Ingredients
Escamoles
- 300 gescamoles
To cook
- 60 gbutter
- 1small onion, finely chopped
- 2serrano chillies, minced
- a large sprig of epazote, chopped
- salt
To serve
- corn tortillas
- guacamole
- salsa verde
Directions
- Rinse them very gently in cold water and pick out any grit, soil or fragments of nest by hand.
- Drain them and pat them dry on kitchen paper.
- Melt the butter in a pan over a medium heat and soften the onion and chilli for about 3 minutes.
- Add the escamoles and the epazote and cook for 4 to 5 minutes only, shaking the pan rather than stirring it. They are done when they turn opaque and firm slightly.
- Season with salt and serve immediately in warm corn tortillas with guacamole and salsa verde. Note the allergen: insects and crustaceans share closely related tropomyosins, so anyone with a shellfish allergy should treat escamoles as off-limits rather than as an experiment.
Technique
- Epazote is the herb that makes this taste Mexican rather than merely buttery, and there is no close substitute for it.
- They are seasonal, appearing in spring, and expensive for good reason: the digging is skilled and slow work.
- Butter rather than oil. The whole dish is a small quantity of larvae in a lot of good butter.
Substitutions
- Frozen escamoles, which are how most of them travel and are perfectly good.
- Dried epazote at about a third the quantity, added earlier.
Variations
- Folded into scrambled eggs, which is the common way to stretch them.
- In a quesadilla with Oaxaca cheese.
- With a little garlic, which some cooks add and others consider unnecessary.
History
Dug from the roots of agave and maguey on the central plateau; the Mexica ate them as a delicacy, and they are still called insect caviar.
Frequently asked questions
What is Escamoles?
Escamoles is a main from Mexico: ant larvae sauteed in butter with epazote, nutty and buttery in tacos. Dug from the roots of agave and maguey on the central plateau; the Mexica ate them as a delicacy, and they are still called insect caviar.
How long does Escamoles take to make?
Escamoles takes 15 min of preparation and 10 min of cooking. The recipe makes 4 servings. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Escamoles?
Yes, within limits. Frozen escamoles, which are how most of them travel and are perfectly good. Dried epazote at about a third the quantity, added earlier.
What is the most important thing to get right in Escamoles?
Add the escamoles and the epazote and cook for 4 to 5 minutes only, shaking the pan rather than stirring it. They are done when they turn opaque and firm slightly.
