Fennel, Cherry Tomato and Crumble Gratin

Excellent, just excellent! It was easy to make, good to prepare in advance, and everyone loved it and had extra helpings! I really enjoyed the contrasts between the cream's silkyness, the tomatoes' juiciness, the fennel's distinct flavour and the crumble's salty crunchy texture, a perfect mix!

Edited 7 September 2012: Hmm, not quite as good this time around. Could have been partly my fault, partly not the right tools.

My fault: I used the whole cup of cream (250ml) instead of just 200ml - it seemed such a waste to throw away that little bit of cream, but that could have been the reason why the crumble remained quite soggy.

Tools: I think last time I used a metal 22 x 30 cm baking tin, this time I used a ceramic 25 x 31 cm baking tin - the former was probably better, because the surface was smaller and the gratin therefore was higher, meaning that the crumble had to cover less surface and didn't have as much chance to touch the cream.

Also, don't be afraid to cut some of the fennel into smaller pieces if you're afraid they might be too big.

We served this as a main meal, with Individual Apple Pies to follow.

Edited 10 May 2014: I forgot to add the cream entirely last night, but I hardly noticed (well, it was a bit different, but just as enjoyable as usually). Now if you can substitute the butter in the crumble with something else (coconut oil?), you could even turn this from vegetarian to vegan.

Edited 11 July 2014: I forgot to add the cream AGAIN! I also used frozen, defrosted crumble we still had leftover from the last time. It was pretty soggy, and even an extra 15 min baking time didn't really change that. I'm afraid that it didn't help either that the crumble contained 1/3 whole wheat flour. Next time I might just use it frozen and see what happens.

Edited 25 June 2017: We haven't made this dish in quite a while - we seemed to like it less and less. The soggyness of the crumble was one problem, but the crumble also often ended up being a little too sweet, and the fennel undercooked. So this time we used less sugar and more cheese in the crumble (sorry, not sure how much), and cooked the gratin covered for over an hour, and uncovered for over half an hour, and that did the trick.

This was surprisingly delicious! I was quite wary of using this sweet crumble in what should be a savoury dish but it worked. The fennel, baked in a little cream and topped with a cheesy crumble and cherry tomatoes had a very nice balance of sweet, salty and sour flavours.

I baked it in 6 individual gratin dishes intending for it to be the main. Each dish ended up with only 1/3 of a fennel bulb, a little skimpy for an entrée, but I did like the thickness of the layers of vegetable and topping; everything baked in the correct time and the topping did crisp up. Next time, I’ll just bake it in 1 dish and let people help themselves. Serves 6-8 as a side, 3-4 as a main.

This would make a fantastic addition to a buffet.