{"id":259,"date":"2008-10-26T06:55:19","date_gmt":"2008-10-26T06:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/?p=259"},"modified":"2008-10-26T01:43:10","modified_gmt":"2008-10-26T01:43:10","slug":"fern-fiddlehead-salad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/?p=259","title":{"rendered":"Fern Fiddlehead Salad"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-261\" title=\"fiddlehead\" src=\"http:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead.jpg 500w, https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Our family likes foraging for food. Sometimes, we don\u2019t even hike anywhere to do it. Just out the back door, we have a healthy stand of macho ferns, which scientists call <em>Nephrolepis biserrata<\/em> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.anbg.gov.au\/fern\/ferns-man-ng.html\">New Guineans call dinner<\/a>. (When eating plants you don\u2019t find at the market or the farm, it\u2019s a good idea to <em>at least<\/em> Google the scientific name to make sure it\u2019s not going to leave you with stomach aches or worse.)<\/p>\n<p>For being as popular a landscape plant as they are, it\u2019s surprising more people don\u2019t look at ferns as snack food. The fiddleheads (those spiralling young shoots that look like the scroll on a violin neck) were a staple for early Florida settlers, and they occasionally show up on the tables of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.yankeemagazine.com\/recipes\/search\/onerecipe.php?number=14841\">adventurous Yankees<\/a> as <a href=\"http:\/\/www.astray.com\/recipes\/?show=Fern%20tips%20vinaigrette\">well<\/a>. Fresh fiddleheads are crispy, nutty-flavored things that combine the woodsy <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Umami\">umami<\/a> of sesame seeds with the greenness of blanched asparagus. And, you know, there\u2019s a good chance they\u2019re out in your yard, growing for free.<\/p>\n<p>Daughter loves picking them even more than she loves eating them. In cooler climes, I imagine children of a certain age are taking up baskets and heading out to pick berries. We grab tupperware and walk around the back yard, collecting spirals.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-262\" title=\"fiddlehead2\" src=\"http:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"176\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This salad turned out rather well, considering quite a few ingredients were things we grow ourselves that just happen to bring out the best flavors in each other \u2013 everything is sharp, snappy and crisp.<\/p>\n<h3>Ingredients<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>1 head romaine lettuce<\/li>\n<li>1 cup arugula (give or take)<\/li>\n<li>1 egg, hard boiled, chopped<\/li>\n<li>1\/3 cup fern fiddleheads (give or take)<\/li>\n<li>1 Tablespoon basil, minced<\/li>\n<li>1\/2 purple onion<\/li>\n<li>Juice of 1\/2 lime<\/li>\n<li>Olive oil<\/li>\n<li>Black pepper<\/li>\n<li>Pinch salt<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Chop onion rather finely and soak in lime juice. While it\u2019s soaking, chop up the lettuce, arugula, egg and toss in a bowl. Scatter fern fiddleheads and minced basil over the top. Add oil, pepper & salt to the onion-lime mixture and blend well before pouring over salad. If you feel like a little added excitement, add a pinch of cayenne or the Everglades Seasoning <a href=\"http:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/?p=230#more-230\">previously mentioned here<\/a> \u2013 but the arugula should be just sharp enough for most salad fans.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-263 aligncenter\" title=\"fiddlehead1\" src=\"http:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/10\/fiddlehead1-300x90.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Our family likes foraging for food. Sometimes, we don\u2019t even hike anywhere to do it. Just out the back door, we have a healthy stand of macho ferns, which scientists call Nephrolepis biserrata and New Guineans call dinner. (When eating plants you don\u2019t find at the market or the farm, it\u2019s a good idea to&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[145,141,74,142,152,143,67,32,38,65,137,144],"class_list":["post-259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-main-courses-evening-meals","tag-arugula","tag-basil","tag-egg","tag-fern","tag-fiddleheads","tag-foraging","tag-herbs","tag-lime","tag-olive-oil","tag-onion","tag-pepper","tag-salad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=259"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":269,"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259\/revisions\/269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorkitchen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}