Eating Insects (Entomophagy) Part 2. Recipes

Here are some recipes I've found online.

http://www.ent.iastate.edu/misc/insectsasfood.html

Iowa State University's Tasty Insect Recipes

 

Bug Blox

Ingredients:

• 2 large packages gelatin
• 2 1/2 cups boiling water (do not add cold water)

Directions:

Stir boiling water into gelatin. Dissolve completely. Stir in dry-roasted leafhoppers. Pour mixture slowly into 13 x 9 inch pan. Chill at least 3 hours. BLOX will be firm after 1 hour, but may be difficult to remove from pan. Cutting blox: dip bottom pan in warm water 15 seconds to loosen gelatin. Cut shapes with cookie cutters all the way through gelatin. Lift with index finger or metal spatula. If blox stick, dip pan again for a few seconds.

 

Banana Worm Bread

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup shortening
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 bananas, mashed
• 2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped nuts
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup dry-roasted army worms

Directions:

Mix together all ingredients. Bake in greased loaf pan at 350 degrees for about 1 hour.

Rootworm Beetle Dip

Ingredients:

• 2 cup low-fat cottage cheese
• 1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons skim milk
• 1/2 cup reduced calorie mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon parsley, chopped
• 1 tablespoon onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 tsp. dill weed
• 1 1/2 tsp. Beau Monde
• 1 cup dry-roasted rootworm beetles

Directions:

Blend first 3 ingredients. Add remaining ingredients and chill.

Chocolate Chirpie Chip Cookies

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 12-ounce chocolate chips
• 1 cup chopped nuts
• 1/2 cup dry-roasted crickets

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375. In small bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside. In large bowl, combine butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla; beat until creamy. Beat in eggs. Gradually add flour mixture and insects, mix well. Stir in chocolate chips. Drop by rounded measuring teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.

Crackers and Cheese Dip with Candied Crickets

Ingredients:

• 8 oz. cream cheese
• 4 oz. shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 tsp. Worchestershire sauce
• 2 tsp. chopped onions
• 1 tsp. chopped green pepper
• 2 tsp Miracle Whip®
• candied crickets

Directions:

Soften cream cheese. Introduce remaining ingredients. Spread mixture on cracker and top with a candied cricket.

Mealworm Fried Rice

Ingredients:

• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp. oil
• 3/4 c. water
• 1/4 c. chopped onions
• 4 tsp. soy sauce
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 c. minute rice
• 1 c. cooked mealworms

Directions:

Scramble egg in a saucepan, stirring to break egg into pieces. Add water, soy sauce, garlic and onions. Bring to a boil.
Stir in rice. Cover; remove from heat and let stand five minutes.

Corn Borer Cornbread Muffins

Ingredients:

• Cornbread mix
• 3/4 c. dry roasted corn borers

Directions:

Prepare batter according to instructions. Stir in insects.
Bake.

Chocolate Covered Grasshoppers

Ingredients:

• baker's chocolate
• candied crickets

Directions:

Melt baker's chocolate in double boiler. Fill molds halfway with chocolate, add grasshoppers, fill rest of the way.
A tasty surprise in every one!

http://www.frogsonice.com/froggy/recipes.shtml

Parcht Locusts

This dish was discovered by William Dampier in 1687, while visiting the Bashee Islands (located between the Philippines and Taiwan). He described it in A New Voyage Round the World:

They had another Dish made of a sort of Locusts, whose Bodies were about an Inch and an half long, and as thick as the top of one's little Finger; with large thin Wings, and long and small Legs. ... The Natives would go out with small Nets, and take a Quart at one sweep. When they had enough, they would carry them home, and parch them over the Fire in an earthen Pan; and then their Wings and Legs would fall off, and their Heads and Backs would turn red like boil'd Shrimps, being before brownish. Their Bodies being full, would eat very moist, their Heads would crackle in one's Teeth. I did once eat of this Dish, and liked it well enough....

That part about the crispy heads sounds particularly appetizing, doesn't it?

Locust Stew

Here's another locust recipe, this one developed by American pioneers. It's quoted from Calvin W. Schwabe's Unmentionable Cuisine (University Press of Virginia, 1979).

Locusts and grasshoppers are prepared for cooking by removing the wings, the small legs, and the distal portion of the hind legs. Then pull off the head, withdrawing any attached viscera. Boil prepared Rocky Mountain locusts in salted water. Add assorted cut-up vegetables, butter, salt, and vinegar to the broth and cook until the vegetables are tender. Serve as a thick soup or over boiled rice as a main dish.

Apparently, modern gourmands have lost the taste for crunchy locust heads.

Bee Grubs in Coconut Cream (Mang Non Won)

This is a Thai recipe, also from Unmentionable Cuisine.

Marinate bee grubs, sliced onions, and citrus leaves in coconut cream containing some pepper. Wrap in pieces of linen and steam. Serve as a topping for rice.

Dragonfly Nymphs (Mang por)

This recipe from Laos, also quoted from Unmentionable Cuisine, is simplicity itself. Most frogs, however, skip the first step and proceed directly to the second.
Boil dragonfly nymphs. Eat them.
 
http://www.faculty.de.gcsu.edu/~cbader/ghprecwithinsects.html

Dry Roasted Grasshoppers
Spread fresh, frozen and cleaned insects on paper towels on a cookie sheet. Bake at 200° for 1-2 hours until desired state
of dryness is reached. Check state of dryness by attempting to crush insect with spoon.  From Orkin

Garlic Butter Fried Grasshoppers
1/4 cup butter
 6 cloves garlic, crushed
 1 cup cleaned insects*
Melt butter in fry pan. Reduce heat. Sauté garlic in butter for 5 minutes. Add insects. Continue sautéing for 10 - 15
minutes, stirring occasionally.  From Orkin

Grasshopper Fritters
from 'Ronald Taylor's "Butterflies in My Stomach"
3/4 cup sifted flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 c milk
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 c grasshoppers
1 pt. heavy cream beaten stiff
Sift flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl. Slowly add milk and beat until smooth. Add egg and beat well.
Pluck off grasshopper wings and legs, heads optional. Dip insects in egg batter and deep fry. Salt and serve.
from  Amazing Grasshopper Recipes.

Popcorn Crunch
Here's an easy treat to prepare and take to the drive-in movie. The kids will love it.
        1/2 cup butter, melted
        1/2 cup honey
        3 quarts popcorn, popped
        1 cup dry roasted insects, chopped
Blend the butter and honey together in a saucepan and heat gently. Mix the popcorn with the insects and pour the
butter-honey mixture over it. Mix well. Spread on a cookie sheet in a thin layer. Bake at 350° 10 to 15 minutes, or until
crisp. Break into bite-sized pieces.  From Orkin

 http://entweb.clemson.edu/k12/recipes.htm

Insect Divan

¼ C. chives, chopped
4 T. butter
¼ C. flour
2 C. milk
¼ C. water chestnuts, chopped
3 egg yolks
1 C. sherry
1 pkg. frozen chopped broccoli
1 C. mealworms, chopped

Sauté chives in butter. Strain melted butter into another pan and stir flour into butter. Add milk, water chestnuts, egg yolks, sherry, broccoli and chives. Stir vigorously over heat until sauce is thickened and smooth. Add insects, salt to taste, and serve over rice or egg noodles.

Maize Casserole

3 C. fresh corn cut from cob
1¼ C. soft bread crumbs
1 C. fresh insects
1 egg, beaten
1¼ tsp. salt
1 T. celery, chopped
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 T. onions, minced
4 T. butter
Combine corn, ¼ cup crumbs, insects, eggs, salt, celery, pepper, onion and 2 T. butter broken into small pieces. Turn the mixture into a small greased, 1-qt casserole. Melt remaining butter, mix with remaining crumbs and sprinkle over top of casserole. Bake at 350º F for 40 minutes or until crumbs are brown and corn is tender.

Garlic Butter Fried Insects

¼ C. butter
6 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cup mealworms
Melt butter in pan. Reduce heat. Sauté garlic in butter and add insects. Sauté for an additional 10-15 min., stirring occasionally.

Mealworm Spaghetti

1 pound mealworms, roasted and diced
4¼ C. water
1 T. safflower oil
1 sprig each marjoram and thyme
2 bay leaves
¼ onion
1 8-oz pkg spaghetti
6-8 T. butter
¼ t. salt and pepper
Olive oil, to taste
3-4 T. chopped almonds
10 sprigs, parsley
1 lb. purple basil
1 lb. ricotta cheese
Boil water. Add safflower oil, marjoram, thyme, bay leaves, and onion. Bring to a boil and add spaghetti. Cook 20 minutes. Strain spaghetti and herbs, and rinse with cold water.
Place butter in frying pan over low heat. Add drained spaghetti, salt, and pepper. Finely chop basil and almonds, and mix with ricotta and olive oil. Add to spaghetti mixture and heat through. Top with mealworms and serve.

http://www.life.illinois.edu/ib/109/2010%20Lab/2010%20Lab%20Handouts/8_Edible_insects/recipes.html


Pipian Grashoppers (Our grasshopper tacos)

Original recipe:

2 scallions, cut in pieces
1/2 lb. tomatillos, cut in pieces
5 radish leaves
2 leaves epazote
5 serrano chiles
1 handful parsley
5 garlic cloves, mashed
3 Tbsp. corn oil
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, toasted and ground
1/4 cup sesame seeds, toasted and ground
3 cumin seeds, toasted
1/2 lb. grasshoppers
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup bouillon
tortillas, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Place the grasshoppers on a baking sheet and roast for 10 minutes.  Place the scallions, tomatillos, radish leaves, epazote, serrano chiles, parsley, and garlic in a blender or food processor and liquefy.  Heat the combined oils in a frying pan.  Add the ground pumkin seeds and fry over medium heat, stirring to prevent burning.  Add the ground sesame seeds and the toasted cumin seeds.  Season with salt, mixing thoroughly.  Add the bouillon a little at a time, stirring, and cook until thickened.  Add the roasted grasshoppers.  Spoon the filling into the warmed tortillas and serve.

Class modifications:
We didn't have access to a lot of the salsa ingredients so we served the tacos with store bought salsa verde, some sour cream would probably go pretty well too.  The roasted grasshoppers were extremely tough to chew in the tacos.  We mixed the seeds and oils with one can of vegetable stock instead of bouillon, and added the grasshoppers one hour before serving.  The extra time marinating softened the exoskeletons up enough to chew well.  In the future, marinating the roasted grasshoppers overnight would probably be better.



Braised Ant Brood (Our ant pupae on toast)

Original recipe:

1/2 lb. ant larvae and pupae
1 stick butter
1/8 tsp. pepper
1/8 tsp. salt
Powdered anise, to taste
1 cup white wine

Melt the butter in a frying pan over low heat.  Fry the larvae and pupae until they turn a white, opaque color, then add salt and pepper, the anise, and white wine.  Serve with bread.

Class modifications:

We marinated the pupae in the white wine for a few hours before class and added everything to the pan as soon as the butter was melted.  There were complaints that it was too buttery, so at the least we should cut the butter amount by half in the future.



Chicatana Empanadas

Original recipe:

1 cup water
w cup granulated sugar
1/2 lb. ants, ground or whole (we used whole, much better visual image)
1/2 tsp. pectin
1 cup flour to sprinkle
1 lb. puff pastry dough
1 egg white, beaten, for pasting
1 egg yolk, beaten, for brushing

To prepare the filling, place the sugar and one cup of water in a pan and bring to a steady boil until it reaches a honeylike consistency.  Add the ground or whole ants, and stir until a gel forms.  Remove from heat and let cool.  Stir in the pectin and set aside.  Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.  Sprinkle flour on a pastry board, and roll out the pastry dough to a thickness of 1/4 inch.  Use a round cookie cutter, between 2 and 3 inches in diameter, or a drinking glass with a floured rim, and cut circles out of the rolled out dough.  Place some of the filling in the center of each dough circle.  Spread a bit of egg white around the top edge of each circle.  Fold in half to form a half moon and press outside edge with a fork to seal.  Brush with egg yolk.  Place on a greased cookie sheet about an inch apart.  Bake at 300 degrees F until golden brown.

Class modifications:

We forgot to buy pectin so we cooked the filling a little longer to increase the gelness, but you have to keep stirring or else it will start to burn.  We also bought the pastry dough sheets and didn't roll them out so they were a little thicker than 1/4 inch, but we liked the doughiness of the final product.

The following recipes are not from Creepy Crawly Cuisine, purely our ideas of what might work.

Silkworm pupae stir-fry

2 cans of silkworm pupae
1 Tbsp oil
1 onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1/2 lb. pea pods
Spicy sauce to taste

The silkworm pupae are canned with a sauce that we personally find disgusting but other people might like.  To remove the sauce you soak the puape in saltwater for 3-12 hours depending on how much you dislike the sauce.  Change the water every hour to extract every last drop.  Then roast the silkworms at 400 degrees F for 10 minutes.  The longer the roasting time, the crunchier the insects.  Heat the oil in a wok at medium heat and add the onions.  Stir until they are beginnging to soften and add the peppers.  Stir a minute more than add the silkworms.  One more minute and add the pea pods.  Add as much spicy sauce as you would like.  We use Schezuan spicy sauce and add about 5 Tbsp full.  Serve by itself or with rice.  You can add any other veggies you like as well.

Ant Brood Tacos

• 2 tablespoons butter or peanut oil?
  1/2 pound ant larvae and pupae
  3 serrano chilies, raw, finely chopped
  1 tomato, finely chopped
  Pepper and Cumin, to taste
  Oregano, to taste
  1 handful cilantro, chopped
  Taco shells, to serve

Heat the butter or oil in a frying pan and fry the larvae or pupae. Add the chopped onions, chilies, and tomato, and season with salt. Sprinkle with ground pepper, cumin, and oregano, to taste. Serve in tacos and garnish with cilantro. (Not living in an area exceptionally prolific with ants, I have never been able to try this recipe. But it sounds perfectly delicious! I found it in 'Creepy Crawly Cuisine', an excellent recipe book.)

http://www.grubco.com/ Is the only bug source I've found so far.

Raising Mealworms
Raising mealworms (Tenebrio Molitor) is quite easy and recommended for the beginner. Simply take a flat plastic tub with a lid, fill it with an inch or so of oats or other grain, put in a slice of potato, carrot or other hard vegetable as a source of water, and then deposit your mealworms!

Make sure to replace the slice of potato fairly frequently, otherwise you will be growing mold instead of mealworms.

The mealworms you get at the store are in their larval stage, and it may be a few months before they mature into beetles, so be patient. 100 mealworm larvae is a good colony start if you are not going to be eating them very often. If you wish to make insect protein a regular part of your diet, you can obtain mealworms in bulk from reptile food supply companies and start a large colony (5000 or more is the way to start in this case).

If you have an ant problem in your area, you should float the mealworm tub in a dish of soapy water to prevent ants from infesting your grain. However, unlike crickets, mealworms are unlikely to escape unless you are hideously careless.

Raising Crickets
Crickets are quite easy to raise and prepare, and the main problem is making sure that they don't escape. Crickets can be kept in any fairly large container with high sides and a tight fitting lid. An aquarium is a good choice. Put a couple inches of potting soil on the bottom of the container.

This will be where the crickets deposit their eggs. Put several egg cartons in the aquarium for the crickets to roost on. Then, place a small container of grains and vegetable scraps in for food, and a container of moist cotton balls for water. Add 50-100 crickets. Mist the potting soil lightly every few days, and make sure that the crickets always have fresh food. You can probably start harvesting the crickets within a few months.

Crickets are escape artists!!! It is a good idea to put a rock on top of the lid to ensure that you don't accidentally knock it off. It is also a good idea to float the container in a tub of soapy water. Unlike mealworms, it is almost impossible to recapture crickets once they escape, and crickets may start infesting your house if they get out while you're on vacation (don't panic, though... they rarely cause any real damage to food or furnishings). I would really recommend that you start with mealworms if you are new to insect raising.



Well that's it for part 2. More to come.

Hope you Enjoy,

FruitStripeApe