宫保田鸡 - Gong Bao frog

主要材料/Main Ingredients:
三只田鸡 （大概六新元）
3 frogs (about 400-500 grams for 6 dollars)

做法/Instructions：
1. 将田鸡去皮，洗干净及适当的处理，斩块。
De-skin, clean, process the frogs, and cut into pieces.
2. 撒上少许面粉、盐、黑胡椒、白胡椒，白酒，腌5-10分钟。
Add flour, salt, black & white pepper, white-wine (we used Martini due to availability) to marinate for 5-10 minutes.
3. 锅下油大火热油，将腌好的田鸡下锅煎熟，取出搁一旁。
Frying oil to high heat, pan-fried frogs until golden-brown, and put aside.
4. 在剩下的油加入干辣椒，姜片爆香。然后加入大葱（切片），炒炒。
Fry the dry chilli, ginger until smelling then fragrance, then add-in onions.
5. 加入糖、蚝油，黑酱油，炒炒。
Add sugar, oyster sauce, dark soy sauce, fry fry fry.
6. 加入之前煎好的田鸡，炒炒。
Add in the fried frogs and mix for a while.
7. 加入酒，炒炒及盖锅焖一下。既可食用。
Add in rice wine and cover the pan for 1/2 a minute to fully cooked the frog.


In 'Z' sequence from top-left to bottom-right:
1. Marinated frogs;
2. Onions, gingers, dried chilli (ignore the garlic in the picture);
3. Another view of frogs;
4. Pan fried frogs;
5. Pan fried dried chilli, onion and ginger;
6. Add in sugar, oyster sauce and dark soy sauce;
7. Add in frogs and rice wine, and fry fry fry;
8. Yummy yummy final product.

试味/Tasting notes:
1. The sauce is sweet & pungently spicy (ma-la in TzeChuan terms) and is good with rice.
2. The frog meats are much more tender and soft, yet very solid without breaking apart, comparing with chicken meat.
3. Yummy x 100, try it for yourself to find out.

Note: Commonly known as Kung Pao (although the proper translation is Gong Bao), the method is used to cook chicken cubes (Gong Bao chicken). Since frog taste similarly to chicken, if not better, that's why the same cooking method is used to create the Gong Bao frog. Actually, these kind of huge frogs are commonly known as 'tian ji', which means 'chicken in the paddy-field'. The trick to this dish is to fry the chilli until it's fragrant before adding other ingredients. The sauce need to be thick, some chef cut-corner by adding water, then flour to the sauce to make it *looks* thick.

The Kung Pao chicken in the United States are usually added with peanuts and some funny-funny vege-cubes, but most Asian would think that this is a real spoiler to the dish. On the contrary, the Gong Bao frog (or frog leg) are usually authentic since I believe no Westerners dare to take frog as delicacy. Actually, frog taste much better than chicken in some way that Westerners will never understand it, and yet healthier than chicken with much less cholesterol and fat. And there are various recipe to cook the Gong Bao, the above is just yet another possible methods.