Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Spring Delicacies
The Great Cicada Infestation is here. The first members of Brood X arrived today. I found the first one in the front yard.
17 years ago people walked around with umbrellas and every step assaulted you with the crunch of their dead bodies, which littered the ground everywhere. The chirping was non-stop. It was positively apocalyptic for bug-phobic people. Birds and other such animals love them and there should be enough bird food in this area to hatch several nests full of baby birds for the dogs to retrieve when they fall off their branches when the little darlings begin flexing their wings.
Of course, some people are looking forward to the infestation, for various reasons. Scientists want to study it, nature enthusiasts want to experience it firsthand, but there are some people who want to eat them. And according to National Geographic they are very nutritious
I guess being available only once every 17 years will definitely qualify something as a delicacy. I just read that they are most delicious right after they shed their outer shell - the taste is said to be like cold asparagus (Frogge would have been in heaven). Uhhhh, yum? I found some recipes for various cicada dishes in an online cookbook called Cicada-Licious. Here's my favorite:
Soft Shelled Cicadas
Ingredients:
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
60 freshly emerged 17 year cicadas
4 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
Salt and pepper to season flour
1 cup corn oil or slightly salted butter
Directions:
Marinate cicadas alive in a sealed container in Worcestershire sauce for several hours. Dip them in beaten egg, roll them in the seasoned flour and then gently saute them until they are golden brown. Yields 4 main dish servings.
Ahhhhh. Yesssssss. Marinate the little bastards alive. In Worcestershire sauce. It doesn't get any more diabolical than that. Imagine their little red eyes bulging from their sockets as they. . . okay, sorry. Actually, the recipe does say that you can skip the marinating step. But would they be nearly as delicious?
And while we're at it here's another delicious little morsel where presentation counts for most of the points....
Shanghai Cicadas
Ingredients:
30 newly-emerged cicadas
2 tbps anise seeds
1 tsp salt
2 cups sherry
1tbsp soy sauce
additional water and sherry or rice wine
10 cloves mashed garlic
celery to garnish
turnip greens to garnish
Directions:
1. Boil the cicadas and anise in salted sherry for five minutes, then remove the cicadas.
2. Saute the mashed garlic and soy sauce, adding enough of equal parts water and sherry to make a thick paste.
3. Deep-fry the cicadas, then skewer them with bamboo picks. Arrange them on a plate with the turnip greens, celery, and garlic paste to look like cicadas climbing out of a mud pie into green foliage.
4 appetizer-sized servings
17 years ago people walked around with umbrellas and every step assaulted you with the crunch of their dead bodies, which littered the ground everywhere. The chirping was non-stop. It was positively apocalyptic for bug-phobic people. Birds and other such animals love them and there should be enough bird food in this area to hatch several nests full of baby birds for the dogs to retrieve when they fall off their branches when the little darlings begin flexing their wings.
Of course, some people are looking forward to the infestation, for various reasons. Scientists want to study it, nature enthusiasts want to experience it firsthand, but there are some people who want to eat them. And according to National Geographic they are very nutritious
I guess being available only once every 17 years will definitely qualify something as a delicacy. I just read that they are most delicious right after they shed their outer shell - the taste is said to be like cold asparagus (Frogge would have been in heaven). Uhhhh, yum? I found some recipes for various cicada dishes in an online cookbook called Cicada-Licious. Here's my favorite:
Soft Shelled Cicadas
Ingredients:
1 cup Worcestershire sauce
60 freshly emerged 17 year cicadas
4 eggs, beaten
3 cups flour
Salt and pepper to season flour
1 cup corn oil or slightly salted butter
Directions:
Marinate cicadas alive in a sealed container in Worcestershire sauce for several hours. Dip them in beaten egg, roll them in the seasoned flour and then gently saute them until they are golden brown. Yields 4 main dish servings.
Ahhhhh. Yesssssss. Marinate the little bastards alive. In Worcestershire sauce. It doesn't get any more diabolical than that. Imagine their little red eyes bulging from their sockets as they. . . okay, sorry. Actually, the recipe does say that you can skip the marinating step. But would they be nearly as delicious?
And while we're at it here's another delicious little morsel where presentation counts for most of the points....
Shanghai Cicadas
Ingredients:
30 newly-emerged cicadas
2 tbps anise seeds
1 tsp salt
2 cups sherry
1tbsp soy sauce
additional water and sherry or rice wine
10 cloves mashed garlic
celery to garnish
turnip greens to garnish
Directions:
1. Boil the cicadas and anise in salted sherry for five minutes, then remove the cicadas.
2. Saute the mashed garlic and soy sauce, adding enough of equal parts water and sherry to make a thick paste.
3. Deep-fry the cicadas, then skewer them with bamboo picks. Arrange them on a plate with the turnip greens, celery, and garlic paste to look like cicadas climbing out of a mud pie into green foliage.
4 appetizer-sized servings
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