Springtime Delicacies: Mo Fiddle fo Rel

In the course of a Sunday trip to Granville Island Market, I made the discovery of- and acquired, by exchanging bushels of cash- not one but two alimentary celebrities from my childhood. These were, one, fiddleheads (which I remark are described by an online encyclopedia with an apparent appetite for alliteration as “the unfurled fronds of a young fern harvested for food consumption”*) and, two, morels, a chic and porous mushroom with the absolutely most mushroomy taste- disons, robin is to bird as morel is to mushroom flavor.

Both fiddleheads and morels are available only in the springtime, for a short while, as little of each is harvested and clever people like them. Accordingly, they are also, as I’ve hinted, both expensive- I got a package of fiddleheads enough for two people for seven dollars and the morels were $19.99 a pound. But mushrooms are light; a nickelbag of morels will do you for any imaginable entrée for two.

On a personal note, the reason these fern and fungi were the Zack and Cody of my early years is that my mother never failed to cook them in butter. This was an exceptional trend, as I grew up in the Snackwells era (credit here goes to Jeffrey Steingarten for choosing Snackwells cookies to stand for the era of low-fat diet hegemony) and really very little in my house was always served with butter, perhaps only fiddleheads, morels, and pickerel, an incredible white fish of Manitoba which I will discuss with you when the time is ripe.

En tout cas, fiddleheads and morels are delicious and I urge anyone with means, motive, and opportunity to avail themselves of both immediately, while there is still time. If you can believe it, without his even knowing they are twinned in my memory due to the historical pairing of each with butter, Emeril Lagasse has a recipe for a dish containing both morels and fiddleheads, Morel and Fiddlehead Fern Ragout: http://www.blogger.com/url

Now, I myself might move to recommend, especially if you’ve never tried fiddleheads or morels, that you simply stir-fry either one in butter, shallots, and garlic, so you really get the idea.

Before I turn irresponsible, I have to impart a little wisdom I myself learned too late- this is on the topic of fiddleheads specifically. Apparently these bébés de fern were associated with a rash of foodborne illness in New York and Western Canada in 1994†, and while they don’t confirm the cause, Health Canada guesses the illness resulted from an unidentified toxin present in fiddleheads. As much as 1994 was a long time ago, I’m still vulnerable to humming Nirvana and, evidently, you still must take precautions when cooking fiddleheads. I didn’t know this on Sunday when I cooked my fiddleheads, so I just cut off the ends and fried them in butter. However, Health Canada recommends‡ that fiddleheads be washed in several changes of cold water and cooked in boiling water for 15 minutes or steamed for 10 to 12 minutes until tender. They also suggest they be boiled or steamed prior to sautéing, frying or baking- which I didn’t do, though I also did not experience any illness (for a change- more about my delicate constitution in posts to come). Also, don’t drink fiddlehead water because it may contain unidentified toxin causing diarrhea. Please try to hide your disappointment.

Just to give due end focus to the morels (they are my favorite out of the two, shhh!), one of the best mouth memories I have is a pizza topped with morels that had been sautéed in garlic butter.

Ok, make it a dimebag.

*http://www.blogger.com/url

†http://www.blogger.com/url

‡http://www.blogger.com/url