Yes! As I promised, more fiddling around with these fiddleheads...that we happen to have coming out of our ears at the moment!
So how to prepare fiddleheads. These plants have a rather unique taste...sort of a blend between spinach and asparagus. They're somewhat firm in the stem and outer part of the leaves...like asparagus. The leafy center is rather soft and mushy...more like spinach. Here are a couple of the ways we've been servin' them up...
- Wash the fiddleheads in cold water. There's a brown wispy debris that needs to be rinsed off.
- VERY IMPORTANT STEP. Otherwise you might find yourself with an upset tummy! Boil the fiddleheads for 5 minutes. Dump the water. Then boil the fiddleheads again for 5 minutes. Dump the water. Now you're ready to do whatever you want prep-wise without the tummyache worry!
You can simply chop them up into whatever sized chunks you prefer (once they've been boiled) and add to a pasta tomato, pesto, or alfredo sauce...
Or, our favorite, and a traditional way of preparing fiddleheads, is to saute them in a skillet with raw salted butter, minced garlic, and a few teaspoons of apple cider vinegar. You might also prefer to add a bit more salt. Stir and taste until you get the amount of tangy-ness to garlic that you prefer. Some chopped leeks, red onion, or shallots would be great with the mix, too! Here we served them alongside an alfredo pasta with capers and sliced chicken. Wonderfully simple and delicious! Bon Appetit! : D