Hoppy

Passport & Plate - Baked Jungle Frog

Thailand | Thursday, March 5, 2015 | 3 photos

Ingredients
3-4 whole frog
2-4 Chillies (depending on how hot you like it)
2 garlic cloves
half a stalk of Lemongrass
1in piece of galangal
splash of soy sauce
pinch of brown sugar
splash of water
banana leaves

 

How to prepare this recipe
roughly chop chillies, garlic, lemongrass and galangal then pound into a paste.
Add soy sauce and sugar and mix together.
Prepare the banana leaves by folding into a rough box shape.
Put the frogs into the box and cover with the paste.
Add some water to the box to help steam the frogs.
Wrap banana leaves into a parcel and bake on coals for 20 mins.

 

The story behind this recipe
This breakfast recipe hails from a small village in a Thai national park near Chang Mai. Upon arrival in Thailand my plan was to attend a couple of cooking classes but my travelling companion had other ideas, he was keen to go on a trek into the jungle. We left Chang Mai with a group of 10 other travellers for a 3 day 2 night trek in a national park. After an hour long drive we stopped and unloaded the truck. I was excited to see all the food our guides had brought and secretly thought I would get me cooking lesson after all. We walked to our first stop and arrived at a tiny village in a clearing with one house and a shack where we would be sleeping, it was extremely basic but I was excited. After a group dinner was cooked and eaten we waited until it started to get dark and headed off into the jungle for a midnight walk. The jungle comes alive at night and without reduced sight your ears are assaulted with noise from every direction. As we walked through the jungle the skills of our guides became apparent, they were able to see and spot things that were almost invisible to the untrained eye. At one point one of the guides dived onto the floor to catch a frog as it tried to hop away, I'd never seen anything like it. The whole journey consisted of various instances like this, that included tarantulas, rats and frogs. Upon return to camp the guides explained that they would now kill the frogs by bashing their heads and they would cook them in the morning. I instantly asked to help. In the morning upon waking I was taught how to put the quoted recipe together and was shown how to wrap the banana leaves.I waited patiently for the 20 mins or so to pass and the result was my first time handling, cooking and eating frog. The meat was moist and could be sucked from the bones like a little frog lollipop and had a deep heat to it from the chillies and galangal and a sweetness from the sugar.