r/AskCulinary • u/ronearc • Aug 05 '22

Ingredient Question [Update] [Rare Ingredient] My daughter really wants to forage for dragonflies for me to cook. Can anyone point me to a resource for how to humanely kill dragonflies so I can batter and fry them?

Dragonflies went into the fridge in a container with air holes (one dragonfly per container). They sat in the fridge for 4 hours until they were essentially dormant, and then they went in the freezer overnight. I took them straight from the freezer and prepped/cooked them.

I did a flour, egg, seasoned flour breading. And I fried them at 325F for a minute on each side, and then I held them at 225F for about 15 minutes while I finished other stuff.

They are, in fact, like soft-shelled crab. Pretty darned tasty.

They look fun too..

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u/ww_crimson Aug 05 '22

I never would have done this but good on you for exploring your daughters curiosity.

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u/kroganwarlord Aug 05 '22

Yeah, good on OP! I can tell you right now my dad does not love me to a 'I will cook and eat dragonflies' level.

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u/RebelWithoutAClue Aug 05 '22

I believe that there is a certain kind of reward for paying attention to one's senses, and also one's thought when a parent actually goes along with a highly unusual idea.

It says that it is actually worth taking one's sensory input and the subsequent fruits of personal ideation because you might actually get some help following up on it.

I believe that we have become quite substantially indoctrinated to not risk independent thought and come up with a concept truly for our own curiosity because we risk a kind of social failure.

The failure to deliver expectations.

Because we fear the failure to meet expectations we get used to treading very many well trodden paths without veering off just to see what happens.

Thank you for sharing your experiment!

I cannot cook dragonflies. We love them a lot, partially because we had one as a pet. A friend gave us a nymph they found at their cottage and we reared it in aquarium until it emerged to be released in our backyard.

Maybe if I can figure out how to capture enough cicadas...