Entomophagy Recipes

Over at Janet Greger’s blog (http://jlgregerblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/bugs-for-dinner.html ) I guest posted about why we should eat bugs. They are a highly nutritious, sustainable, safe food source that Americans, for the most part, haven’t embraced yet. But think back ten years ago. Were you a sushi eater or did the thought of raw fish turn your stomach? Fast forward, and today towns of any size at all have at least one sushi bar.

Bug cuisine could be in your future, too!

Why is it that we haven’t embraced entomophagy before now. After all, over 2,000,000,000 people use insects (oh, and worms, too, but that’s another column) as a primary component of their diet. From larva to adult, people relish bugs. No, I don’t mean pickle them, but I suppose you could. Hmm.

I blame Hollywood for the bias against entomophagy.

In so many scifi movies, insectoid creatures are the bad guys trying to take over Earth. I suppose they think it’s easier to accept killing something so removed from us taxonomically. Whatever. Between Hollywood and all the pest removal commercials I suppose it makes sense that we’d view insects as enemies and not a food source. When did you last see a movie when cows tried to take over the world or a pest service offered to remove unwanted pigs from your house?

But, seriously, the world is projected to be over 9 billion people by 2050, so we will have to double our food supply. We cannot feed that many people with a mammalian-based food source. People are already starving all over the world.

So, to get you convinced, I am including some articles/books to read and some recipes for you to try. Alli Wesson, my “Dinner is Served” protag is doing her bit. In book two of the series, Prime Rib and Punishment, Alli directs her cooking school students to create a tasty insect-based dish for any part of the meal--appetizer to dessert. This doesn’t go over well with Head Chef Fournier. But Alli confronts him in one of their legendary clashes that supports the police’s notion she must have killed him. She just wanted to bring the school into the 21^st century. Sheesh!

Anyway, crickets and grasshoppers are touted as “gateway bugs” to get you started with an insectoid cuisine. But branch out. Be like Alli. Try something out of your comfort zone. More bug recipes are on a page (right hand column) on this site. Just because “All Recipes” and “Cooking Light” don’t have bug recipes--yet--don’t let that deter you.

These two recipes from the Iowa State University Entomology club were featured on Jay Leno’s Tonight Show. Now how respectable is that???

Chocolate Chirpie Chip Cookies

• 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

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.

Mealworm Fried Rice

• 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

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.

If you have a favorite bug recipe, or if this whole idea just bugs you, leave a comment. Bon appétit!

Books about Edible Insects

-Man Eating Bugs by Peter Menzel & Faith D'Aluisio

-Eat-A-Bug Cookbook by David George Gordon

-Creepy Crawly Cuisine by Julieta Ramos-Elorduy, Ph.D.

-Entertaining with Insects by Ronald L. Taylor

List of edible insects   http://edibug.wordpress.com/list-of-edible-insects/

The Food Insects Newsletter   http://www.hollowtop.com/finl_html/finl.html

Native Americans Edible Insects Page  http://www.manataka.org/page160.html

What's in a Name?

When it comes to titling books, authors are all over the place. Some authors narrow the choice down to a few options and ask their affinity groups and/or fan base to help select the title. Other authors toss out the premise and ask for suggestions for titles. Some wait until the book is done, expecting the completed novel to name itself after all that intense work on it. Some authors have a great title, and they let the story unfold around it.

One thing all authors acknowledge is that naming your book is one of the most important elements of novel writing. It’s the first thing any potential reader sees first. They don’t read the blurb first then look for the title. The title grabs them (or not) so they pick up the book to read the blurb (or not). What’s in a name? a lot! Despite Shakespeare’s argument to the opposite, authors know book names matter.

I am one who does not struggle finding titles for my work. Which is not to say I don’t struggle with writing. I have demons I wrestle that other writers put down with ease. No, I am just saying, gratefully, that at least I don’t have titling issues to contend with as well.

Some of my titles are pretty pedestrian. Lucinda is the title character in my historical fiction in two time periods. Land’s End is the name of the condo complex where my short story anthology unfolds. But the real fun of naming is with my two culinary mystery series.

For some reason, many culinary mysteries are puns. It adds an extra fillip to the story. Diane Mott Davidson’s Goldy Bear series includes titles like Dying for Chocolate, Cereal Murders, Chopping Spree, and Main Corpse. What’s not to like for a foodie and a mystery lover?

Being a word guy, punny titles appeal to me on several levels. Son Brooklyn jokes that I should auction off some of my culinary mystery titles since I can never live long enough to write them all. He thinks that might net me more income than the book royalties. Gee, thanks, Kid!

But I’m not going to do that. Here are titles I know I’ll use and some I can’t live long enough to use. Help yourself. I’ll look forward to reading what you come up with if you write a culinary mystery, too.

Plan to use for “Dinner is Served” series:

Mission Impastable	Prime Rib and Punishment	Cooks in the Can
Peas Porridge Pot	The Taming of the Stew	Tequila Mockingbird
Grape Expectations	Glazed and Infused	Roux the Day
Case of Syrah, Syrah	The Holy Grill	Bone Appétit
Fried and Prejudice

Plan to use for “For Everything a Season” series”

Mint to Be	Thyme to Die	Sage Advice
Arsenic and Old Mace	Down by the Bay Leaf	Cumin to Me
Broken out in Chives	Gingerly into the Night
Parsley, Sage, and Rosemary Time

Help Yourself:

Romeo and Julienned	King Sear	Hamlet
Midsummer Night’s Cream	Measure for Measure	O, Jello
Much Ado about Noshing	The Berry Wives of Windsor	Crumb What May
That’s a Moray	Dressed to Kill	Chop to It
An American Pie in Paris	Peppered with Shells	Flaxible
Tunanight	Take with a Grain of Salt	Dead and Butter
By Hook or by Cook	Borne and Bread	Fry, Fry Again
Garden of Eaten	Refry Gravity	Serial Griller
Bashed Potatoes	Good to Grate	Veg Out
Rye, Rye Again	Cream a Little Cream of Me	Boxed Up
Ryes and Shine	I’ll See You in My Creams	Butter Off Dead
Under Lox and Quiche	Wrapsody in Blue Cheese	Lick It to Me
Porky and Buns	Dough, a Dear	In the Lick of Thyme
A Steak in the Heart	A Spoonful of Sugar	Grilling them Softly
Easier Fed than Done	Pitcher Perfect	Fat or Fiction?

I Scream for Ice Cream

Somewhere, somehow in one of my culinary mysteries I’m going to have to do ice cream/gelato/frozen yogurt as stand-alone recipes across books or as a recipe strand in one book.

Each book in my Oak Tree Press culinary mystery series, “Dinner is Served”, will have a recipe strand. Other recipes will be included, but most will fit the strand. Mission Impastable is pretty clear--lots of pasta recipes. Prime Rib and Punishment? Meats, of course. Peas Porridge Pot? That one will focus on veggies and medical marijuana recipes. Cooks in the Can has Alli and Gina cooking with lots of canned goods at the country jail. You get the idea.

So where could I tuck in frozen confections? Of course, I could include some in several different books. Or I could write a mystery meant to include ice cream and related desserts. I could call the mystery Cold Case or maybe I Scream. What do you think? Why don’t you name it in the comments section below? If yours is selected, I’ll acknowledge you when that book is written.

But why wait? Here are a couple of family favorites I make. When the weather turns warm like this, it’s time to break out the ice cream maker.

Caramel Chocolate Chip Nut (makes a little more than a quart)

½ cup milk

1 can dulce de leche condensed milk

sprinkle of salt

2 cups heavy whipping cream

¼ cup chopped nuts

¼ cup mini-chocolate chips

Whisk milk and dulce de leche until smooth. Add salt and cream. Whisk until incorporated.

Pour into ice cream maker and process for 20-30 minutes until ice cream is soft frozen. Add nuts and chocolate chips slowly until blended. Turn off ice cream maker and put into container and freeze for several hours.

Soft-Serve Chocolate Ice Cream Shake (makes a bit more than a quart--serve immediately)

4 cups thick chocolate milk

1 can condensed sweetened milk

Whisk together. Process in ice cream maker until it reaches soft-serve stage. Pour into glasses and serve with a straw and spoon.

I have so many more. London loves my strawberry gelato. Both Chicago and Brooklyn devour my Ben and Jerry’s Heath Bar Crunch ice cream. DH loves the fruited gelatos and frozen yogurts. Yeah, I have to include some of these in my culinary mystery books.

The Four-Letter Word on a Food Blog: Diet

I am so pleased to welcome fellow author, J.L. Greger, from Oak Tree Press to my blog today. I know you will enjoy her post on that unspeakable word: diet! So glad to have you here, Janet!

Don't panic. I'll use the offensive word no more than necessary.

Why am I writing on dieting?  

You might guess I'm Scrooge and trying to ruin your fun at a blog featuring delicious recipes.

Wrong! It’s because my new murder mystery is called Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight. Linda Almquist (the heroine) is investigating two "diet doctors" for recklessly endangering the lives of their obese research subjects. They are convinced they’ve found an easy way for obese subjects to lose weight - just alter their gut flora. Then Linda finds one of them dead.

Does the research sound strange? You’ll be a believer after you read “The microbes made me eat it” (Science, volume 328, pages 179-80 in 2010).

Oh, did I forget to mention, Linda is trying to lose weight as she searches for the murderer.

Dieting advice that Linda uses

1. Decrease portion sizes. Super-sizing is your enemy. In restaurants, order children’s portions or a half sandwich with a cup of clear soup.

Toppings are meant to add a dash of flavor. That means a teaspoon (not a tablespoon) of butter on bread and a tablespoon (not a ¼ to a ½ cup) of dressing or guacamole on your salad or sandwich.

2. Don’t buy snack foods, except carrots and other raw vegetables. You can’t eat what you don’t have.

2. Decrease fat, sugar, and alcohol intake in beverages. Most standard servings of sweet iced teas, lattes, fruit juices, and regular sodas contain 130-190 calories. Many fruits smoothies and cocktails provide >200 calories, while the unsweetened tea, black coffee, and diet sodas contain no calories. These calories add up when you drink several servings daily.

3. Broil, bake, or grill meats and fish, don’t fry. For example, the typical over-breaded and greasy chicken breast contains at least 300 calories. The same chicken breast, if the skin is removed and the meat broiled, provides 121 calories.

4. Follow this advice everyday for months. It may be easier to stick to your diet if you chew gum between meals or drink at least one glass of water before each meal. For flavor, top meat, potatoes, and other vegetables with a tablespoon of a non-fat, fresh salsa.

Did you learn anything new?

Probably not. You know the basics of dieting, but you can’t stick to it for long. You're not alone. Did you ever notice how many physicians, nurses, and dietitians are overweight or obese?

That’s why so many researchers study obesity. Meet several of them when you read Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight. You may decide dieting isn’t so hard after all. 

Please comment

If you leave a comment to this blog along with a way for me to contact you, you will be entered in a drawing on October 1. The winner gets his/her name used in one of my upcoming novels.

Bio: As a biologist and professor emerita of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I enjoy putting tidbits of science into myr mystery/suspense novels. So far that’s Coming Flu and Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight. A third is on the way. To learn more, visit www.jlgreger.com or http://jlgregerblog.blogspot.com.

Sell line for Coming Flu: www.amazon.com/Coming-Flu-J-L-Greger/dp/1610090985/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363872699&sr=1-1&keywords=Coming+Flu.

Sell line for Murder: A New Way to Lose Weight: http://www.amazon.com/Murder-New-WayLoseWeight/dp/1610090624/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365534310&sr=1-1&keywords=Murder+A+New+Way+to+Lose+Weight

Million-Way Muffins

We love muffins at our house--savory and sweet, and there’s always a kind or two in the freezer for when someone drops by. So when I read Mark Bittman’s post on modifying a basic recipe to make many kinds of muffins, I knew I had to do a post on this myself.

Bittman’s article is found at http://shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/mark-bittman-muffins-infinite-ways-180900902.html

I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. (I’m kind of a Bittman groupie. I read everything of his I come across.)

His recipe is here with some of his modifications. Then I include some of my own recipes adaptations. (In Mission Impastable (Oak Tree Press), I included a blueberry muffin recipe from a friend’s mother that has great sentimental value for me. I did an earlier post on that recipe.) Muffins and I go way back.

Muffins are an amazingly versatile and forgiving batter. Play with combos that sound interesting to you. Adding ½ to ¾ cup of nuts increases the protein. Adding fresh or dried fruits increases food value, too. I love spices, so I’ll play with cardamon and banana instead of cinnamon. Or go crazy and dump the spices you use for pumpkin pie (sans or with pumpkin) to make spice muffins. Lemon zest and rosemary? Mmm mmm good!

Cut down the sugar to make muffins more savory and add cheese and basil. Use olive oil instead of vegetable oil or butter. Tarragon is an amazing flavor for muffins. Put in onions instead of fruit. Do you like a green chilies and corn combo? Why not put in black beans for fun? Go for it.

Use his basic recipe for proportions not necessarily for ingredients. Think of the ingredients as categories to include.

Mark Bittman’s Muffins, Infinite Ways

Makes: 12 medium or 8 large muffins
Time: About 40 minutes

3 tablespoons melted butter or neutral oil, like grapeseed or corn, plus more for the muffin tin
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar, or to taste
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 egg
1 cup milk, plus more if needed 

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin and line it with paper or foil muffin cups if you like. 

2. Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Beat together the egg, milk, and melted butter or oil in another bowl. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into it. Using a large spoon or rubber spatula, combine the ingredients swiftly, stirring and folding rather than beating and stopping as soon as all the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be lumpy, not smooth, and thick but quite moist; add a little more milk or other liquid if necessary. 

3. Spoon the batter into the muffin tins, filling them about two-thirds full and handling the batter as little as  possible. (If you prefer bigger muffins, fill 8 cups almost to the top; pour 1/4 cup water into the empty cups.) Bake for about 20 minutes (about 30 minutes for larger muffins) or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes before taking them out of the tin. Serve warm.

Sometimes Bittman suggests whole wheat flour or half-whole wheat/half white. You can substitute wheat bran or wheat flour (I food process quick oats). Substitute corn meal or graham cracker crumbs for part of the flour. Look through your shelves for things to toss in. I love chia seeds, for instance. Go for the unexpected in your muffins.

To his basic batter, you can substitute honey, molasses, maple syrup, or brown sugar instead of granulated sugar. I like to add Greek yogurt in place of milk to up the protein. Of course, we all know that ripe mashed banana can replace part of the oil to make muffins less fatty. Add in some cooked quinoa or rice in lieu of some of the flour. You can always adjust the batter stiffness with more milk or yogurt.

DO NOT BE AFRAID TO PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD! Muffin-making can be highly entertaining. But you might not be able to give the recipe to someone who really likes what you baked---at least that’s true if you cook like me. And if the muffins don’t work out, well, you can always become a writer! Culinary mysteries are fun!

Dinner is Served

We open up our cabin in the cool pine country of Arizona in three stages. It’s a process to prepare for closing one house and opening the other for six months each year.

As temps soar here in the Valley of the Sun, the time has come. It’s always a big deal to pack up the first load, go north, unload, and then return to Phoenix. That makes dinner a problem.

Dinner is rarely a problem at our house. Partly because, bless his heart, DH WILL eat anything! Truly. Never a problem. No the problem on the moving days is we get back late and if I didn’t plan ahead, what do we eat?

It happened this week. Home after 6:30. We normally eat at 7 after playing a rousing game of cubes.  Okay, so I did a quick refrigerator inventory. What follows is the recipe. Seriously, don’t hold me to measurements here. We’re talking leftovers. I would love to be on that cooking show, Chopped. Give me a basket of mystery ingredients. Pshaw! That’s what I do most days! And these people win $10,000???

DH loves casseroles, fortunately, so when he looked at the serving dish, he asked, “What’s this?” Instead of my usual snarky, “Dinner,”I replied, “Your favorite. Casserole.”

He poked around in the bowl, and announced. “Yes, my favorite Peoria Casserole.” Thus, the following:

Peoria Casserole

Leftover angel hair pasta, maybe 1 ½ cups

1 pkg chicken Swanson “Flavor Boost”™

2 big handfuls of fresh spinach

1 handful of fresh mushrooms

about 1 c leftover roast chicken and the drippings from cooking

Pam a casserole dish. Toss pasta with Flavor Booster. Mix in remaining ingredients. Cover. Microwave for 3 ½ minutes. Dinner is served.

Coincidentally, my new culinary mystery series is called “Dinner is Served”. The first book, Mission Impastable, will be out this summer from Oak Tree Press.