Cucumbers with Feathery Fennel

Barbara Spiegel, whose recipe ideas figure in this and my earlier cookbooks, set out to develop a seafood fennel recipe but then decided a vegetable dish would be more useful, “because just about any seafood will be enhanced by the subtle, aromatic, crunchy combination of cucumber and fennel.” Try this dish with scallops, shrimp, or grilled salmon and you’ll find seafood is more than enhanced by fennel and cucumber—it cannot be improved! (As evidence: The Oxford English Dictionary de