Kitchen IQ
Fiddleheads
Every spring, thousands of Canadians get food poisoning; and almost all owe it to this succulent ostrich fern named fiddleheads. A family term for curled, edible shoots of a variety of ferns, fiddleheads are harvested before the frond unrolls and reaches its full height, and resemble ornamentation like on the ends of a violin. While they are a delicacy in Canada, fiddleheads have been part of traditional cuisine across Asia, and in northern France. In Indonesia, fiddleheads are cooked in stew, in a rich coconut sauce. In India, it is found in the Himalayan states, and is often pickled and eaten as a side dish. In Canada, fiddleheads are sauteed, eaten with hollandaise, butter, lemon, garlic and vinegar. Most fiddleheads have an asparagus-like, nutty flavour, and are high on vitamins A and C. But all this only once cleaned properly. Fiddleheads can cause food poisoning if not cleaned well. Remove the brown husk on them, changing the water, until all the husk is off, before boiling it for 15 minutes.
