Here’s a classic way to prepare fiddlehead ferns from Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson. Sautéed Fiddleheads is a recipe from this evocative book that’s part memoir, part cookbook by the former Poet Laureate of Kentucky.
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is described as “a lyrical culinary journey that explores the hidden legacy of Black Appalachians, through powerful storytelling alongside nearly forty comforting recipes.”
Crystal offers these tips for using fiddleheads:
- In early spring, collect your fiddlehead ferns (aka ostrich ferns) from a farmers’ market or acquire them from an expert forager. They should be deep green in color, with tightly coiled heads.
- They must be cooked thoroughly—here, they’re boiled and sautéed—to eliminate any toxicity and are best eaten soon after you gather them.
- Serve fiddleheads with any meal where asparagus might be featured. They are beautiful to look at and have a fresh, green, forest-floor flavor.
Learn more in our guide, How to Use Fiddlehead Fern, with Tips, Ideas & Recipes.
Reprinted with permission from Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson copyright © 2024. Photographs by Kelly Marshall copyright © 2024. Published by Clarkson Potter, an imprint of Penguin Random House.
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is available
on Bookshop.org,* Amazon,* and wherever books are sold.
Learn more about the book following the recipe box
Sautéed Fiddlehead Ferns (aka Ostrich Ferns)
Here's a classic way to prepare fiddlehead ferns from Crystal Wilkinson's book, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts: Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks.
Ingredients
- Table salt
- 1 pound firm fresh fiddlehead ferns
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- ½ small onion, chopped
- 2 small garlic cloves, chopped
- Freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Fill a medium saucepan with water and bring it to a boil over medium-high heat. Salt it generously.
- Meanwhile, prep the fiddleheads in two batches: Rub off any brown chaff and trim, cut, or scrape away any soft or discolored spots from half of your ferns. (Brown bits left on the coils may make the fiddleheads taste bitter.)
- Rinse them several times, then immediately place the first half of the fiddleheads in the boiling water. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes, until just tender and a paler green, using that time to prep the remaining fiddleheads.
- Drain and rinse the blanched fiddleheads under cool water until they are no longer warm (or let them cool in a bowl of ice water). Repeat with remaining fiddleheads, using fresh salted boiling water and rinsing them with fresh or ice water.
- Once all the fiddleheads are cooked and cooled, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat until it shimmers. Stir in the onion and garlic. Sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onion is translucent, stirring as needed so the garlic doesn’t burn.
- Add all the fiddleheads to the skillet and stir to coat them in the oil. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring often, or until they are quite tender with some lightly browned edges.
- Season with salt and pepper. Serve right away.
PRAISESONG FOR THE KITCHEN GHOSTS
Stories and Recipes from Five Generations of Black Country Cooks by Crystal Wilkinson
Clarkson Potter, 2024
“People are always surprised that Black people reside in the hills of Appalachia. Those not surprised that we were there, are surprised that we stayed. My family has lived in the region since the 1800s, and to disregard the Black mountain presence is to erase both the past and the present… The art of cooking and engaging with my kitchen ghosts made me realize that food is never just about the present – every dish, every slice, every crumb and kernel also tethers us to the past.”
– Crystal Wilkinson, in Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts
Cooking can be magic at your fingertips: it conjures a lineage of powerful beings at the turn of a spoon. Cooking resurrects legacies of innovation and resilience at the crack of an egg, the delicate folding of batter, the sizzle of greens in a pot. How can food then revive a history left behind by misrepresentation and attend to the gaps in our hearts yearning to be filled?
Years ago, when O. Henry Prize-winning writer Crystal Wilkinson was baking a jam cake, she felt her late grandmother’s presence. She soon realized that she was not the only cook in her kitchen; there were her ancestors, too, stirring, measuring, and braising alongside her. These are her kitchen ghosts, five generations of Black women who settled in Appalachia and made a life, a legacy, and a cuisine.
In Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts, Crystal Wilkinson gifts us a key that unlocks not only her own treasured memories but methods for embracing our own personal histories.Wilkinson shares nearly forty family recipes rooted deep in the past, full of flavor—delicious favorites including Corn Pudding, Granny Christine’s Jam Cake, and Praisesong Biscuits, brought to vivid life through stunning photography.
Together, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts brings to life a culinary and artistic inheritance that honors the mothers who came before, the land that provided for generations of her family, and the untold heritage of Black Appalachia.
Part memoir, part cookbook, Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is a poetic weaving of many vibrant threads—recipes, family photos, interviews, fiction, and a lyrical imagination—to present a culinary portrait and tapestry of a family that has lived and worked the earth of the mountains for over a century.
Praisesong for the Kitchen Ghosts is a veritable triumph: in time travel across centuries, as a necessary vehicle for illuminating a hidden history and culture, and as an irrefutable anchor for the legacy of Black Appalachia.
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