Recipe favorites

As you might imagine from looking at the sidebar menu on the left here,.. The Fiddlehead team is a group of "hearty eaters" and excellent cooks. We chat a lot with our patients all day and we have to discipline ourselves to keep the conversation off the topic of food at least until 11 am or all out tummies are growling too early in the day. Here is the first recipe that I thought was appropriate for our office... (enjoy all the rest too!)


1. Vermont Fiddlehead Pie

This is called a pie and not a quiche because I am told that Vermonters do not eat quiche. I moved to Vermont from Illinois in 1988. I had never heard of a Fiddlehead. How about you?... Well, in the spring in Vermont fiddleheads come up along road sides, damp woods and stream edges. They are the initial stage of a large fern and they look like the curly end of a violin - hence the name "fiddlehead". You can pick these ferns in the spring when they are completely curled up about the size of a half dollar. You wash and clean them to remove the paper thin membrane that clings to the coiled fern, saut and freeze to use later.

Ingredients: Serves: 8

1 uncooked 9-inch pie crust

2 cups of fiddleheads, coarsely chopped

1 small chopped onion

2 Tablespoons of olive oil

1 Cup shredded Vermont Cheddar Cheese sharp or mild

4 eggs

1 cup of evaporated milk or half and half

1 Tablespoon of coarse mustard

2 Tablespoons of flour

Precook pie crust in preheated oven 350 degree oven (prevents soggy crust). Sautee the fiddleheads and onions in olive oil. Put in precooked crust followed by cheese. Blend eggs, mustard, flour, half and half and pour into pie crust over other ingredients. Bake at 350 degree oven for 50 minutes. Pie is cooked when knife comes out clean when inserted in pie. Let set for 5 minutes or so before cutting. Serve hot, warm or cold as you would quiche.