Can a picky eater overcome a lifelong aversion to "branching out"?

Monday, April 25, 2011

Frog Legs!!

So Sunday, the husband and I went to Safeway to do some quick grocery shopping.  While standing at the butcher counter, waiting while my ribeyes were being wrapped, my eyes slid down the display case and landed on.....


Frog legs!!!  How cool is that?!?!  So of course I insisted that we get one to try out.  They were still partially frozen when we got them, so I had to wait until today to cook them.  Which gave me the day to search and find this recipe.  I only had one set of frog legs and not a pound so I had to kind of guess at the measurements.  I added the seasonings and let the frog legs sit for about 20 minutes.


Then I dredged them in cornstarch and dropped them in 350 degree oil for about 5 minutes!  In the meantime, I made up the dipping sauce (substituting honey for most of the white sugar and red pepper flakes for the chili sauce) and heated the butter and garlic.  When it was all thrown together it looked like this:


Vaguely intimidating but also familiar in that it reminded me of fried chicken.  I was a little nervous to try it out, but it ended up being good!  The strongest flavors were the soy sauce and the garlic.  The frog legs themselves were almost a challenge to taste.  And as cliche as it sounds....they tasted like chicken.  They didn't really.  They were chewier and had a definite gamey flavor, but if I had to pick something that they were similar too, I would pick chicken.  And gator, but I don't know how well that reference point would go over in the general public.

Because I had been nervous about the frog legs, I made an actual dinner of pure, never miss comfort food!  Steak and potatoes!  Red rose potatoes tossed with salt, oil and smashed garlic.


Roasted in a few stages (covered with foil, uncovered and then flipped) they came up delicious, and crusty golden brown.


While that was happening, the steak was being cooked in a cast iron skillet.  First over high for a few minutes per side, then a few more minutes per side on medium.  It was amazing!


Just to clarify, it is sitting on a salad plate.  I mean, it is a really big steak, but it isn't dinner plate sized.  It was a hint too salty.  I just switched from regular salt to kosher salt and I am still working on estimating amounts correctly.  But the crust in the outside was perfect and it was just the right done-ness (medium rare).  All together it was a great dinner and an interesting food experience.  I don't know that I liked the frog legs enough to pay $9 a pound for them!  But, should I ever have the chance to go frog gigging, I will know what to do with the catch!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment