COMMENT:
Although the frog leg is the most rare seafood delicacy, it is quite
common here in South Louisiana. I have had them prepared in many
ways and in many places, but I still enjoy them beer-battered and
deep-fried best.
INGREDIENTS:
- 2 dozen frog legs
- 1 quart buttermilk
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsps Creole mustard
- 1(10-ounce) bottle of beer
- salt and cracked black pepper to taste
- granulated garlic to taste
- Worcestershire Sauce to taste
- dash of hot sauce
- 4 cups seasoned yellow corn flour
- 2 cups oil
METHOD:
Preheat oil to 375 degrees F. Place frog legs in a mixing bowl and
top with buttermilk. Allow to sit one hour at room temperature.
In a separate bowl, combine egg, mustard and beer. Using a wire
whisk, stir ingredients until well blended. Season lightly using
salt, pepper, garlic, Worcestershire sauce and hot sauce. Place
corn flour in a paper bag. Remove frog legs from buttermilk, coat
in beer batter and place in bag. Seal tightly and shake vigorously
to coat legs thoroughly. Deep fry until golden brown. Serve with
tartar sauce or cocktail sauce.
**LAGNIAPPE**
Buttermilk is used as a tenderizer in this frog leg recipe. Most
people realize that buttermilk is a by-product from the processing
of butter. But did you know that over 80% of the world's non-white
population cannot drink milk? It seems that nature designed milk
to nourish babies and thus designed babies to best digest milk.
The rich sugar in milk, called lactose, can only be digested with
the aid of an enzyme called lactase. This enzyme is produced in
the intestines of babies and decreases as one grows older. For some
reason, white adults maintain more lactase in their system than
non-whites. The American Indians drank no milk before Columbus,
because of the absence of milk producing animals, and most still
consider it distasteful today. Well, with this bit of information,
it is interesting that most of us still love milk. Whether we drink
it or not, it is still used in the majority of the dishes we cook. |
