Earlier this year I posted about an
all you can eat perch and frog legs dinner. I have been on a quest to secure a local source for frog legs so I can cook them at home. After a bit of finagling our local butcher shop is now carrying them. They are not quite as big and they are frozen but I suspect in most areas here in Ontario the frog legs will be frozen unless you catch and prepare them yourself. DH paid $5.49 for 4 nice sized frog legs so in terms of cost they are in the low to mid-range of other seafood.
Frog legs come in pairs cut just above the hips of the frog. The meat should look clean, glistening and tenuous (1). There should be very little prep other than coating them as desired then deep frying. I used Cabela's Down Home Fish Fry Cajun as a dry coating for the frog legs (2). I fried the frog legs at 180ºC (350ºF) until golden brown.
Friday nights tend to be red meat free here. When the kids were younger it was either fish & chips or homemade pizza. Now we are empty nesters it tends to be seafood usually as date night but sometimes cooked at home. The frog legs were part of a seafood dinner cooked at home last Friday. The frog legs and homemade
French fries were deep fried while the lightly coated cod was pan fried. Accompanying the meal was a fresh tossed garden salad with homemade vinaigrette dressing and fresh picked raspberries with vanilla yogurt.
The frog legs did not disappoint! The coating was not exactly the same as the coating used on the all-you-can-eat meal but it was good. The nice thing is the frog legs are not really expensive so I can do a bit of experimenting to get the coating just the way I want it. I like the little bite the Cajun coating gave but next time I think I will try a wet coating to see how that turns out. All in all I'm quite pleased with my first attempt at cooking frog legs at home.
I love perch! Some of my happiest memories of growing up in Michigan are fishing for perch with my dad. :)
ReplyDeleteI've not had frog legs. Do they really taste like chicken?
Yours look pretty good here. :)
Hi Linda :) Thanks! Fresh caught perch is wonderful, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteI think the phrase takes like chicken is quite over used but more so to give a frame of reference because most people know what chicken tastes like. I don't think frog legs taste like chicken at all. They are somewhat on the fishy side with a very different texture that is slightly chewier.
Haha. I'm sure the phrase is over-used, yes. :) I wonder if it might be like alligator tail? I have had that fried, though it's not fishy, it is a little chewy. I am going to try frog legs sometime. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, fresh perch is great!
Frog legs are definitely one of the things we'd love to try. And we were also told they taste like chicken. *LoL*
ReplyDeleteWe're hoping to find a store or any place here in the Philippines where we can buy frog legs. Come to think of it, we might just look for a restaurant that serves that before we even think about cooking them at home. Just to be safe *LoL*
Hi Linda :) I would liken it more to alligator than chicken. They are quite good!
ReplyDeleteHi Certified Foodies and thanks for visiting :) If you try frog legs at a restaurant first you will have a better idea of how they should come out. Cooking them at home is very easy. I hope you like them.
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