Every 17 years cicadas appear. This is the year for them. They are these really ugly dumb bugs - about 2" long with red eyes, a black stubby body, oversized clear wings with a green shade and yellow tips. They emerge once every 17 years out of the ground for a few weeks - mate, lay eggs and then die. They are really loud, they sound like a motorcross event up in the trees. And there are millions of them - I had heard that in a 1 acre lot - the ground can emerge as many as 500lbs of them. The birds go nuts - huge feast. We as humans do to. I have entered into this bizarre country radio station contest - caught up in the hype of the cicadia season. It's the WMZQ 98.7FM Country's Cicadia Cook Off. So, without adeu I present the recipe for my (hopefully winning) entry:

Atkins Friendly, Free-range, soft-shelled Cicadas in roasted garlic, spinach, chorizo stuffed shitake mushrooms with a Chardonnay pecorino sauce

12 Fresh Cicadas, de-winged, de-legged*
6 medium stuffing mushrooms, cleaned and cored out for stuffing
1 spicy Chorizo sausage, minced
4 cloves garlic, roasted and minced
1lb fresh (or frozen) spinach
1 handful fresh cilantro, chopped
1 large scallion, sliced thin
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Pecorino cheese
1/2 cup dry Chardonnay
1/2 stick butter (or margarine)
1 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil
cracked pepper and kosher salt to taste

Directions:
First, not using a medium skillet, lose your dignity to cook this because it's a rediculous event but hey, dispite the hype - this only happens every 17 years. Second, in a large skillet, saute the chorizo and cicadas. After browned, add olive oil and saute garlic and scallions then add spinach and cilantro stir quickly and add 1/4 cup of the Chardonnay, salt and pepper and allow to reduce. After reduction, let cool by transferring contents into a bowl. Add to this bowl, 1/2 of the Pecorino cheese and all of the bread crumbs. Stir thoroughly. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a greased glass baking dish, place stuffing mushrooms open side up, stuff each judiciously with contents from bowl. Place in oven, uncovered for 15-20 minutes, until top of stuffing is baked. While mushrooms are baking, prepare Chardonnay pecorino sauce: In small saucepan on medium heat, add butter, Chardonnay and rest of pecorinoi cheese. Add cracked pepper. Stir while turning up heat until almost a boil. Once sauce thickens, put on lowest heat setting and cover. To plate, arrange cicada wings on plate like daisy pedals on edge. Remove mushrooms and place on center of plate, and drizzle the Chardonnay pecorino cheese sauce over top. Enjoy!

*Recently caught, place in ziplock bag, and store in freezer overnight. Before use, thaw for 1 hour. Run luke warm water over cicadas while de-winging and de-legging. Save wings for garnish. Remove head.

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