating it, it didn't taste as bad as it smelt, not that the taste or smell of aniseed was totally gone but it was mellower than before, therefore although I wasn't bowled over I would try it again with hope that after a couple of tries I may become more accustomed. I could perhaps try roasting it instead.

Looking a bit bland! Need to work on ideas to make it a bit more colourful- roasting the potatoes properly would help!

As you can tell in the picture, the roast potatoes didn't work that well (despite cutting them into smaller pieces in hope that they would cook in a shorter time) but I sprinkled them with some garlic during the cooking, which really made them taste really good anyway.

The roasted broccoli on the other hand was delicious! I've never roasted broccoli before but it may now be my favourite was of cooking broccoli. It was especially good drizzled in balsamic vinegar.