The Simple Desires of Spring

Here's a rule and a twist.

First, the rule:

* never go to the supermarket hungry. Why? Because you never buy potato chips -- gave 'em up for Lent or for some diet. But there they are, strangely, sitting in your pantry. And you're eating them because, well, you bought them. . . when you were hungry in the supermarket.

And now the twist:

* never read the blogs in my blogroll when hungry. Why? Because they are AWESOME and full of delicious foods that I now need to go make.

What I'm really loving is the strange way that the blogs will be in sync with each other. Sometimes, it's a cheese; sometimes a grain or a particular vegetable that everyone is grooving on. For a while there, it was truffles.

Right now it seems as though people are lightening up, getting more greens. The shift is happening . . . can you feel it? It's been a bit warm (and by "warm" I mean in the 40s) for a few days now. There's a desire for lightness and brightness that seems just too good not to explore. It's making me think about the spring cleanse, which is coming up in just a few weeks (which reminds me that I need to start weening myself off caffeine again).

Here are just a few recent posts from fellow bloggers that have stimulated my curiosity:

This recipe for Veggie Chili and Beer Bread seems like a great late winter feast-- hearty enough for winter, but vegetable-based, so somewhat springy. From Simply Life.

Although I'm not sure about all this "paleo-dieting," (seems like a fad) more fresh salads are always good. And if that salad is a Thai Salad with Spicy Dressing from The Nourishing Gourmet, I'm intrigued.

Or, for something completely different, we could have lots of grains and cheese from No Recipes! The Black Truffle and Cheese Grits looks like the kind of Valentine's Day breakfast that would win me over and over again.

101 Cookbooks plays with one of my favorite winter squash, the delicata, in this dish, Roasted Delicata Squash Salad.

Cucina Panzano always entices with something delectable. I'd like to add some pancetta to this recipe for Tuscan Blueberry Port Chicken Breast.

And finally, Tartelette reminds us of what is to come: sweet berries and ripe rhubarb. I'm loving the looks of these Rhubarb and Red Berry Crumbles (the photography on this site always makes my mouth water). I love that this recipe uses millet and brown rice flour as well as honey for sweetening.

Fiddleheads and Mushrooms in Beurre Blanc

Beurre Blanc is one of those classic French sauces that you think will be difficult and involved, but when you actually check the recipe, turns out to be pretty simple. In the beurre blanc (white butter sauce) that I prepared tonight, there are only 7 ingredients:

6 tbs. vegetable stock or dry white wine

2 tbs. white wine vinegar

3 tbs. minced shallots

salt and pepper to taste

1 tbs. half-and-half or heavy cream

8 tbs. cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

I've made curries that were three times as long. It should be noted that to keep the sauce lightly colored, white pepper is preferred. I ran out, so my sauce tonight had a more "rustic" look with the addition of black pepper. I also used Himalayan pink salt. Ooo, fancy.  

But, preparation doesn't start with the sauce -- it starts (and ends) with fiddleheads. If you haven't read my inaugural post and the advice about preparing fiddleheads, you might want to take a gander if this is a new food for you. Otherwise, read on.

After the fiddleheads (use 1 1/2 cups) have been properly washed and trimmed, blanch in boiling water to which you have added up to a teaspoon of baking soda. This is Memere's trick for taking any bitterness out of the vegetable. But don't leave them in there too long -- one minute! -- I think I left mine in too long tonight because I found them a bit bland. My memere's cooking tends to be a little overcooked for my tastes, well-salted and peppered, but otherwise not very perky or seasoned. Try to avoid this pitfall.

Meanwhile (and it won't be a long while, so have everything ready to go), heat a tablespoon of butter in a small skillet. When melted, add

• 1 c. sliced mushrooms

I used shitakes. When they're ready, add the fiddleheads. Sautee lightly until the fiddleheads are cooked but still bright green. Remove from skillet.

Prepare the beurre blanc. Heat everything up to the s + p in the list above until reduced by about 1/2 - 3/4. Stir in

• half-and-half

Remove from heat and KEEP WHISKING. That's important. Whisk in, like it's your job, one piece at a time:

• the 8 tbs. of butter

Once the butter is combined, gently fold in the fiddleheads and mushroom and serve immediately.

I served (to myself) the fiddleheads with some brown rice and green lentils (very simple -- just boiled in half water, half vegetable stock) and a fennel-orange-fig salad, dressed simply with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

I just want to add that even though I eat mostly healthy foods, this dish contains a HUGE amount of butter and should be eaten in moderation. I was going to put goat cheese on the salad, but frankly, I couldn't even think about it. I'm stuffed.

Welcome to Fiddlehead: Inaugural Post

This is what happens when your heart gets broken: you steal his digital camera and start a food blog.

Because you know, right about now,  he's wishing he could be eating your cooking . . . . 

Welcome to Fiddlehead. I'm Patricia and this is my blog. I'm an adjunct professor of English with a keen interest in the environment, food and healthy, conscious living. Read more about the anticipated content of this blog in the sidebar under, "About Fiddlehead."

What you won't see there is an explanation as to why I named the blog "Fiddlehead." Aside from the fact that it's just a great word (compound word with fun-to-say consonance and the suggestion of a double-meaning), fiddleheads are:

• one of my favorite foods.
• abundant right here (New England), right now!
• a wild food. I'm into wild and foraged food. Seth and I had a lovely time picking fiddleheads at a foraging workshop last year.
• a link to my ancestral past. My memere cooked fugère in Canada, and it was a traditional food of Native Americans in this area. Like many French Canadians, Memere and Pepere had native people in their family trees.
  
• are named after the elegant spiral at the end of a violin, which reminds me of the connections between food and life, the wild and the cultured, the gastronomic and the emotional, the metaphorical and the real. 

My aim here is to not just list my recipes with a bunch of pretty pictures (like you don't have any) but to spark conversations about food issues (sustainability, activism against industrial agriculture, organic gardening, macrobiotics, healthy food, poverty and world hunger, and other stuff) and about food books/writing, programs, movies, etc. I may even torture my readers with my original poetry(food-themed, of course) from time to time. I want to do more than just recant snobby, gourmet recipes and offer banal reviews of over-priced restaurants; like its name, this blog should be special, fresh, something you can't get everywhere. I want this blog to be reflective of the emotional, political and personal aspects of eating and cooking. 

It is, after all, the work of a love-sick poet.

So, if I'm going to name my blog after them, I guess I'd better make sure my first post has something to do with fiddleheads. I have a couple recipes: one is Fiddlehead Caprese (below; this recipe also contains some basics about cooking with fiddleheads) and the other . . . I'm making it for the first time tonight, so you'll have to wait until I go make it, photograph it and eat it before I let you know how it is. 

In researching for this blog, I also came across other food bloggers who have recipes for fiddleheads; I haven't tried the recipes, but you can check these out and let me know what you think:

Fiddlehead Pasta Primavera at Cucina Panzano

Garlicky Wild Fiddlehead Ferns at The Nourishing Gourmet

Several Unique Fiddleheads Recipes at Fiddleheads.ca

In a few hours, check back and see if I've posted the new recipe -- I'll be sure to get to it tonight. Until then, here's my Fiddlehead Caprese.

Fiddlehead Caprese

I invented this delicious salad because I had fiddleheads in the fridge that simply had to be eaten. Most recipes that you’ll see online for fiddleheads call for them to be sautéed with mushrooms or onions or served with pasta. I didn’t have any mushrooms, or I would have done that.  Fiddleheads are crisp and have a taste similar to asparagus. They have an affinity for olive oil, mushrooms and cheese. They also hold their own in tomato sauces and oriental foods (http://www.wild-harvest.com/pages/fiddlehead.htm).

Caprese salad, consisting of tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, is one of my favorites. Of course, it’s best when the tomatoes are fresh and locally in season, which, here in Massachusetts, isn’t until deep summer. Fiddleheads, on the other hand, are a spring treat. So, if you want to combine these ingredients to make this salad, you need to get the freshest tomatoes you can find. I like the ones that are on the vine, but grape or cherry tomatoes would also work.

Ingredients

1 cup rinsed, fresh, compact fiddleheads, chaff removed*

2 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

½ tsp. Italian herb blend (dried mixture of any of these herbs: basil, marjoram, oregano, rosemary, bay,

            thyme, fennel)

2 fresh tomatoes, chopped into bite-sized pieces, or 1- 1 ½ cups of cherry tomatoes

1 garlic clove, minced

1-2 tbs. of lemon juice

¼ cup fresh mozzarella

small bunch of fresh basil

salt and pepper to taste

 

Directions

1.       Start with the tomatoes: place chopped tomatoes, garlic and lemon juice in a large bowl and let it marinate for at least fifteen minutes. Add a pinch of salt.

2.      After fiddleheads have been prepared, steam them for about five minutes or until they go from dark green to a lighter (but still BRIGHT) green. Add a pinch of salt just before the steaming finishes.

3.      Slice and chop up the mozzarella into small bites. Toss into the tomato mixture.

4.      When fiddleheads are done, toss them into the tomato mixture.

5.      Tear the basil leaves and toss them into the mix. Drizzle with more olive oil, if desired. Serve immediately.

 

Preparing Fiddleheads

Fiddleheads have a light, almost papery, chaff that needs to be removed before cooking. It’s easy enough to remove by rubbing the shoots between your hands under running water. Discard any fiddleheads that are not tightly curled and cut off any long stems (longer than two inches). Rinse in several changes of water to remove any dirt that becomes trapped in the curled fronds. Fiddleheads should be eaten fresh and soon after harvest – don’t let them hang out in your fridge.