My report on the fennel/onion dish (for Lucinda and any other fennelphiles)
I usually make creamed onions for Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners (you can find my recipe elsewhere in C&B) but, after stumbling upon a baked fennel and onion recipe while blog trolling, I decided the change it up a bit this Xmas.
I started with this recipe:
Fennel Baked In Cream (Finocchio al Forno)
3 large fennel bulbs
3 medium sized onion
50 ml clear vegetable stock
50 ml white wine
200 ml heavy cream
salt and pepper
nutmeg
dill
a couple of thin slices of semi-hard goat cheese
Cut fennel bulbs into halves, onions into quarters and place cut side up into a baking dish. Add wine and soup and bake in the oven on 200°C/390°F until fennel softens.
Remove from the oven and pour over mixture of cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Sprinkle with dill. Return into the oven and bake more until the cream thickens. Toss cheese on top of a still warm dish. (found here: http://palachinkablog.com/fennel-baked-in-cream/)
I made the following changes (one accidental, the rest on purpose):
1) I mis-read the instructions and added 200ml (a little under 7/8ths of a cup) of stock to the baking dish (I used Imagine's "No-Chicken Broth", a great vegetarian substitute for chicken stock-- tastes "like chicken", for real!) Not sure how the veggies could have cooked in 100+% less liquid as written, so no-harm, no-foul.
2) I cut the fennel in quarters instead of halves.
3) I made a tiny bit of roux (2T flour sauteed lightly in 2T butter) and blended that with the cream (which I increased by half) before pouring it on the vegetables b/c I wanted a nice thick sauce.
4) I used a dash of soy sauce instead of the nutmeg and dill (thought the dill wouldn't go w/the other dinner flavors and was out of nuitmeg). I also used less regular salt b/c of the saltiness of the soy sauce (BTW, in this dish the soy sauce doesn't give an "Asian" flavor at all, just a richness and depth.)
5) I used a soft herbed goat cheese that I put in the freezer for a few minutes to make it easier to slice and I put it on about 5 minutes before the baking was done.
The result? Mixed.
The sauce and goat cheese had a really nice flavor with the onions and much of the fennel, but even with the extra stock the outer layers of the fennel were a bit tough. (FYI, since she didn't provide cooking times, I cooked the onions/fennel for about 55 minutes the first time and about 45 minutes the second time.)
What would I do the next time?
1) Instead of baking in wine and broth, I would use whole onions and whole fennel and boil them in water until softened (in separate pots, since the fennel will take longer.) I think this would be easier and I also felt like the wine reacted a bit with the uncooked fennel and gave it a very slight "off" taste.
2) Cool the veggies and quarter the onions and the fennel, then proceed with the recipe.
I think the dish would still look good and eat well, even if the onions and fennel fall apart a bit as you assemble/serve.
(And when, in Julia Child's holy name is DU3 getting spell check??? I am a fine speller, but a miserable typist and proofing a long post by sight is te-di-ous! Apologies for any bloopers I didn't catch!)
= new reply since forum marked as read
Two pretty young/tender bulbs (I bought three, but couldn't fit all in my baking dish), so I don't think it was the fennel that caused the less-than-perfect results.
Do let me know how it does for you whenever you are able to make it. 
I'm hoping to have some to play with soon. 
I just started trying to tuck fennel into our menus -- another ingredient I've never found in a taco.
I often saute the three and add a splash of sherry to deglaze and finish it off.
I love fresh fennel sliced thin in a salad, but mr beac will have none of that, so I have to be content to eat the stalks like celery to get my "raw" on. 