Last Days of Fiddlehead Ferns

Fiddlehead Ferns – Unfurl Something Wild

I hate to be an alarmist, but this may be the last weekend for tender, earthy fiddlehead ferns in the greenmarkets.

In the Union Square Greenmarket today, I asked several people under the Tamarack Hollow Farm tent for their best recipes using these curly beauties. The resounding response was, “Sauté them in butter!”

The fellow behind the table told me that you can actually lightly sauté them in any kind of oil, and that they take up the flavors of the things with which they are cooked. So you can put them in a hot pan for a brief time until they are cooked but still be crunchy, and then serve them with a roasted chicken perhaps. Tamarack hollow also recommends serving them with Japanese food. I can imagine they’d be great in a rich stir fry too. “They’re like a mild asparagus,” he said. (I know you went there in your head too, and the answer is no. We asked the farmer, and there’s no such thing as fiddlehead pee.)

I love them in a bouquet of flowers, but I’m not very experienced with them in a culinary setting. If you have a good recipe for fiddlehead ferns, please send it my way! As fast as you can, before they start unfurling and turning in to their regularly scheduled leafy selves.

~Karen Seiger, Markets of New York City