May 18, 2003
TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT
Fiddleheads: Euell Gibbons revisited (Olga Gize Carlile, 5/12/03, Journal Standard)Oh, what wonderful memories were stirred up for us aswe discussed nettles and wild foods of the woods.There are so many spring delicacies. [...]
If you find the bright green fiddleheads in the woods, wash them and blanch or stem them as you would asparagus.
Best way to clean the fiddleheads is to brush them with a vegetable brush, cutting off tough ends and discarding any slimy ferns. Wash them in cold water, sloshing them around.
Cook the fiddleheads in low-salt chicken broth for 2 to 3 minutes - just until tender. Then drain and dry and finish the dish by saut/ing in butter and garlic with a squeeze of lemon and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.
That is called "saut/d fiddlehead ferns - a new vegetable for many. Or try combining fiddlehead ferns with mushrooms and chicken.
One chef suggested - 1 walleye baked filet with 2 asparagus spears and 2 fiddlehead ferns.
My foraging friend who knows how to cook nettles shares her recipe with our "In the Kitchen" readers.
"Yes, I usually only take the top three sets of new leaves - that might be a little less than 3 inches sometimes. I usually don't fix them in the frying pan with bacon. To me that is just very special," she told me.
She wears rubber gloves or just swishes them around with kitchen tongs and rinsing them again.
Usually the water clinging to them is enough and she allows them to simmer 5 to 10 minutes till tender. "It doesn't take long, and they have lost their sting. I just season with butter and salt and pepper. Delicious,"she says with exclamation in her voice.
She emphasizes again to be sure NOT to use your bare hands when washing them.
She adds this P.S. "Cooking completely removes the plant's stinging abilities. It converts the very material the nettle uses in its stinger into very good, high-protein food. For the nettle has more protein than any other leafy material known."
It was Euell Gibbons, the wonderful author of Stalking the Wild Asparagus, who informed us that where nettles grow well you will find soil of almost perfect balance in plant nutrients.
And we learned there is a Northumberland Cheese Company that produces a nettle cheese!
Some use nettles in soups and stews in place of spinach.
And there are people who grow them in their gardens for butterflies.
Euell Gibbons' "Stalking the Wild Asparagus," became an instant hit in 1962.
He also authored "Stalking the Healthful Herbs" and "Stalking the Blue-eyed Scallop."
These books are filled with real-life experiences "in a countrified story-telling style that's informative, fun and endearing," wrote John Kallas.
By the time most of us were old enough to know he was, poor Euell Gibbons had become a punchline, as the Grape Nuts pitchman who ate bark and stuff. But his books are marvelous, combining an eye-opening glimpse of how many of the wild plants around us are quite edible with warm remembrances of growing up eating them. No one who's read Stalking the Wild Asparagus can help but think of him at this time of year when the fiddleheads come out.
MORE:
-BIO: Euell Gibbons: The Father of Modern Wild Foods (John Kallas, Ph.D., Wild Food Adventures)
-BIO: GIBBONS, EUELL THEOPHILUS (1911-1975) (Handbook of Texas Online)
-RECIPE: Mead (Euell Gibbons, from Stalking the Wild Asparagus)
-RECIPES: Fiddleheads (Nor-Cliff Farms)