Cooking Fiddleheads

Found a vegetable called Fiddleheads at Wilson Farm.

They looked very much like the fern seedlings I used to eat when I was a child in Japan.  Even as a child, I used to really look forward to spring for vegetables like Fiddleleads, Fuki, fresh bamboo shoots, and spring cabbage.

I learned through a quick internet search that Fiddleheads must be well heated or they will make you sick.  Martha Stewart's recipe recommended steaming for 4 to 5 minutes, but other websites said they need to be steamed or boiled for more than 11-15 minutes to be safe.  I decided to follow the latter advice just to be sure.

Here is what I did:

1.  Rinse and then boil Fiddleheads in salted water for 12 minutes.
2.  Blanch Fiddleheads in cold water.  Melt butter in a skillet, quickly sautee Fiddleheads, sprinkle lemon juice before serving.

The dish was simple yet absolutely delicious!  It went very well with a grilled salmon.

The only thing was, 12 minutes was too long a time for boiling them.  They got too mushy.  I'll try shorter boiling the next time.