one of my “favoritest” edible plant. and “favorited” greens as salad. as is. yes, as it is, freshly picked or plucked edible fern (also called fiddlehead fern because of the barikawwets or coils of its shoots) tossed in fresh calamansi or kalamunding juice and bugguong sauce. as simple as that. some prefer to slightly blanch it or even parboil it. but i prefer to kilaw it fresh to enjoy its crunchy and slippery raw state. this slippery texture of the edible fern is diminished when cooked.
so, here’s it, my simple recipe, pako shoots and leaves and stalks cut then tossed in calamansi juice, bugguong sauce, some vetsin if you like. garnish it with some onion slices if you like. you can even put in sliced tomato, if that’s what you prefer.
enjoy the ngarusngos act:
10 April 2009 at 3:26 pm
I married a Tagala from San Pablo City and pako is also a favorite on their tables and best with grilled tilapia, great with bituo (leddeg in my hometown in San Quintin, Panagasinan) cooked in gata. When we trekked San Cristobal Mountain some locales with us were picking edible ones (because there was another variety if eaten will serve as laxative). Here in Manila we toss it in balsamic vinegar. I also prefer to eat it fresh than blanch it as it will lost its firmness. I introduced to them the bugguong dressing garnishing it with lasona and green tomato then toss it with dayap juice, the Ilokano way!