Tuesday, June 2, 2009
It's important to wash fiddleheads several times before boiling or steaming for at least fifteen minutes, even if you plan to sauté them later. They turn greener than any green you've ever seen. Briefly, briefly at this time of year they appear on the supermarket shelves like so many grasshoppers playing violins or green tambourines.
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11 comments:
I've never seen fiddleheads in the supermarket, only by the side of the road. Good to know the cooking instructions.
Fiddleheads contain a toxin that has to be cooked out of them. Otherwise: food poisoning (no fun).
I love fiddleheads. But I do believe I had undercooked fiddleheads in a restaurant one night as I got violently ill later. And since then, guess what? I've been afraid to eat them. It's sad, really.
Wow, I didn't know that. Someone threw some fiddleheads in a stirfry this weekend, and we were trying to guess how long they would take to cook. We were aiming for not soggy and limp. But maybe that's the safest way to serve them.
I soak them for a few hours, changing the water a couple of times and have never gotten sick from them. Perhaps that is pushing my luck, but I have a great fear of mushy vegetables.
Our weather was weird this year and the fiddleheads went from teensy little things poking out of the leaves to completely unfurled in the blink of an eye. Maybe next year.
Sigh. Grasshoppers. Tambourines.
This is all very good to know if I ever am lucky enough to have fiddleheads to serve for a meal.
Hey, what happened to the reading?
I deleted it and then posted another one...briefly...but I looked even older!
Oh, vanity thy name is Del. You looked just fine in both, silly.
Though, your apartment tour was too brief. I needed to see the couch I'll be sleeping on when I decide to give up the settled life and wander north with nothing but a hobo sack and a harmonica.
In the second one it looked like I had a turkey-neck. I don't! And I shaved off my gray facial hair this morning. I didn't even know the camera could take mini-movies until a couple of days ago. I'll post another one later.
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