Perennial Plate's Recipes from the Road

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Every week, chef/activist Daniel Klein and cameragirl Mirra Fine of The Perennial Plate are sharing the videos and recipes from their cross-country real food road trip with us. Their latest dispatch from the road: (very) freshly caught cornmeal-fried frog legs (good on their own, or with homemade ketchup).

WARNING: The video below is graphic -- frogs die, graphically. Mirra writes a thoughtful blog post on the subject (she's a vegetarian) here lt;/a>.

Get their Cornmeal-Fried Frog Legs recipe (and save and print it) and their Homemade Ketchup recipe -- and read Daniel's take on the adventure below.

To Catch a Frog

- Daniel

In this week's video, I joined some guys from Arkansas who I met on YouTube for a night of catching frogs. It was precarious. We showed up around 10pm in a small town near Jonesboro, Arkansas. Better judgement may have suggested an initial meet and greet preceding the late night boat ride into the flooded backwaters of Arkansas. But alas, we were on the road and had not time for such formalities.

Normal bullfrog hunting conditions are hot days and low waters. We had floods and 50° temps. Despite the difficult conditions, we found some frogs. These invasive creatures can be spotted by the the illumination of their shiny underbellies. And when you shine a light in their eyes, they can't see. In that moment of blindness, they stay still and thus arises your opportunity to grab them. There are many fancy ways to cook up a frog's leg, but in Arkansas they do what they do to a lot of their foods ... fry it up! These legs were delicious -- like the most succulent chicken. And remember, "if you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay home" -- J. Michener.