Theme Recipe: For Grissom Insect Dish

In the pilot of the "C.S.I." Grissom offers a new hire a chocolate covered grasshopper because she hasn't had anything to eat and her blood sugar is crashing.  She refuses, and later dies...(no I'm not saying that her insect ingestion refusal caused her death!), Grissom gladly pops one in his mouth.  While the recipe is not close to anything that shows up in the series, it is the sort of recipe I can imagine Grissom serving.

CREAM OF ASPARAGUS SOUP WITH BOLL WEEVIL CROUTONS

This is not a joke dish.  It's real and comes from a cookbook entitled Creepy Crawly Cuisine by Julieta Ramos-Elorduy.  I can imagine Grisssom serving such a soup with the croutons on the side with some enthusiastic encouragement to try them; but because the bugs are in the croutons, diners can politely decline and still enjoy the soup.  This is really a squash recipe and makes use of canned soup so it's not exactly what you would call "haute cuisine"--but then again, Grissom is a busy man, so I can equally imagine him using short cuts on the few occasions that he does invite guests over (there are at least a few times when this does actually occur in William Petersen's tenure on the show).  And the croutons are really a kind of garnish, not a "bready" affair; the above photo is not an actual picture of this recipe.


1 can cream of asparagus soup
1 lb. zucchini squash, diced
2 1/2 cups of broth (chicken or vegetable suggested)
2 tbsp. butter
2 garlic cloves, minced or crushed
1/4 cup onion, minced
Black pepper to taste
Jack cheese, grated
Sour cream


For the croutons (again, this is a real recipe)


1/2 lb. boll weevil larvae, roasted




1.  Put the squash in salted water and bring to boil.  Reduce heat and simmer until soft.  Add the garlic and onion and simmer until soft.  Puree'


2.  In a soup pot, melt the butter, add the puree' stir until is boils, add the asparagus soup and season with pepper to taste.  Add in the stock and bring to a boil, simmer for 5 minutes.  


3.  Meanwhile add the weevil larvae to a heated skillet and cook carefully until dry and crisp.  


Serve soup with the roasted larvae, sour cream, and grated cheese on the side. Diners can choose what they like.