Pteridum Aquilinim
As I am sure many of you know, brake or bracken is a form of edible fern. It is known in Chinese as 蕨菜 (Mand: jué cài; Cant: kyut3 coi3) or 山蕨菜 (Mand: shān jué cài; Cant: saan1 kyut3 coi3).
For those who don't know (they are not common in the UK, for example) the purple stems are topped with young unopened fronds. At this stage, the fronds are known as ‘fiddleheads’ because of their supposed resemblance to er, the heads of fiddles! Or to the tuning keys on said instrument. These are particularly valued.
The vegetable with its stems is fried with meat – beef, chicken or even shrimp. The fiddleheads can be simply sautéed for about 5 minutes then lightly dressed with lemon juice, and are wonderful with simple steamed fish. They are also sold on supermarket salad counters as below. Some people say the taste is close to that of asparagus. Not sure about that, but they are good.
Fiddlehead Salad
Brake roots are also used to make a type of black noodles, which resemble squid ink pasta.
Fried Brake Root Vermicelli with pork
Health Warning
Pteridum Aquilinim is considered by some authorities to be a carcinogen and there are suggestions that its popularity in Japan may be a contributory factor in the high rates of stomach cancer found there.
