iaink

Sure, no problem. Bound to be a hot topic for discussion

By the way, you missed the (critical) last step... "Now, wash the dog!"

Lychee

Fiddleheads are harvested in eastern Canada, right? We get them here in Vancouver, but I don't think they're harvested here. They're young fern fronds of a certain species of fern, right? I've eaten them before. They don't have the cabbage flavour of brussel sprouts. I'd say a similar flavour would be cooked asparagus or artichoke hearts. It's a mild green vegetable and goes well with melted butter.

Simon Legree

Correct on all points.
You can buy them frozen too. I think it's MacCains that packages them. They are in the freezer case in grocery stores here almost all the time. Much easier than prepping them from scratch.

Lychee

Interesting, I'll have to look in the freezers. I've only seen them fresh (while in season) in specialty shops. I don't think they're very common here in the west.

Greenhill

It`s been a month since we first noticed fiddleheads growing down by the river. It`s now the middle of May and the harvest time is pretty much over, however we did manage to get a few today, cook them up and make up our minds about them. I wouldn't exactly call it an adventure; more a theme on walking the dog with 'free' food as a bonus. Hope you enjoy the pics..


Ready to harvest..







Bag full of fresh quality product...(free to us but $5/lb at Superstore/Sobeys and a local fruit'n'veg store had them on sale for $3/lb)...



Husks removed and fiddleheads washed...



Boiled for 10-12 mins (with a change of water after 5 mins). We all agreed they were actually pretty good, just served plain like this...



(all the following were parboiled for 5 mins before frying for a further 3-5 mins)


On the left they're getting cooked with bacon, in bacon fat, on the right they're getting fried in butter...



This is the butter fried version, no one picked it as either a favourite or second favourite, although no one disliked it...



This is the 'fried with bacon' version. It got two votes as favourite and one as second favourite.



This is a sauté version (butter, onion, garlic, lemon juice, sugar, paprika, salt & pepper). One top vote but the general consensus was that it would have won if it had bacon instead of sugar.




I would say they do have an interesting and somewhat unique flavour but personally I prefer some of the more traditional vegetables. My kid loved them though which, for me, is two thumbs up.

I also did follow the guidelines for cooking them (regarding the food poisoning scare) but they were all, IMO, a bit over-cooked.

There was also a recent news report suggesting that they're "Rated higher than blueberries for antioxidants".

Chookie

If they taste a bit like brussels sprouts, I think I will pass... as far as I am concerned, sprouts are one of the most vomtastic vegetables known to man.

Even the smell of them cooking is enough to make me hurl!

fledermaus

I think I will pass too. The idea of eating them reminds me of when I tried samphire, another regional vegetable. They were billed as having a taste similar too asparagus. Heck as like - they just tasted of seawater.

ps your pictures are very very big

Danny B

Do they give you wind? brussels sprouts make me fart like a dog.

Alberta_Rose

I'm slightly confused about the type of fern.... wikipedia says,

"The fiddleheads of certain ferns are eaten as a cooked leaf vegetable; they must be cooked first to remove shikimic acid. The most popular of these are:

Bracken, Pteridium aquilinum, found worldwide
Ostrich fern, Matteuccia struthiopteris, found in northern regions worldwide, and the central/eastern part of North America
Cinnamon fern or buckhorn fern, Osmunda cinnamomea, found in the Eastern parts of North America
Royal fern, Osmunda regalis, found worldwide
Zenmai or flowering fern, Osmunda japonica, found in East Asia
Vegetable fern, Athyrium esculentum, found throughout Asia and Oceania"

... but other sources state that only the ostrich fern is edible and anything else will make you ill.

I think I'll stick with brussels sprouts and asparagus. These little things seem too much like hard work to be worth the effort and are potentially hazardous!

Oink

When i read the title of this thread I thought it might be promising. How silly did I feel when it turned out to be just a few weirdos discussing eating bushes.

Greenhill

I think it was more like a very, very mild brussel sprout flavour (to me). For everyone I've spoken with about them, there's typically a personal description e.g. "tastes like asparagus", "tastes nothing like asparagus", "tastes like fiddleheads and nothing else", "delicious, nice, mild vegetable flavour", "a pleasant 'green' flavour, not bitter, not strange..." etc

One thing I noticed about them though, they really seemed to pull in the flavour of whatever they were cooked with. And they might be really good with a cheese sauce.

No, not with us (at least no one told me otherwise ). Everyone seemed to be normal and feeling ok this morning.

Each should fit just within the screen when viewing, no matter how big the screen or resolution (at least so I'm told). You might be able to modify this by holding down CTRL and moving the mouse wheel, or by holding CTRL and pushing + or - on the num pad... this will alter the size of text too, though.

Greenhill

I'd go along with this too (after what I've learned about them). There are a couple of other ferns that have a similar appearance to fiddleheads and grow in the same places at the same time but, so I've been told, eating them will make definitely make you sick. Not sure about the bracken thing either, this might be one of those 'don't trust wikipedia' things

fledermaus

They do fit the screen but they are still ruddy huge and I really dont want to have to fiddle with CTRL keys. Just want nice normal size images.

Danny B

Gordon Bennett woman, aint you a moaner.

fledermaus

If you say so.