Thursday Recipe - Frog Eye Salad, Dairy-free and Gluten-free

This is one of those classic recipes. It's called a salad but it's more of a pudding. The traditional recipe calls for canned fruit, whipped topping, and a tiny pasta called acini de pepe. There are lots of recipes out there for it. It's been a staple potluck dish since the 1960s or 1970s. I like it for dessert. It's sweet, but not too much. Plus it's fun to serve frog eyes.

My daughter, the one with food allergies, adores tapioca pudding for some reason. I couldn't stand the stuff when I was her age. So I had an epiphany today. I could combine the tapioca pudding with the frog eye salad and make something she could enjoy along with the rest of us.

This recipe is similar but uses just fruit juice.

Frog Eye Salad, DF GF version

1/3 c. pearl tapioca (tiny little white balls, look for it in the baking section of the grocery store)
1/3 c. sugar
3 c. almond or coconut milk (the drinking kind in a carton)
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/8 t. salt
1 18-oz can pineapple tidbits in pineapple juice
1 16-oz can fruit cocktail in water or juice
1 8-oz can mandarin oranges
whipped topping (optional)

Mix tapioca, sugar, milk, vanilla, and salt in a 2-quart saucepan. Let sit for 30 minutes. This helps plump up the tapioca so it cooks more evenly and has a smoother texture.

Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture thickens and boils. Remove from heat and let cool, stirring occasionally. (You just made tapioca pudding if you want to stop here and refrigerate it.)

Open the cans of fruit. Drain. (Save the juice and use it instead of milk in the tapioca pudding half of this recipe. It makes a nice fruity pudding.)

Stir the fruit into the tapioca pudding. Stir in whipped topping if you want a lighter texture, but it's totally optional. Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve later.

Makes about 6-8 servings.

Thursday Recipe - Dairy-Free Citrus Pudding and Meringues

This recipe is based off the filling for lemon meringue pie out of my trusty old Betty Crocker cookbook. It makes a great dessert for this time of year. It's cold and nasty outside. We get horrible inversions that just make the air gunky and trigger all sorts of health problems. This pudding is a refreshing way to remember that spring will come and summer won't be far behind and then we'll be complaining about the heat. It's always something.

The meringues are to use up the egg whites, plus they add some texture to the dish and an extra touch of sweetness. Meringues can be a little tricky. If done right, they bake up light and fluffy with a nice crunchy exterior. The trick is to let them cool in the oven. Bake them last thing before you go to bed, turn off the oven and leave them inside to cool overnight. Once done, store in a loosely covered container. Don't seal them up or they'll go soft.

If you like tart, use the lesser amount of sugar. If you like it sweeter, add the higher amount of sugar.

Dairy-Free Citrus Pudding

1 to 1 1/2 c. sugar
1/3 c. cornstarch
1 1/2 c. water
3 egg yolks, beaten smooth
3 T. butter
enough lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruit, etc to yield 1 1/2 c. juice (use just one kind or mix and match)

Mix sugar and cornstarch together in a medium saucepan. Stir in water. Whisk until smooth, then turn on the heat to medium high. Cook and stir until the mixture thickens and boils. Boil for one minute, stirring the whole time. Remove from the heat. Stir about 1/3 of the hot mixture into the egg yolks. Whisk it smooth. Stir the egg mixture back into the hot stuff in the pot. Bring back to a boil. Boil and stir for one minute.

Remove from heat. Stir in butter and citrus juice. Whisk until very smooth. Pour into serving bowl or dishes. Cover loosely and refrigerate until set, at least two hours.

Serve with meringues. Garnish with citrus peels, fresh lemon slices, chocolate curls for orange, or whatever you'd like.

Meringues (Pavlova)

3 egg whites
1/4 t. cream of tartar
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 t. vanilla

Heat oven to 225°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar, 1 T. at a time, beating really well after each addition. Add vanilla. Beat on high until stiff and glossy. This takes at least five minutes. Don't underbeat it. It looks like really stiff whipped cream.

Spoon onto the baking sheet. It should make about a dozen mounds. Bake for one hour. DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE OVEN. Turn the oven off and let them cool inside for at least an hour and a half. Remove the sheet from the oven and finish cooling on the counter. They should be very very lightly browned and may crack on the outside.

Store in a very loosely covered container.

Thursday Recipe - Almond Coconut Custard

Most of my family is allergic to milk, hence my quest to find a really good milk-free pudding recipe. I think this one really nails it. You want to make it at least 1-2 days ahead of when you want to use it. It needs time to cool and the texture really improves after the first 24 hours, especially if you whisk it really well a couple of times.

I bought coconut milk from a local Asian grocery store. A whole case of it was pretty cheap. You may have to search for it at your local stores. Use the full fat version for this recipe. It needs the creaminess. It was similar to this one:

I found almond milk at Costco. It's pricier than Rice Dream, which is our usual milk substitute, but Rice Dream doesn't cook well. Almond milk gives it a great taste and body, especially if you use the vanilla flavored variety.

Almond Coconut Custard

1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/4 t. salt
2 c. almond milk
2 c. coconut milk
4 egg yolks (use the whites for divinity)
2 T. butter
1/2 t. vanilla extract
1/4 t. almond extract

Mix sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a 3 quart saucepan. Stir in almond and coconut milk and egg yolks. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil and stir for one minute. Remove from heat. Add butter and extracts. Stir until butter is melted and pudding is smooth.

Pour into a bowl. Place a piece of plastic wrap over the pudding, pressing it down on the surface and sealing it to the sides of the bowl. I find a ceramic, Corelle, or metal bowl works best for this. Refrigerate the pudding for at least four hours until thoroughly chilled. Beat with a hand whisk until pudding is smooth. Cover and return to refrigerator overnight.

Whisk pudding before using in banana cream pie or serving as pudding. We like to set ours out with a variety of mix-ins and let the kids build their own fancy pudding.

Mix-in suggestions - cookies like Oreos or Teddy Grahams or Cream Wafers, fresh fruit - especially bananas or strawberries or blueberries, mini-marshmallows, chocolate chips, M&Ms, or whatever else you like with your pudding.

Thursday Recipe - Dairy Free Rice Pudding

Call it rice pudding and no one eats it. Call it sweet, sticky rice and they eat it but no one knows what it is. This is my attempt to recreate the sweet rice served as a dessert in Thai restaurants. It's one of the few desserts I can still have, at least for this month.

Sweet Sticky Rice, aka Dairy Free Rice Pudding

2 c. short grain rice or sticky rice or glutinous rice
1 can coconut milk, plus enough hot water to equal 4 c. total liquid
1/4 c. sugar, brown or white
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. salt

Stir together all ingredients in a 2 quart crockpot. Cover and cook on low for 4 - 6 hours, until rice is done. Serve warm or cold. Garnish with fresh mango or strawberries, if desired. You can also add 1/2 c. raisins if you want the more traditional rice pudding.