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moon

Sep 7, 2008, 7:16 AM

Post #1 of 3 (2348 views)

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How do you cook chapulines?

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Here in central Utah we have a huge amount of grasshoppers this year and it occurred to me to try to cook some as I enjoyed them in Oaxaca when I visited there. I found these 2 recipes on the internet.

This one involves boiling and marinating:

http://www.instructables.com/...ers-the-Mexican-way/

This one involves just frying:

http://mexicanfood.about.com/...pes/r/chapulines.htm

Which one would be more authentic to Oaxaca or are they both used there? (Or is there another method?)

Also, I am trying to figure out how to get the live grasshoppers into a hot cooking vessel without having some escape into my kitchen. Are they killed (smothered?) first before dumping them into the pan? Or maybe put in the refrigerator for a while first?

Sincere thanks,
Bill Moon

(This post was edited by Rolly on Sep 7, 2008, 7:42 AM)

julietl

Sep 9, 2008, 1:27 PM

Post #2 of 3 (2309 views)

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Re: [moon] How do you cook chapulines?

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Hmm - I don't know. I have never cooked them starting out alive, just from a big bag at the mercado already fried and seasoned.

Remember, they are much better small, so if yours are large (it's past the end of the season here), they may not taste good.
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tonyburton

Sep 9, 2008, 5:00 PM

Post #3 of 3 (2295 views)

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Re: [moon] How do you cook chapulines?

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I am reliably informed (by Brigitte Plummer) that chapulines are gathered and cooked as follows:

Go early to the milpa around 7 am, at daybreak: At that time the chapulines can be found inside the leaves of the husk. You can find 4 to 5 of them right there: Put them in a bag.

When you have enough of them for dinner, boil some water and open the bag so they all fall in the boiling water. Remove when they turn red, just like you would do with shrimp. Remove them rinse under call water put the in a colander to dry. Fry them until they turn a nice brown color in lard spiced with epazote and garlic. Pull them out and salt them. The small ones are the best ones.
You can grind the large one and sprinkle them in your tacos or quesadillas.

Enjoy!!