A Scientist in the Kitchen

This is my contribution to this week’s Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Kelly of Sounding My Barbaric Gulp and I will be talking about ferns.

Ferns are part of a group of plants that are seedless and vascular (most of the vegetables and herbs we know are also vascular but produce seeds). Ferns can be found in a wide variety of habitats - from mountains to desert rock surfaces. The part of the fern that are eaten is called the fiddlehead fern - the unfurled fronds of young fern harvested for consumption. In Tagalog, we call these ferns as “pako”. These are usually sold in small bundles and are quite cheap (~$0.06). These are not cultivated but are picked from the forest so this is not really available all year in the Philippines. We usually have them during the wet seasons (like now).

Ferns have been part of many cuisines. In Indonesia, ferns are combined with a spicy rich coconut sauce called Gulai Pakis. It is eaten as vegetables in Japan and Korea. In North American Cooking, Ostrich fern fiddleheads are part of the traditional dish in New England, Quebec and the Maritimes. And, the Canadian village of Tide Head, New Brunswick is the Fiddlehead Capital of the World! In the Philippines, we usually serve this as a salad.

There was a bunch of ferns sold in the market recently so I decided to serve this with the sweet potato dumplings the last time we had family picnic.

Pako Salad

a bunch of pako
1 small tomatoes chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1 inch knob ginger, crushed then sliced thinly
freshly crushed black pepper
1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup fish paste
1 tbsp sugar

Cut the tender parts of the ferns into 2-3 inch pieces. Discard the woody parts. Bring 2-3 cups water to a boil. Blanch fern for 2-3 minutes then Wash ferns in running cold water. Drain. In a bowl, mix fern, tomatoes and onions. In a separate containers, mix the rest of the ingredients then pour over fern. Serve immediately.

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We like to grill at home. And the simplest thing to grill (our favorite as well) is pork belly. Just rub both sides with salt and grill till cooked. We chop them in small pieces and serve with a salsa made of tomatoes, onions, chiles, vinegar, soy sauce and any other herbs at hand (spring onions, cilantro or chives) on the side. Or mix the grilled liempo with the salsa for a more than the usual treat!

This blog event celebrates farmers’ markets everywhere as much as the seasonal farm produce available in our corner of the world.

Have you been to market recently? What did you buy? What are the fruits, vegetables, meats or seafoods in season? What’s your favorite items to buy? Who’s your favorite vendor?

Your market may have a formal structure - a building with stalls upon stalls of produce available all week, or perhaps a street market on week ends, or those consisting of tables in street corners and available in the afternoons only.

As with most foodies, traveling means tailoring your trip around food, restaurants and markets. Why not share your photos of markets during those trips?

This event is open to all food enthusiasts, with or without blogs. The posts need not be wordy, but rather much like a photo essay. Share with us your posts on farmers’ markets you have recently visited.

Here are the rules:

1. Blog about a farmers’ markets you have recently visited. Post should include pictures. If you don’t have a blog, I can post them for you here. Only one entry per blog is allowed.

2. Link your entry to this page.

3. This is now a monthly event. Deadline for entries is the 15th of each month. Send your entries to:

ascientistinthekitchen AT gmail DOT com

with the following information:

Blog Name
Blog URL
Author’s name
Blog Post
Post URL

Want to host? Please email me if you are interested.

Again, let me thank everyone who joined last week’s Presto Pasta Nights. I enjoyed reading all the recipes and interacting with all the readers who commented on my round-up. Now, it’s back to Ruth for this week’s Presto Pasta Nights.

I had this pasta at the height of the tomato season last March but just got buried underneath a ton of pictures. This is quite easy but takes time. Luckily we had a wood-fired stove at home and I let this simmer for about four hours. To make the sauce, I simply sauted 10 garlic cloves (minced), 2 large white onions (chopped coarsely) until both are cooked through then added 500 grams ground pork. I sauted everything till the ground pork lost its color then added a kilo chopped fresh tomatoes. Then this was simmer for about four hours at very low fire. At the home stretch, I cooked enough linguine for four (about 250 grams). Then I added salt and pepper to taste.

I’ve been wanting to make this sauce for some time. Well, every year actually when tomatoes are in season and we could buy it at 10 pesos per kilo (~$0.2). Quite cheap, right? My dad planted tomatoes a few weeks ago and my eyes are on them right now…