Deep Fried Frog Legs

This will be the final entry dedicated to the fun of radiation therapy - er, at least I hope it will. During the final week of radiation (28 days is the norm with extra days tacked on as needed) I was in the 'booster' phase which required moving to a new machine which could not only deliver the photon radiation but additional blasts of minimally penetrating electron radiation to blast the hell out of those pesky lymph nodes. The new machine was in a different room, with an entirely new radiation team and a new set up. It was at this point I realized that I could see the computer screen used to position my coordinates on the table in reference to the radiation beams. I noticed on the screen, that it named my position as "frog leg". Now I had pictured myself this way but had no idea that it was actually called that by anyone other than myself. It figures though when you picture laying on your back with the soles of your feet together and a Styrofoam two-by-four between your knees! Picture the frog that was pinned to wax in formaldehyde in junior high biology class and you have the picture.

You know I had to laugh at that and with 6 treatments left, I had time to think about it. I knew I wanted to have a celebration for my last day of tx (treatment) and had planned on the brownie for the staff that I posted here last time but what to do for a home celebration? Eureka - how about fried frog legs? I know there are lots of ways to cook frog legs but given that I felt and looked like I had repeatedly been dipped into a deep fat fryer - I knew that fried had to be the only way.

Having lived in the deep south the past few years, I know that frog legs can frequently be found on menus there. Think about it - the whole region is covered with lakes, creeks, marshes, swamps and bayous so there are frogs aplenty. I also think that the French influence in Cajun cooking helped greatly with the popularity of frog as an edible food source in the south. However, I am currently on the prairies of Canada, so where the heck would I source raw frog legs? I saw an ad in a local foodie newsletter that said Pacific Fresh Fish was celebrating Mardi Gras by having Cajun month....could it be? I called PFF and of course, Ted indicated that they indeed had frog legs, though they were frozen. Gadzooks, is there anything that these guys don't carry or won't get for me? So off we went to pick up some frog legs.



I had never prepared frog legs before and had only eaten them on a few occasions. Suffice to say that they were not my favorite dish since, to me, they tasted a bit of the mud they had spent their lives happily leaping about in. We bought 5 frogs, which means we had 10 legs - too much or too little? We would soon find out.



To prepare the frog legs you must split the legs and cut off any tough torso meat (Pacific Fresh Fish's frog legs were already well cleaned). Then to eliminate some of the 'muddy' flavor I recalled none too fondly, I mixed buttermilk with a pinch each of cumin, garlic powder and cayenne pepper and poured it over the legs to cover. I then popped them in the fridge to marinate for about an hour. If you don't have buttermilk you can use whole milk mixed with a dash of vinegar. After an hour, drained the legs and discarded the buttermilk. In a small bowl I combined plain white flour with cayenne, cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, a dash of chili powder, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Roll the frog legs in the flour mixture to coat well and set aside on a piece of waxed paper. Heat about a 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a heavy skillet to about 350F and fry the frog legs until brown and crunchy. Remove to paper towels and drain. Season with additional saslt and pepper while still hot and on the towels.



I served this with a dipping sauce that was one part mayonnaise, one part sour cream and 1/2 part prepared horseradish. The coolness of the sour cream and the zing of the horseradish really work well with the deep fried frog legs. My fiancé loved it so much that I only met one frog personally before the plate was empty. I would definitely make this again but would like to try the frog legs Provencal or in another dish that isn't deep fried.



This time had to be deep fried frog legs in honor of surviving 31 days of imitating a frog's legs being fried. Some would say that I have a twisted sense of humor but maintaining a sense of humor through radiation or any other cancer treatment is nearly as important as the treatments themselves. Oh and if you are celebrating - don't forget the party hat and the champagne!