Fennel and Blood Orange - a poorly advertised love story?

For the second time since we started getting our veggie box, I was faced this week with an old enemy: fennel! The first time was during the second week of February - Valentine's Day week! I really despise the stuff and despite my mom's best efforts have never really willingly dished it on my plate, let alone bought some from the shops! But unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I had no choice seeing as it had been delivered to my door amongst other better tasting vegetables.
Having recently discovered Master Chef UK (I don't know why I always watch that show AFTER dinner, then I get soo hungry), I decided to search the BBC Food database for a tasty way to tackle my old foe. Boy, oh boy, was that a good decision! I came across this beauty: Red mullet, fennel puree and fennel salad with lemongrass broth which is what I made for our Valentine's Day dinner (I replaced the red mullet with sustainably source Pacific Tuna).

Pacific Tuna, fennel puree, fennel and blood orange salad with lemongrass broth

 Topped with some real pink champagne and amazing Hotel Chocolat Truffles, this was a finger-licking good Valentine's Day.
So I found that the trick to fennel is two things: anise seeds and blood orange. The anise seeds emphasize the taste of the fennel and the blood orange beautifully complements it. Blood oranges work so well with fennel that I ordered a kilo of them along with this week's veg box as soon as I found out we were getting more fennel. I was actually excited to get more fennel! Say what?
I know it sounds crazy, but take it from a fennel hater - this works!

So tonight is the night where I'm eating fennel again! I went back to the BBC Food website and found this recipe: Mozzarella Bruschetta with Shave Fennel and Courgette. I forgot to buy courgette and used up the lemon juice in last night's latkes so I modified the recipe a bit - we'd also run out of mozzarella so I had to use a gouda style cheese which was a little strong for the dish.
Damon thought that orange and cheese should not mix but I disagree, I thought the salad was great on the toasted cheese. Each to his/her opinion but do give it a try with a neutral cheese, like mozzarella.

Dinner - toasted cheese with a twist!

Ingredients:
2 blood oranges, with skin removed and segments cut into small pieces (I guess you could use normal oranges but I don't know how that would turn out)
Juice of one (blood) orange
Juice of half lemon 
1 fennel bulb, sliced thinly
A few sprigs of mint, chopped 
Olive oil
Salt and Pepper
Sourdough bread (2 slices per person is the way I usually go about it but feel free to adjust)
1 large garlic clove, cut into halves (one clove per 4 slices of bread)
Mozzarella, grated or sliced

How to:

Adventurous toast!

Toast the sourdough slices. Once toasted, rub the garlic clove halves on one side of the toast and keep aside.
Mix the fennel, blood orange segments and mint in a bowl. Pour a tablespoon of olive oil on them and toss gently. 
In a cup, mix the orange juice, lemon juice, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper to taste. Mix into the salad.
Sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella on each toast. You can quickly pop the toasts in the oven for a "toasted cheese" effect or keep the cheese as-is.
Serve the toast next to the salad and decide whether you're adventurous enough to eat the salad on the toast.