During last year’s winter stay in Florida, I kept myself engaged by posting periodically in a thread that I titled “Florida Fish of the Week”, where I detailed my (not quite) weekly preparation and wine pairing of a FL fish. I recently saw Everglades frog legs offered at a local fish store and grabbed a pound. In this post, I am taking a nostalgic revisit to that thread and to other things . . .
My first taste of frog legs was as “Cuisses de Grenouilles” circa 1972 at the Du Barry restaurant on Newbury Street in Boston. Jacqueline and I had been seeing each other for a several months, and my dad invited us to meet him in Boston for lunch. I remember that the dish was a little scary, but surprisingly delicious. My dad ordered a bottle of Pouilly-Fuissé to drink with the meal. My first French food and my first “serious” wine (i.e. not Ripple, Boonsfarm, Mateus, etc.). Seemed very sophisticated to me at the time, something maybe beyond my reach, but also worthwhile aspiring towards. How time flies and things change: what once was a staple on French restaurant menus seems to have almost disappeared; Pouilly-Fuissé doesn’t seem to get much attention these days; and that man-child at the French restaurant in 1972 is now an old man spending the winter in FL, thinking about how to prepare a pound of frog legs from the Everglades, and what would be a good wine to pair with it.
For a recipe, I was “fishing” around for French preparations at first, but then decided to go new world Southern USA – after all this is Florida and these legs are from Everglades frogs. Found a very simple recipe. Marinate the frog legs in milk for an hour or so, salt and pepper, coat in flour mixture, cook in clarified butter, and serve with lemon. I liked the idea of the milk soak and the buttery cooking. I also added some Old Bay to the flour for some additional seasoning. To keep the FL theme going, we served it with Meyer lemon!
For a wine, my first thought was to go with a 2018 Pépière Muscadet. Less piercingly acidic than in some other years, but my thinking was that there would still be ample acid to cut the buttery taste and meet the lemon, with some riper fruit coming along also. It was maybe a good thought, but I spotted a 2017 Drouhin Pouilly-Fuissé and that seemed a better thought.
The prep went smoothly until the coated frog legs hit the butter in the pan. Too many legs for the pan and a lot of the coating fell off in the crowd. Maybe should have used two pans? The flavor of the legs cooked this way was a bit mild, and I had second thoughts about not going “a la Provencale”. Tasty, but not ‘Wow’.
I thought that the 2017 Drouhin Pouilly-Fuissé was a good wine. But I mentally compared it to 2017 Fevre Chablis and found it less energetic, more fruity, rounder and a little tame (like the dish). Pleasant wine, but nothing remarkable and no ‘Wow’ here either.
Well . . . life is not often ‘Wow’, and we have learned to be grateful for the pleasant and the good along the way.
Tempus fugit!
Carpe diem!
Cheers!