Salad of Cilantro Lime Frog Legs over Mixed Baby Lettuce with Roasted Corn and Calico Dressing

     This is a salad creation that combines a few tasty recipes.  Cilantro lime frog legs saute is something that I have cooked at restaurants that featured Floribbean cuisine.  The flavor is light and nice for warm weather.
     Calico dressing was a Knott's Berry Farm invention that never became as popular as the other trendy salad dressings of the 1960's.  When I was a kid in Los Angeles, we used to go to the Knott's Berry Farm amusement park.  Back in those days, you could find some really great food there.  There was a store at the park where Knott's Berry Farm food products were sold.  We bought a dried calico dressing spice mix package at the store.  The calico dressing had a one of a kind flavor that was very tasty!
     After that purchase, we never saw calico dressing spice mix for sale anywhere.  For some reason, I remembered that calico dressing since those days.  The calico dressing ingredients were simple.  Dried finely minced red bell pepper and dried minced green onion were commonly used in commercial salad dressings in those days.  Calico dressing has a very comfortable mild southwestern flavor that goes nice with the cilantro lime frog legs and the salad ingredients.
     For this recipe, it is best to have the salad ready, before cooking the frog legs!  Frog legs only take a few minutes to cook and because frog legs are thin, they cool off rapidly.  Salads that combine hot and cold sensations are popular in the tropics.
    
     Calico Dressing:
     Place 1 finely minced garlic clove in a small mixing bowl.
     Add 1 tablespoon of very finely minced red bell pepper.
     Add 1 tablespoon of finely minced green onion top.
     Add 1/4 cup of mayonnaise.
     Add 1 tablespoon of sour cream.
     Add 1/2 teaspoon of red wine vinegar.
     Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of water.
     Add 3 pinches of ancho chile powder.
     Add 2 pinches of paprika.
     Add 1 tiny pinch of cayenne pepper.
     Add 1 pinch of onion powder.
     Add sea salt and black pepper.
     Stir the ingredients together.  The dressing should have a thin creamy consistency.
     Set the dressing aside for 10 minutes, so the flavors meld.
    
     Mixed Baby Lettuce Salad Set Up:
     Mound 2 1/2 cups of mixed baby lettuce on the center of a plate.
     Sprinkle some very thin sliced carrot strips over the lettuce.
     Place 4 tomato slices on the plate around the lettuce.
     Chill the salad set up plate in a refrigerator, till the rest of the ingredients are prepared.
    
     Roasted Corn:
     Cut a 3" long piece of corn on the cob.
     Either roast the corn in a dry pan over medium/medium high heat or roast the corn over an open flame.  Roast the corn, till the tips of the kernels turn a brown color.
     Turn the corn ear portion, so the kernels roast evenly.
     Cut the roasted corn kernels off of the cob.
     Set the roasted corn kernels aside.
    
     Cilantro Lime Frog Legs:
     Cut through the hip bone to separate 2 pairs of frog legs into individual legs.
     Dredge the frog legs in flour.
     Heat a saute pan over medium heat.
     Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of blended olive oil.
     Add the frog legs.
     Season with sea salt and black pepper.
     Saute the frog legs, till they become a golden color.
     Add 1 1/2 tablespoons of chopped cilantro leaves.
     Add 2 tablespoons of lime juice.
     Add 1/3 cup of water.
     Reduce the temperature to low heat.
     Simmer and reduce, till the liquid evaporates.
     Remove the pan from the heat and keep it warm on a stove top.
    
     Salad of Cilantro Lime Frog Legs over Mixed Baby Lettuce with Roasted Corn and Calico Dressing:
     Spoon a generous amount of the calico dressing over the mixed baby lettuce salad.
     Use tongs to arrange the frog legs on the salad.
     Sprinkle the roasted corn kernels over the salad.
     Place 2 lime slice curls on top of the salad as a garnish.
     Garnish with a cilantro sprig.
    
     This salad has a very nice refreshing southwestern flavor, even though frogs are kind of rarely found in the southwest!  Yum!  ...  Shawna