You can blanch, steam, or stir fry them. Blanching and stir frying is nice, because it seals in the colour. But stir frying is more practical though. We put in some fried onions and garlic, and then a little bit of hot mustard (the mustard came from Caplansky Deli and that stuff is awesome). You can add lemon.
You may want to cook them for quite a while (over 10 minutes) for food safety reasons. Cleaning them is a bit of a hassle, because you need to remove these little brown stuff on the outside and you have to chop off the woody part of the stem.
We ate this quite a bit as a kid (apparently there's a town in NB that claims to be the fiddlehead capital of the world?). The flavour is like a subtle asparagus and the texture is curious - fibrous and chewy. It's a nice treat in the middle of the week, but it is a bit of work to prepare, and the cooking time is relatively longer.
On Fiddleheads (from wikipedia):
'Fiddleheads' or 'Fiddlehead greens' are the furled fronds of a young fern,harvested for use as a vegetable. Left on the plant, each fiddlehead would unroll into a new frond.
They have antioxidant activity, are a source of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, and are high in iron and fibre. It is also called a crozier, after the curved staff used by bishops, which has its origins in the shepherd's crook.
They have been part of traditional diets in much of Northern France since the beginning of the Middle Ages, Asia (India, Korean, Chinese, Indonesia) as well as among Native Americans for centuries. They are a traditional dish of northern New England (especially Maine) in the United States, and of Quebec, Ontario and the Maritimes in Canada.
Fiddleheads are available in the market for only a few weeks in springtime.
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