curried tempura grasshoppers with sweet chilli sauce

Everyone loves tempura, and you’ll love this. One of our favourite edible grasshopper recipes.

You will need

– A wok (for deep frying)

-A slotted spoon

-A tray with kitchen towel

-Chop sticks

-A sieve

-Tin foil

Method

1. Firstly, dry roast the grasshoppers. Coat grasshoppers in the soy sauce then cover with tin foil and roast in an oven on 180 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Remove tin foil for the last 5 minutes to leave the grasshoppers dry and crispy. Remove and cool.

2. Sift the rice flour and curry powder together then add the salt. In a separate bowl beat the beer and the egg together until smooth and pale (beat the bubbles out of the Chiang beer). Once combined add this wet mixture to the dry mixture and whisk together, be sure not to overwork the gluten in the flour (a few small lumps are fine).

3. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a deep pan to around 170 degrees. Use the chop sticks to dip the soy roasted grasshoppers, one by one, into the batter and then fry for around 20 seconds on each side. Once golden brown, remove and drain on kitchen towel. Be sure to remove as much oil as possible. The key to a good tempura is to have a cold batter going into hot oil. The temperature exchange causes air bubbles in the batter which create more of a crunch when eaten.
Serve the tempura grasshoppers with sweet chilli sauce and garnish with thinly sliced long red chilies.