Author Notes
After breaking my foot I’ve found myself hopping around in a giant cast. Why that made me think of frog legs I don’t know. The key technique is "frenching" frog legs. French kissing the frog will not make him turn into a prince. Don't ask me how I know that. Frenching the legs however will cause the meat to ball up at the end of the amphibious tibia like a lollipop.
I have no idea if frogs are consumed in India but they do lend themselves to a curry dish rather nicely. In a way a curry sauce is similar to a sauce veloutè but with some important differences. Aromatics such as onions are browned further than they would be in France. Color is also important*, not just in India but throughout South Asia.
—pierino
Ingredients
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1 pound
frog legs
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1/2 cup
ghee or clarified butter
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1/4 cup
superfine flour (Wondra)
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Peeled grated ginger to your taste
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1 cup
coconut milk
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1
sweet or brown onion, chopped
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2
serrano peppers, stemmed, seeded and chopped
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Juice from one lime
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2
chopped cilantro (coriander)
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Curry powder as follows;
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2 tablespoons
coriander seeds
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1 teaspoon
mustard seeds
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1 teaspoon
cumin seeds
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4-5 cloves
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5-6 cardomam seeds
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1 tablespoon
cassia or cinnamon stick, broken up
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1 teaspoon
whole black or green peppercorns
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1 tablespoon
whole black or green peppercorns
Directions
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Using a mortar and pestle or spice grinder, grind up your curry powder ingredients. Set aside.
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Using a sharp paring knife or utility knife cut through the tendons of each frog leg and scrape down the bone to completely clean them. When cooked this will leave you with a knob of flesh at the top.
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In a pie pan spread out your flour and dredge your hoppin’ frog parts.
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Heat up a saute pan and melt down about 1/3 of your ghee. When the pan is hot brown your frog legs. Set aside.
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In another pan add the remaining ghee and bring up to heat.
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Add in the chopped onions and sauté until slightly brown, longer than you would in a European recipe. Add in the ginger and stir. Follow that with your serrano peppers.
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Add about 1 tablespoon of curry powder (or more to taste) to the onion mix, stir and then add the coconut milk. Simmer for about five minutes, stirring frequently.
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Add your reserved frog parts. Simmer for another 25 to 30 minutes. The sauce is likely to separate a bit. But that’s Indian cooking. You can “mount” it with more ghee if necessary.
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Finish with a squeeze of lime and chopped cilantro.
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*Note to cook on the color of sauces: the French were a little bit weird on this stuff, as in how they named their sauces after ethnicities. For example hollandaise is named after the color of the Dutch people, sauce espagnole (brown sauce) is named for the color of the Spanish people, and sauce allemande for the color of the German people. See where this is going?
Standup commis flâneur, and food historian. Pierino's background is in Italian and Spanish cooking but of late he's focused on frozen desserts. He is now finishing his cookbook, MALAVIDA! Can it get worse? Yes, it can. Visit the Malavida Brass Knuckle cooking page at Facebook and your posts are welcome there.
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