Eating frogs’ legs

I know some of you will be disgusted but we do eat frogs’legs in France. Actually in my family we tend to eat out around Christmas time and I always pick this dish.

People say the taste and texture of frog meat is between chicken and fish. Well, you need to try this dish yourself to find out. 

The frogs legs are cooked in butter, garlic and parsley.

I have put the photo of what the dish looks like when you get it and what my plate looked like when I finished! 

You eat the frogs’legs with your fingers. No need to use your knife and fork!

Try this dish if you visit Lyon in France, the capital of gastronomy…

Pike quenelles

This is another dish that Raymond Blanc cooked on his program when he visited Lyon (France) and that I really fancied after watching it! Pike Quenelles!

I cheat and buy mine frozen. All I need to do is a tomato sauce to cover the quenelles and I top them up with grated cheese (I use my favorite French cheese: Comté). The traditional sauce is indeed a crayfish sauce. The proper name for them in French is “Quenelles de brochet sauce Nantua”.

The quenelles need to cook for about 40 – 45 min at 200 degrees in the oven. You know when they are done as they will double in size and look brown!

Serve them straight away as they will “deflate” like a soufflé ! (I took this photo too late, they were a lot bigger 2 minutes earlier!).

I grew up near Lyon and I always have Quenelles when I visit my parents. It is always on the men and they always taste better when my Mam cooks them!

Recipes for the Carnaval celebrations

Carnaval celebrations started on Tuesday 16th (Mardi-gras) this year. Rich foods are usually eaten as a tradition. See my other post here.

Here is the recipe and a photo of the Bugnes I made last week:

Bugnes moëlleuses. They - according to my English friends - test like doughnuts! It is a Lyonnaise recipe.

Ingredients for about 50 Bugnes

- 400 g of flour

- 3 eggs
- 1 sachet backing powder
- 60 g of butter
- 25 cl of milk
- 3 tablespoons of sugar
- 1 or 2 tablespoons of orange water (fleur d'oranger)
- oil for frying
- icing sugar for the decoration

How to prepare the Bugnes:

Mix flour, backing powder, sugar, eggs and orange water with a wooden spoon.

In the meantime melt butter with milk.

Add the butter mixture to the other ingredients with the wooden spoon then by hand. Add flour if needed (I must say I had to add a lot of flour to get a nice dough). It is ready when it is not sticky anymore.

Sprinkle the work top with floor and roll the dough with a rolling pin. The thickness of the Bugnes should be about 5 mm. The proper Bugnes are diamond shaped with the hole in the middle but you can do any shapes you want!

How to cook the bugnes:

Fry the Bugnes in hot oil until they are brown. Put them on kitchen paper so it absorbs most of the fat.

Sprinkle them with icing sugar before serving. They are delicious warm!

You can also cover them with home-made jam or lemon curd! It is Mardi-Gras (Fat Tuesday) after all so enjoy it!