March 2020 – Ento Treats

I’m worried. I know there are plenty of reasons to worry. (1 Peter 5:7 “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.”) But IF I was going to worry, I think I would worry about my eldest granddaughter. IF I was going to worry, I would worry that she inherited the “crazy gene” from her mom and my sweet wife, bless her heart. (Hint: you can get away with saying lots of things if you add “sweet” and “bless her heart.”)

Back to my granddaughter… many of us are finding the need to phone those we love. So during the phone chat, I told my granddaughter, Pipes, This is the granddaughter who helped me serve bugs to the The Gateway Bug screening at ACFF (w/ special tasting) in 2017 at Shepherd University (Click here if you want to read more about that.) One of Pipes’ aspirations was to become a baker. So I thought I would share my newest baking adventure.

I began with the directions, “Start with a jar of mystery berry sludge…” Now at this point normal people are supposed to exclaim something like, “That’s gross!” But Pipes interrupted me with, “Wait a minute. I need to write this down.” So I continued with directions as follows:
(I am NOT a baker, so I pulled a double pie crust dough out of the freezer.)
Preheat the the oven to 425 F.
Bring 2 1/2 C. of the mystery berry sludge to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. (I really don’t know what it was. It looked like blackberry, but it had no seeds. I probably ran berries through a Squeezo. But they were more tart than I would expect of blackberries.)
Add 1/4 cup of sugar. (I found out it needs more sweetener. You can add a dollop of ice cream when it is served.)
Make a thick paste with 2 Tbs. of corn starch. Add that to boiling sludge. (I REALLY think I need another term if this is to be socially acceptable, but synonyms don’t sound any better: muck, mire, ooze, silt, alluvium, slime, viscous mixture.)
Add 2 C. dried apples from an unknown archaeological era.
Add a couple pinches of salt.
I smear Crisco on a 9 ” pie pan.
Melt 2 Tbs. of butter. Coat the top of the bottom pie crust (to prevent the sludge from soaking into the crust.)
Pour the mystery berry sludge and the dried apples into the pie crust.
Add another 2 Tbs. of butter.
Add the top crust.
Brush on an additional 2 Tbs. of butter and sprinkle sugar on top.
Bake at 425 F for 15 min. Reduce the heat the 350 F and bake for an additional 30 min.

Finally! I know this is what you were waiting for. (This is a bug blog after all.) Sprinkle your favorite bug garnish on top for a nice nutty kick. The photo shows Entomo Farms dried crickets and Livin Farms mealworms. My web host migrated my website, and now my bug page is (temporarily?) unavailable. Here is a site that listsento-companies.

As a bonus, I added photos of Terry Lynn’s muffin with bug toppings.

So, in conclusion, I will admit I am not really worried about Pipes or any of the other crazy ladies in my life. They are indeed crazy, but I love them just the way they are.

Stay safe, wash your hands, keep your distance– and try not to worry. Bug appetit!

Steve

I toyed with the idea of calling this ento treat Blattodea Puff Pastry, using the scientific name for the main ingredient, cockroaches. Then Terry Lynn suggested the Spanish name. I liked it.

A former student and his wife, Erik and Noel invited me to a party. Then somebody asked if I was bringing bugs. That’s almost a challenge, and Erik indicated it was OK for me to bring my ento treats. His cute young daughter was not at all turned off by the Hotlix lollipop I gave her. Hotlix is a lot like Tootsie Roll Pops, in that they have a surprise inside. But their surprise is a mealworm, a cricket, or a scorpion.

Erik and Noel had a nice selection of beer, wine and spirits. Erik introduced me to a really nice sour PA beer- Victory’s Sour Monkey. I have long noticed that people are much more open to enjoying ento treats after they have enjoyed some beer, wine and spirits.

So here is a recipe and description of the ento treat I took to Erik’s party. It was a really fun crowd which makes sharing bug teats much easier.

Thanks to Aaron Pauling, the Texas cockroach farmer, who provided the cockroach nymphs.

The puff pastries are a derivation of the theme of baklava (bugluvAH).

Ingredients include:

6 Pepperidge Farm puff pastries. (I meant to pull fillo [φύλλο] dough out of the the freezer the night before, then the next morning I realized you defrosted 6 puff pastries.)

1 cup frozen cockroach nymphs

½ cup pecans

2 Tablespoons orange zest. I had some orange peels in the freezer. It was super easy to shave the orange zest, the dark outside, with a carrot peeler.

2 Tablespoons honey (Hampshire County has some great local apiaries)

2 teaspoons cinnamon

4 squares Dove dark chocolate

Preparation:

Bake the puff pastries as per directions. (400 degrees F in an ungreased pan)

Puree in blender 1 cup frozen cockroaches.