Cuisses de Grenouille

Mary:  Me and my big mouth!  What was I thinking?

Brian:  Frog legs!  Hello, everybody. Welcome to Cépage et Cuisine, Mary’s and Brian’s wine and food blog.  This one is a “leap” of faith for us.  Growing up in a small town in northwest Georgia, I remember friends who claimed they went “frog giggin’.”  Whether they really did and whether they actually ate the frogs, I don’t know, but I never did…until now.  Modern day frog gigging is a trip to Kroger.

Here in the Gulf South, frog legs are not an unusual dish among the Cajun culture of south Mississippi and Louisiana and the “soul food” culture of rural African Americans.  It is also a time-honored dish in France, where it is called Cuisses de Grenouille.  In keeping with our Francophile ways and wine and food adventures generally, we tried them!  It is probably our boldest adventure so far, at least psychologically.  I was quite surprised that Mary agreed.  She didn’t express so much as an “ewww” reaction.  I’ll talk about the wine at the end, but Mary wrote most of this post to give you the full Monty from a California Pres girl who never tried blackeyed peas and turnip greens before she met me, not to mention frog legs!  Keep an open mind and don’t be grossed out by the pictures.  They turned out to be pretty good!

Mary:  I told Brian I don't want us to be one of those "old" couples I see in the grocery store. The husband either trails his wife or leads the way, but slowly, looking at everything, holding her back. I have seen the looks on the faces of the wives and I picture them rolling their eyes at me about hubbie.  Maybe some of the couples enjoy the experience, but I do NOT want to be a shopping couple.  Brian, do you hear me?

Brian:  Ok, honey.  No old shopping couples.

Mary:  Having said that, we do occasionally shop together if we're heading home and need to get stuff for dinner, which is what happened last Saturday.  We went to the grocery store to get dinner for the weekend. That evening was planned, but Sunday was up in the air, probably fish of some sort.  We looked at the selection of fish.  Nothing really grabbed our attention, so we asked for two swordfish filets that I know they keep in the freezer.  We picked up ribeyes for Saturday night.  Ok, done.

THEN ... silly me ... I saw frog legs tucked into the corner of the seafood section and said to Brian, "Look, frog legs!"  Not in an "excited to see them, yum" way but not in an "ew, gross" way either. Just ... oddly interesting.  He immediately took out his smartphone and found a recipe for frog legs. I hadn't had breakfast or lunch and my brain must not have been functioning, because I AGREED to try them!

We asked the seafood lady if she had ever had them.  No, with a yucky shake of her head. We asked the OTHER seafood lady, and she said yes, she actually liked them fried.  Ok. We got them.  When we checked out, we asked the checker if she had ever had them.  A more disgusted No than the first seafood lady.  But we were committed at that point, so we took our froggies home.

I made Brian handle them.  I couldn’t bring myself to touch them.  Soaking them in buttermilk was recommended, so I did manage to pour the buttermilk over them and put them in the refrigerator.  I'm trying to keep an open mind, but ... it's not red meat, it's not fish, it's not poultry, it's not vegetarian --- it's amphibian!  We marinated the frog legs overnight in buttermilk and Tabasco sauce.

Here are the ingredients, including marinated frog legs -- kind of creepy, I know -- shallots, garlic, fresh parsley, flour, Cajun seasoning, chopped tomatoes (I just used canned), white wine, butter, salt and pepper.

Here are the ingredients again, without the hippity hop.

Brian separated the frog legs at the hip joint with a sturdy chef’s knife.

The marinated frog legs were seasoned with herbs and Cajun seasoning, then dredged in a mixture of flour and more Cajun seasoning.

I put them in a frying pan with melted butter, cooking quickly for only a few minutes on each side until golden. 

Here go the shallots and then the garlic.

After a minute or so of cooking to get the shallots and garlic tender, the chopped tomatoes were added.

The cooking wine was added next.  It’s in a stem instead of the bottle because for this recipe, I needed to sip on the wine while I was cooking.  That’s what I really mean when I say cooking wine!

That’s Brian pouring the wine into the pan. 

And here are our frog legs simmering away.

Parsley is added with only a minute or so to go.

We served the frog legs on a bed of herbed steamed rice and a side of sautéed yellow squash with a few of the tomatoes.

Guess what!  They turned out pretty well!  Some people say they taste like chicken, but we don’t think so.  They were tender, almost flaky, like a mild fish.  The meat comes off the bone easily.  The flavor was also more like fish than chicken, mildly sweet.  The soft crust from the flour and seasoning adds to the texture and flavor.  All in all, we liked them.  I don’t think we’ll add them to our weekly rotation, but I wouldn’t mind making them again sometime.  At last, here’s Brian with the wine.

I picked up this Provence rosé recently.  It’s a bit pricey for a rosé, but it was very nice.  We love rosé, especially in warm weather, but also at any time of the year.  It is always refreshing, cool, and does those two things a good wine should do.  It is delicious and it makes food taste better.  Here are my notes on the wine.

Chateau du Galoupet Côtes de Provence 2010.  The wine was a pretty salmon color, refreshing, with aromas of strawberry and raspberry.  The palate showed good acidity and flavors of lemon and orange citrus, nice minerality, and a little spiciness.  Nicely balanced and paired well with dinner.  Blend of Grenache, Cinsault, Syrah, 13.0% alcohol.  We paid $25 at Briarwood Wines in Jackson.

That’s our post for today.  We hope you enjoyed it…or at least found it interesting.  We don't think we'll be doing the other Gulf South amphibians, alligator or turtle, anytime soon, but you never know. Keep checking back for more wine and food adventures at Cépage et Cuisine.  Until next time,

Cheers!

Mary♥Brian