It's most definitely spring, judging from the selections at the farmers' market. Particularly this, warabi, the almost-open heads of the fiddlehead fern. I've often eaten it, especially in spring, when it's fresh, but I had never cooked it before. That caused a little problem.
I washed them, cut them in 2-inch lengths (5 cm.), and parboiled them. When my wife came home and asked about them, at first, she wouldn't eat them because I hadn't soaked them overnight in a baking soda solution. Apparently I should have checked a Japanese recipe rather than North American, Hawaiian, and European recipes, as I did. Here in Japan, they're always soaked that way before parboiling them for three minutes, which is all I did.
So I gave them a second parboiling in a baking soda solution and they're fine. I've been having them with a different salad dressing each night, and once in a creamed chicken stew I made since, until yesterday, our cool weather was hanging on.
Still lots left. I seem to be the only one in the family who really likes them.
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