Every year around this time, bins of strange, curly, snail-looking greens appear in the produce section of the grocery store. They are called fiddlehead ferns and are considered a northern New England delicacy. And every year I think to myself, "I should really buy some of these crazy doodads and try them." but for some reason I don't, and the next time I go grocery shopping they've disappeared. Not this year!
I thawed some tuna steaks from Trader Joe's and seared them after marinating them according to this recipe. Holy hell, these tuna steaks are to die for! For reals. Absolutely delicious. I was excited that the marinade contains sesame oil (aka my new favorite ingredient). It's a little salty, so I might omit the added salt next time and just let the soy sauce provide the NaCl (that one's for all you nerds out there). But really, the tuna steaks came out so well and were very easy to prepare- it's definitely a dish I'll make when I have dinner guests.
As for the fiddleheads- I liked those, too. I had heard that they were bitter, but I munched on a couple raw ones and discovered that I really liked them raw. They didn't taste bitter at all- they had a light, fresh, crispy flavor. Imagine if an asparagus and cucumber mated and had babies, and their offspring looked like green snails and didn't make your pee smell. That's how I can best describe fiddlehead ferns. While browsing about fiddleheads online, I saw mentioned in several places that they shouldn't be eaten raw because of toxins. So I sauteed the rest of them in the tuna marinade. They were still good but I prefer the raw ones. So if tragedy strikes, now you know that the fiddleheads did me in.
The finished product:
9 comments:
You can also just sautee the fiddleheads in a little olive oil. I love them.
"Imagine if an asparagus and cucumber mated and had babies, and their offspring looked like green snails and didn't make your pee smell."
This might be the best sentence posted to a blog in the history of Ever.
Yes, fiddleheads rule!
I stand by that description- glad you enjoyed it :)
YES I got fiddleheads at Hannaford yesterday and am cooking them up tonight with some lemon risotto and chicken. YUM!!!
those are so WEIRD!!
Hey fiddle head seared tuna eating yuppie, you have a couple of nieces in need of some Aunt Eileen time! You can even feed them the leftovers!
Weird, indeed, but tasty!
And hey anonymous, I know who you are. (I'll see you all on Sunday, right?)
I've never seen or heard of those fiddleheads before. Will have to give them a try sometime.
Trader Joe's has the most fantastic frickin' frozen fish (they should label it that way "Fantastic Frickin' Frozen Fish", and get people to say it three times fast before they're allowed to buy it.) I love their salmon patties.
As for fiddleheads, I guess I'll have to actually try them. You're the second person in the past week I've heard say they're good. They sure look like hell, though.
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