A Little Somethin' Froggy on the Side

When I mentioned to Seeley that I was thinking about making frog eye salad, she made it quite clear that she wouldn’t be eating anything with frog eyes in it.  Perhaps she’ll come around when she sees that the ‘frog eyes’ in this recipe are actually just pasta.  Traditionally, it’s made with canned fruit and marshmallows and coconut, but as you know by now, we don’t really do traditional around here.  I decided to use the basic recipe, but to put in my favorite fruits.  You can put whatever you want in it, and it’ll be sure to make a fabulous side to go with your Easter ham.  And speaking of Easter ham, be sure you save the liquid that cooks off and the bone and extra meat, and next week, I’ll show you a fabulous way to use them.  Now, onto fruity, creamy, delicious frog eye salad. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

1 cup acini de pepe, uncooked
¾ cups sugar
½ teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons flour
1 ¼ cups pineapple juice, drained from canned pineapple
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
2 eggs

Whatever fruit you want to put in.  I used strawberries, kiwi, blueberries, and mango.

Drain your pineapple.  I used all of the juice from a big can of tidbits and a small can of crushed, but used only about half of the actual tidbits.  If you don’t have quite enough juice, you can add another kind of juice or even water to get you to 1 ¼ cups.  Put the pineapple into a container or bag and into the fridge until you need it later. 

Cook your pasta for the least amount of time on the package directions. 

Drain it, and stir in a tablespoon of butter.

In a medium saucepan, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Whisk the eggs and lemon juice into the pineapple juice. 

Pour that into the dry ingredients and whisk them together over medium heat. 

Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes thick.  If you run your finger through it on the back of the spoon, it will not run back together.

Pour that over the cooked acini de pepe and stir them together. 

Cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface and refrigerate overnight. 

The next day, it’s time for the fruit.  This is how I like to cube a mango.  Cut both sides off, avoiding the pit. 

Then run a knife along the inside, not going through the skin, making little cubes. 

Turn the whole thing inside out, and then you can just scrape them off with a spoon, or even your fingers, into a bowl. 

Dice up the strawberries. 

Blueberries just have to be rinsed.

And last, but not least, is the kiwi. 

Cut off both ends and stand it upright.

Cut down the sides, removing the peel in strips.

Quarter it and dice it.  (I used 2 kiwis)

Look how pretty that is!  Lovely colors for springtime. 

Add your pineapple to the bowl and stir all the fruit together. 

Pull your pasta mixture out of the fridge.  It should be quite solid. 

To 2 cups cream, add 2 teaspoons vanilla and 3 Tablespoons sugar. 

Whip until… voilá!

With a spatula, loosen up the pasta mixture a bit.  It’s pretty solid, so you’ll kind of have to chop and smoosh. 

Fold in the whipped cream in batches.  At first it will be more stirring/smashing than actual folding. 

But eventually, the mixture will start to come together, and you’ll be able to fold properly. 

Now, add your fruit.  Oh dear.  Do you see the same problem I do?  Obviously my bowl isn’t big enough.  Oh well, I have confidence in my abilities! 

Fold in your fruit until everything is incorporated.  And there you have it!  Frog Eye Salad.  It’s sweet, creamy, fruity, and delicious. 

Don’t you just love all the beautiful colors? 

What’s your favorite springtime side dish?

Update on Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 11:55AM by Taneasha

I made a lower fat version of this dish this week and it was fabulous.  Simply substitute 2 cups of nonfat, vanilla, Greek yogurt, for one of the cups of cream.  Stir the yogurt into the pasta mixture first, and then whip 1 cup of cream with 1.5 Tablespoons of sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and fold it in before adding the fruit.  That cuts the fat content of this just about in half, and it's every bit as delicious.   

Not Cross Buns

I love hot cross buns, but I still haven't figured out how to keep yeast alive.

I am pretty good at making biscuits though. So, I'm sticking with my strength and messing with a traditional recipe.

If you're not familiar with Hot Cross Buns, they're a sweetened, spiced, fruited bread, usually served in the spring. The utilitarian version of the story is that they are made with the last of the dried fruit stores; winter is over, spring is making new fresh food, and yet you still have food in the pantry! Yay! We didn't starve to death over the winter!

Of course, like many other ancient traditions, they were appropriated by the newcomers, and added to that mythology.

They were always an Eoster breakfast thing at when I was a kid, and this time of year makes me crave them. And until the bakery starts making them, I'm going to have to come up with something of my own. 

Not Cross Buns

What you need:

• Biscuit dough
• 1/4 c dried cherries
• 1/4 c dried apricots
• 2 tbsp ginger sugar**
• any other dried fruit, candied peel, or spice you like

** I have ginger flavoured sugar leftover from making candied ginger, which would also work really well in these, but regular sugar will do fine, just add 1/4 tsp dried ginger with it.

What you gotta do:

Chop the apricots and cherries (and ginger, and orange peel, and whatever you want).

Roll out the biscuit dough into a rectangle, just like you would if you were making savoury cheese biscuits.

Put 1/4 of the fruits and sugar in a row in the middle of the rectangle.

Fold the part of the rectangle closest to you up and over the fruit, and put another 1/4 on top, then fold over the other half.

Roll this out and do it all over again.

Roll into your final rectangle and cut into 8.

If you want to have them look a little more like their inspiration, you can cut an X into the top of them. Or you can sprinkle some more sugar over top, or both, or neither. Whatever you have the patience for.

Bake them at 400 for about 20 minutes.

They'll be lovely and golden and glistening with the last of the winter's dried fruit.

I thought these needed a bit more spice to them, so I mixed some cinnamon into the butter. Cinnamon butter!

These taste like the end of winter and go perfectly with a lovely cuppa tea. Or coffee. 

What signals the end of winter to you?