Eating bugs may not seem appetizing and most people prefer their insects swatted, squashed, and far from their plates. However, the fact is that as per certain researches it has been found that these insects contain high amount of nutrients which are extremely beneficial for the health. Starting from protein, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, unsaturated fatty acids to polyunsaturated fatty acids the bugs contain all these nutrients.
David Gordon Fried points out the benefits of eating bugs
At present, close to 2 billion people eat insects across the world, chiefly in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Among the various types of insects’ beetles, caterpillars, tarantulas, crickets, bees, wasps and ants are the most extensively consumed species.
David Gordon Fried, also referred to as the Bug Chef says that instead of considering these insects as pests, they can be consumed as delicacies. He further added that insects release fewer greenhouse gases than traditional livestock and the insects also release much less methane and ammonia than pigs and cattle. In addition, rearing insects uses less water and land than cattle-rearing. Thus, insect farming can be a more sustainable practice as insects do not need much space, can live under all kinds of conditions and can be fed easily.
As a Bug Chef, David Gordon has invented a number of interesting recipes in which the main ingredient is the insect. He says that insects can be boiled, pan-fried, roasted, sautéed, or baked with a bit of salt and oil. They can also be used for breads, bars, cookies, and crackers. David has created a number of culinary masterpieces by using grasshoppers, ants, water bugs, scorpions and centipedes.
David Gordon shares some interesting recipes on how to cook crickets:
- Crickets can be cooked using garlic, olive oil and salt that brings out and complements their delicious, nutty, light shrimp flavor.
- David George Gordon, in his book The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook, recommends baking crickets in the oven to make it all the crispier. In order to roast them place the crickets on a slightly greased baking tray and bake them for 20 minutes. Once roasted, they can be used in a number of ways they can be used for cakes, cookies, or cocktails and can even be scattered on salads.
- Roasted crickets can also be powdered in a blender or coffee grinder and kept in a container. This powdered mixture can be added to flour and baked goods, stirred into pesto and smoothies, or sprinkled on soups, salads and even ice cream.
- Crickets can also be deep fried after dipping them in tempura batter or in cornmeal. Once they are deep fried they can be served using the favorite sauce.
These are some of the simple ways by which crickets can be cooked and served.
David Gordon Fried has written a number of books on such recipes. His work has been featured in Time magazine, Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, National Geographic Kids, The New Yorker and The Wall Street Journal. He has been a guest on The View, ABC’s Nightline and Late Night with Conan O’Brien.