My primary reason for wanting to make all of the Stardew recipes was that I love lists of things I was intrigued by a handful of dishes I had never tried before. Not only had I never eaten fiddlehead ferns before, I had never heard of fiddlehead ferns before, and in fact had to research whether they were a real plant or an invention of the game. Turns out--real plant! And what a plant it is.
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| The reaction of my children when I opened a paper bag full of these and informed them it was dinner was worth this entire project, and possibly this entire blogging endeavor |
I will say, it was surprisingly delightful to track down an item that for 30-something years I had no inkling of and for six months or so kind of thought was made up. Seeing that weird green wormy pile right there in the middle of Central Market gave me the same sense of accomplishment as finding an elusive item in the game, so my ultimate plan of turning my real life into Stardew Valley is inching forward promisingly.
It was...slightly less delightful to see how many search results for fiddlehead ferns included terms such as "toxic" "food poisoning" "your whole family will definitely vomit if you feed them this plant" etc. But what's an adventure without unnecessary risk? I pressed forward, boiling them for a few minutes before following a basic Asparagus Risotto recipe with the ferns swapped in for the asparagus.
Good news: my children love risotto so much that you can put any ol' slightly toxic, snake-looking items on top of it and they will still be on board.
Even better news: here they are a full 36 hours later, foot-loose and vomit-free.
ASSESSMENT: Pleased to say that my version was not in fact "a little bland," but rather tasted very much like garlic and butter, which is to say, 100% perfect.
PROJECT STATUS: Ferntatstic
