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Fiddlehead Ferns: The Topic

Smoking Bear

By Smoking Bear
in Cooking

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Miss J

Miss J

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hmmm. Fiddleheads-in-the-UK a topic of discussion. "Canuck talk" on other UK threads. Is it just me, or is the UK the object of a (Great White) Northern invasion?

( :biggrin::biggrin: )

Edited by Miss J (log)
=Mark

=Mark

Posted
Posted
"fiddlehead ferns taste like a walk in a moist forest"

Yes.

I'll take an order of rotting wood with dead leaves splashed with a pond scum reduction please... :hmmm:

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

alacarte

alacarte

Posted
Posted

The secret to fine fiddleheads is lots of garlic. Saute them until they get a bit soft, toss with pasta and perhaps sliced mushrooms. I like fiddlehead ferns -- partly because they are so ephemeral. It's like eating spring. One day, there they are in the greenmarket. Two weeks later, all gone.

Spice & Ice and more
awbrig

awbrig

Posted
Posted

An upscale Grocer in Chicago, Fox & Obel, published this in their recent newsletter re Fiddleheads:

Fiddlehead Ferns

A unique and delightful wild harvest vegetable from Canada, New England, and northern Michigan.  The uncoiled top of the ostrich fern, Fiddleheads are very versatile and easy to use.  The mild taste is a blend between asparagus and artichoke with a hint of mushroom.  Excellent marinated as a crunchy snack, tossed into salads, or steamed as a side dish.  Store them tightly wrapped in the refrigerator.  Available from April through June.

Jinmyo

Jinmyo

Posted
Posted

Gah.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

  • 1 month later...
Bond Girl

Bond Girl

Posted
Posted

A very good friend of my just bought me a whole bag of home grown fiddlehead ferns. The classic Taiwanese way of making them is to boiling them in water and then stir them with a bit of oil and fermented black beans. It's okay, but I'm ready for something new, so any suggestions would be most welcome.

Ya-Roo Yang aka "Bond Girl"

The Adventures of Bond Girl

I don't ask for much, but whatever you do give me, make it of the highest quality.

Oreganought

Oreganought

Posted
Posted

This is the season for fiddleheads here in Ontario.Personally,I like them

rather plain,not to mask the delicate flavour.

Every year we would offer them as a side,sauteed in a little evoo,butter

seasoned with black cracked pepper,salt and lemon.About a 2 week season,

after that the ferns start to unravel and can get rather mushy.

=Mark

=Mark

Posted
Posted

Sautee them gently in butter and olive oil and shallots, sprinkle with a little cracked black pepper and slide them into the trash bin... :shock:

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

Jim Dixon

Jim Dixon

Posted
Posted
I try to mix them half and half with nettles.

The leaves from stinging nettle are much better than fiddleheads, which I always viewed as a sort of Eull "you can eat a pine tree" Gibbons-esque survival food.

Boiling the leaves removes the offending sting (it's chemical, not physical), and the resulting greens have a hearty, meaty quality. They're also very high in vitamin C.

The trick is to wear gloves during harvest and handling.

Jim

olive oil + salt

Real Good Food

sparrowgrass

sparrowgrass

Posted
Posted

I tried fiddleheads once, and was disappointed, probably because the wild food book I was using billed them as a "substitute for asparagus." We all know there is no substitute for asparagus.

Day lily buds, on the other hand, are yummy. And no fussy prep work either. Just go out along a country road, find a big stand of those orange day lilies (my mom calls them outhouse lilies, cause that is where they grew on the farm) and break the buds off. Steam, then a little butter and salt and pepper.

sparrowgrass
=Mark

=Mark

Posted
Posted
I tried fiddleheads once, and was disappointed, probably because the wild food book I was using billed them as a "substitute for asparagus."  We all know there is no substitute for asparagus.

Did they at least make your pee smell funny? :shock:

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

'Da Cat

'Da Cat

Posted
Posted

The only reason to eat fiddleheads is to accompany the butter.

Mmmmm, butter.

Little know fact: frozen fiddleheads can be thawed and recycled to make cardboard.

nervousnelli

nervousnelli

Posted
Posted

Stop and Shop supermarket in New Jersey is offering fiddleheads this week and I'm going to try them. Do I have to parboil them first or can I just wash them and put them straight into a saute pan with butter, garlic, salt and pepper?

Oreganought

Oreganought

Posted
Posted
Sautee them gently in butter and olive oil and shallots, sprinkle with a little cracked black pepper and slide them into the trash bin... :shock:

LOL. It sure is one of those ingredients that you either love or don't understand yet. :raz:

I sell out everynight during the fiddlehead season,and it's fun to watch

the customers that ordered devour this little fern and others at their table,

cringe.I love it. :laugh:

Oreganought

Oreganought

Posted
Posted
Stop and Shop supermarket in New Jersey is offering fiddleheads this week and I'm going to try them.  Do I have to parboil them first or can I just wash them and put them straight into a saute pan with butter, garlic, salt and pepper?

Some people have experience stomach pain and vomiting from raw or undercooked fiddleheads,so I would recommend that you blanch them first,and sautee until tender.I've never blanched,but have always cooked until tender and never had any complaints.

  • 1 year later...
hotMeat

hotMeat

Posted
Posted

Got some of these guys today at farmer's market. I love their texture. I was gunna saute with ramps and eat with some kinda fish. Maybe some fingerling potatoes.

Any ideas, thoughts, inspirrations.

Snozberry. Who ever heard of a snozberry.

-Veruca Salt

carswell

carswell

Posted
Posted

There's a past thread devoted to the subject. See Fiddlehead ferns: What to do with them? (you'll have to put up with some fiddlehead bashing, however).

My favourite prep: Trim the bottoms. Clean away the brown chaff. Soak in water acidified with a little lemon juice. Drain. Cook slowly in butter, turning frequently. Salt and pepper before serving. This eliminates much of the greenness some people object to and intensifies their mineraliness (not in Webster's, so sue me).

Plan to try grilling them this spring. Don't know why it's never occurred to me before.

carswell

carswell

Posted
Posted

Good point, wattacetti. It's also worth mentioning that only West Coast fiddleheads have been incriminated in food poisoning cases, at least the ones I've read about. Anyhoo, we're fortunate that fiddleheads are one of the vegetables that taste better when not undercooked.

Chris Amirault

Chris Amirault

Posted
Posted

I've been eating blanched, sauteed New England fiddleheads since I was a child and haven't experienced a single problem. I really do think that a quick dip in cold water to shock them is worth it; they have a tendency to turn a nasty brownish-green color without that.

Chris Amirault

eG Ethics Signatory

Sir Luscious got gator belts and patty melts

Nyleve Baar

Nyleve Baar

Posted
Posted

I posted on the other thread about this but it's worth repeating. Clean the fiddleheads well, then cook in 1 (or preferably 2) changes of boiling water before sauteing (or whatever). It's the only vegetable I boil - but if you don't do that they can have this funny bitterness which I'm not sure but might not be good for you. Just bring water to a boil, throw in fiddleheads, bring back to a boil and drain. Repeat. Water will go quite black. After that - butter, ramps - enjoy. Waiting for ours to pop - it's been very very cold up here in Ontario.

budrichard

budrichard

Posted
Posted

Jasper White has an excellent treatise on cleaning fiddleheads and should be adhered to.

Jasper soaks and rinses in cold water and removes the chaff, followed by two blanching, in between removing the chaff and then cooking. After cooking inspect each for brown stuff and remove. This process dramatically improves the fiddleheads. -Dick

carswell

carswell

Posted
Posted (edited)
Jasper White has an excellent treatise on cleaning fiddleheads and should be adhered to.

Why? Is his word somehow sacrosanct? Other reputable chefs suggest a single blanching. Some recommend no blanching at all.

I used to single-blanch but stopped when I learned the method described above, as the procedure is less involved and the end result tastes purer, wilder and less soggy. But I've never done a side-by-side comparison. The first local fiddleheads of the season turned up in the shops this week. Will try to conduct a test kitchen with unblanched, single-blanched and double-blanched 'heads soon. The more data points the better, though. Anybody else care to join in the fun?

Edited by carswell (log)
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