Autumn and winter alternate, just when insects are ready to overwinter after storing calories, when insects and their pupae are fat and fat, extremely nutritious, and are welcomed by the world's 2 billion people.
As a major functional tonic ingredient in the 21st century, even the Japanese restaurant industry has written books on these insect dishes.
A number of dishes have also been developed. Believe me, it's really not that the bug accidentally fell into the dish.
So how can the red food network not recommend several marketable insect ingredients?
Are you ready to include them in the restaurant menu? High-energy, dense phobias ahead Please do not click on the larger picture.
01
Dragon lice
Dragon lice, also known as water lice (water 曱甴 (yuē yóu), why is it called 曱甴 at a glance at the appearance of the yue, not much to explain. Produced in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian and Hunan, Hubei and other provinces and regions, Heilongjiang Province' Songnen Plain is also produced, because of its taste and high nutritional value, it has become an indispensable dish in Cantonese cuisine.
Dragon lice are themselves omnivorous and occasionally spoiled. Due to the high requirements for the aquatic environment, the requirement that the water body is non-toxic and pollution-free, and its delicious taste is no less than that of the seafood, the dragon lice are especially popular with restaurants and diners. Dragon lice has the effect of curing waist and leg weakness, and the south likes to cook "hewei dragon lice" with oil and salt for health care. When eating, break your wings and pull your head out of your internal organs to enjoy. It should be noted that in recent years, the environmental pollution of the waters has become increasingly serious, coupled with man-made indiscriminate fishing, at present, dragon lice are mainly artificially farmed, and the survival rate is not high. Its market price has soared every year, and as of 2015, it has sold for 200-380 yuan per catty. Protecting the survival environment of wild dragon lice and insect species requires everyone's attention.
02
Bee pupae
Bee pupae are rich in nutrients, crispy and crispy in flavor, and are truly natural and delicious foods. In recent years, in Jishou, Zhangjiajie and other places in Xiangxi Province, the price of bee pupae is as high as 400 yuan per kilogram, which has become another special souvenir that people in the mountains give to relatives and friends today.
Bee pupae are generally the larvae and pupae of wild bees such as wasps, wasps, black bees, and earth bees, and the picking period should be the most appropriate in the advanced larval to pupal stage, and the pupal pupal period is generally concentrated in September, October or before. Bee pupae are eaten in a variety of ways, and common practices include omelette, stir-fried ginger and shallots, salt and pepper, lettuce buns, etc. The simplest is to take the bee pupae out of the hive, pick up the impurities, rinse with water, filter it dry, pour it into the oil and burn it into a frying pan of oil that is seven or eight ripe, fry the bee pupae over low heat until golden brown, and add a little salt to eat, so as to ensure the umami taste.
03
Sandworms
The insect larvae of the sand crawler, toothed frog or fish worm, generally 6 to 9 cm long, dark green or dark brown, small head, many feet, flat mouth, ugly shape like a centipede, can be used as bait. It is abundant in Yunnan and Sichuan. Don't look at it ugly and bite, this bug eats tonic qi and kidneys, inhibits weakness and solidifying the root, nourishes and strengthens, and has the reputation of "animal ginseng".
There are three methods of initial processing of sand crawlers: One is to directly wash the sand crawlers and use them to brew medicinal liquor, which is what local Chinese medicine calls "raw beating". The second is to cut off the head and tail of the live sand crawler, wash the sand sausage, wrap it in a layer of egg and bean paste, and fry it in oil until it is golden and crispy. To add that the toothed fly lives in swamps, near woodlands, feeding on caterpillars, worms, such as butterflies, moths, etc., is a carnivorous insect that specializes in preying on agricultural pests and should not be overhudowed.
04
Clams
Clams, the larvae of the mulberry cattle, are pests both in their adult and larvae. Adults have young branches and leaves, and larvae encroach on the woody interior and roots of the tree, while attracting termites to erode secondary, weakening the tree and making the tree die. It is commonly found on vegetation such as oak trees, willow trees, pine trees, and figs.
In China, winter often needs to be combined with pile oranges to renew insects, which is precisely when this larvae are the most fertile. In the northeast, clams are known as "wood ginseng". In recent years, many hotels have taken it as a "mountain treasure" product, so the "clam" has also doubled in value, up to two or three hundred yuan per kilogram. This taste is sweet, rich in protein, and similar in nature to bee pupae.
05
Bamboo worms
As the name suggests, it is a worm that grows in bamboo (tube), mainly parasitic on the bamboo shoots of the year of the giant bamboo genus, with a spindle-shaped body, rounded, and small black mouths with thin eyes. He likes to eat bamboo from the tip of the bamboo to the next section, and within 20 days, he will go from a large snack of rice grains to a finger-thick snack. In China, it is mainly distributed in Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan, Sichuan, Jiangsu, Guangxi and other places.
Bamboo worms are rich in high protein and amino acids, edible insects for larvae, every year from October to February appear, shaped like cordyceps, bamboo worms are simple, with boiling water after frying incense can be eaten, very crisp and delicious, eat more can also nourish the spleen and stomach.
06
Earth turtle worms
Earth turtles (really not cursing) are also known as turtles, earth elements, and generally choose females when eating. Legend has it that in ancient times, a cook accidentally found that the female turtle had a body that was automatically connected after the body was broken, and the role of normal activities was taken to the son who had broken his leg after boiling water, and it was magically healed. In the following hundreds of years, the medicinal value of the turtle was widely spread in China, and the breeding was also widely distributed.
Because the turtle is cold, dry, salty, and slightly poisonous, its culinary value has only been developed in recent years. Careful cooks select ingredients such as peppercorns, peppercorns, cooking wine, and green onions to neutralize their coldness and medicinal properties, and develop spicy earth turtles, crispy turtles and other dishes, which are deeply loved by people.
07
Corn borer
Corn borers are moths that are the most wanted for corn crop pests and diseases. It is mainly produced in Northeast China, Beijing, Hebei, Henan, Sichuan, Guangxi and other places. Mature larvae, about 25 mm long, cylindrical, black-brown head, edible form is the final stage before pupal pupae. At this time, the corn borer larvae have been excreted and are ready to pupate for the winter, with strong body fat and protein, as long as they are slightly fried, they can be eaten. Of course, this is also the best time to control corn borer diseases and insect pests.
08
Bean worms
Bean worm, scientific name bean moth, also called bean dan. I believe that everyone is unfamiliar with this pest. It is widely distributed in Liaoning, Henan, Shandong, Hebei, Fujian, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Jiangxi, eating bean leaves, grape leaves, drinking manna for a living. The study pointed out that the meat pulp of bean worms is non-toxic and harmless, its protein is more suitable for people's physical needs than meat, fish and plant proteins, and it is rich in seven kinds of amino acids that cannot be synthesized in the human body, which is a natural green health care treasure that drives away the cold and nourishes the stomach.
The general practice of bean worms is to remove the head, molt the meat out of the skin, wash the internal organs, drain and set aside. It can be stewed, soup, and stir-fried, all with a different flavor.
09
scorpion
Scorpions, all kinds of insect feasts, old friends of the big health wine, I believe that everyone must be no strangers. As one of the oldest known terrestrial arthropods, the medicinal and edible value of scorpions may not be written in a book. As the saying goes, "scorpion poison race gold", 10,000 adult scorpions can only lift 480 grams of poison per year, and as of 2014, the price of scorpion venom has risen to 150,000 yuan / kg.
The pharmacology and edible effect of scorpions are mainly dependent on scorpion venom, each whole scorpion toxin accounts for 60% to 70% of the total, and generally eating less than 30 will not be poisoned. Before cooking, the tail and poison sacs and poison needles should be removed. It can be put in salt water in advance, dry and fried after the scorpion is drunk and choked, or it can be boiled with boiling water to be too cold after death, and it is suitable for all ages with poria and Huaishan medicines. It should be noted that wild scorpions are natural enemies of pests and should not be indiscriminately hunted and killed.
10
cricket
Crickets, commonly known as crickets, night bugs. I believe that many friends just started to know this stuff, all through the TV series of fighting cricket bridges, I don't know that one day this product will become a dish in their own kitchen.
Crickets are important agricultural pests in northeast China, north China, the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and south China, late autumn and early winter is the season when crickets are easy to freeze to death, in ancient times, because crickets have the myth of good luck and wisdom, rich families will especially hunt them indoors. Domestic research on the edibleness of crickets has gradually emerged in recent years due to the influence of foreign diets. In foreign countries, especially in the United States and France, crickets are a common dish. The eating habits of foreign crickets are strange and addictive, and they even set up a special farm for them, shipping out about 8,000 pounds of crickets every year and making them into flour, energy bars and snacks for supermarket shelves.
epilogue
These small insects, which are not the size of a palm, look intimidating, but after the chef's ingenious cooking and the carefully recommended packaging of the restaurant, they have become a hot food in winter. If you want your autumn and winter tonics to be fresh and creative, how can you be without these popular little bugs?
Even if you know... The first time every chef touches these insects, their hearts must be broken, but who told them to do catering?
Popular science time
Why do humans love to eat insects?
Cantonese people eat everything, even insects. In fact, not only Guangdong, but also the vast area of insect-eating areas south of the motherland, the history is so long that you may not be able to imagine. Twelve hundred years ago, when Han Yu was relegated to Chaozhou, he was quite frightened by such Lingnan cuisine and wrote the "EighteenTh Harmony law of the Chu Nan Food Fetus Yuan".
However, do you think that there is no heavy taste in the recipes of the Northern Central Plains? NO！ For a long time, the silkworm pupae we are most familiar with is an important source of animal protein in China. Whenever there is a plague of locusts, locusts replace the crops in the fields and become the staple food of the people. However, the ancients lacked cooking oil, so the mainstream method is cooking, and the practice and taste of insects are more similar to boiled shrimp. Of course, there are also alternatives, Li Shimin once encouraged the people to fight against the locust plague, when sentient beings eat locusts. In ancient Greece and Rome, cicadas and locusts were the delicacies of the world praised by celebrities.
Excluding acquired cultural factors, people should naturally like to eat insects. Some experts believe that people's common preferences for crispy food regardless of ethnicity and culture. The preference to eat insects is a normal physiological preference that humans have developed during evolution. So, why miss out on such a delicacy?
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Author: Lu Wan, this article is original by the reporter of the Red Meal Network, please indicate when reprinting.
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