Of course, two days after the cooking class when I needed some promised fiddleheads, they showed up in the local supermarket. So I had to buy some anyway. They were 5.99/lb., which seems kind of steep to me (but everything does these days), but a half a pound makes a large portion to feed four, and that’s not so bad. I love fiddleheads–I trimmed and blanched these and drizzled them with lemon-spiked butter (8 oz. fiddleheads, 1 T. butter, 1 T. fresh lemon juice), salt and pepper. I love the texture and clean vegetal flavor of fiddleheads, their beautiful curlicued look, complete with baby fern fuzz. I’m loving them cold out of the fridge today, too. But it turns out Hubby isn’t that crazy about them, he admits, and my friend Danielle over at foodmomiac.com says they “don’t taste very unique.” I guess they’re only for a select few, discerning cognoscenti types such as myself (I’m just kidding–I’m not actually that bitchy). Do you like them? What do you like about them?
Addendum: I have just been made aware of a potential toxic effect of fiddleheads cooked less than 15 minutes causing stomach problems. See comments below and please be aware of that risk before seeking them out.
Tripe Soup 2 
It’s funny, I’ve always loooooved fiddleheads. But at some point I read that if you don’t cook them sufficiently they have toxins that can make you sick. This isn’t unusual for meat, of course, but for a plant food I thought it was pretty surprising. Do you know anything about this, or am I simply uber-paranoid?
Thanks, Cheryl, for pointing that out. I didn’t realize that. I googled that issue and found several sources saying fiddleheads can cause GI distress if not boiled for 15 minutes, which of course is too long to cook the tender greens. Come to think of it, this last batch does not seem to have agreed with me entirely. I’m going to go amend my post!