Round 8 - Leg 3

Thursday Club is a chance to create new dishes and eat new foods we wouldn’t necessarily eat. Now that 24 meals are in the book, the majority of the animal kingdom has been fried, braised, sautéed, steamed then covered in various sauces. This week was no exception as two more species were added to (or scratched off of) the list. Teddy, Jason’s cousin Alesha and I were treated to a perfectly executed menu:

- Sautéed Frog Legs with parsley/garlic butter
- Roasted Cornish Hen w/sautéed potatoes & string beans & a mustard sauce.
- Chocolate Mousse

The frog legs were dredged in buttermilk and the parsley-garlic butter adhered to the crisp outer layer. Based on the fact that Jason cooked rabbit last time and frog this time, I can only assume the Fraggle Rock village will be the next to be thrown into a pot. No way would they taste as good as these little guys.

From the moment the Cornish hens poked out of the oven, the aroma of the rosemary, lemons and other aromatics stuffed inside made all of our mouths water. The first bite was filled with all of those flavors too. The lemons kept the bird unbelievably moist and the mild mustard sauce complimented the bird and sides equally well.

The chocolate mousse was a hell of a cap to the evening. Regardless of how many egg yolks and pads of butter were mixed in (wait for the lab reports from my cardiologist), it was completely worth it. Smooth and rich, just the way it should be.

Since it was the first day for 2006 Beaujolais Nouveau, it would have been silly not to have a few bottles. But since white meats were the bulk of the menu, we had some terrific whites as well. Enough to sink a ship……