Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Frog Eye Salad

I mentioned Saturday that I really wanted a recipe for frog eye salad, since we where making frog eye pilaf as a savory side. Wow for the great response everyone! This salad is more of a sweet dessert type salad. Apparently a lot more popular than I realized, by the overwhelming response to my email box. Thank you everyone for the sweet recipes! I got several variations. Tried a few. Loved them all. Auntie Em even sent me one that was a pina colada variation. It was a toss up, but in the end decided to go with my own variation morphing with the one I liked best from Coby S. Thanks for the family recipe. We have very much enjoyed it. Coby wrote,

"Stephanie,
This is out of my grandma's cookbook that she made for us grand kids several years ago. We change up the added fruit sometimes but here is the standard recipe. Have a wonderful day! ~Coby

Frog Eye Salad

1/2 box de pepe pasta cooked and cooled
2 cans mandarin oranges drained, save juice
1 20oz can pineapple tidbits drained, save juice
1 20oz can crushed pineapple drained, save juice
grapes
maraschino cherries
fruit cocktail
1 large cool whip

Dressing:
1 3/4 cup of drained juices
3 beaten eggs
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt

Boil until thick and cool.

Mix dressing with de pepe and refrigerate overnight. Next night add remaining ingredients. Serves 20.
Here's what I did to serve 10 and a few personal changes.
Only 6 ingredients and my family preferred it. However, I loved Coby's variation too.
1/2 cup uncooked acini de pepe, cooked 10 minutes, drained and cooled
2 cups heavy Bavarian Style Whipping cream
1 small package instant vanilla pudding (can use sugar free)
1 20 oz can crushed pineapple, drained and juice squeezed out
1 11 oz can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup chopped maraschino cherries
First whip the cream with the pudding until stiff, but don't over whip. About 5 minutes.
Combine remaining ingredients.
Mix with the whip cream mixture.
In this way I was able to avoid having to wait overnight for the pasta and dressing to set up, which was basically a sweet custard anyway. In the end the flavor was similar enough my family didn't notice. Yes. Ten servings. Individually or in one sitting. Refrigerate after mixing, or serve right away. If there are left overs, refrigerate.
Thank you everyone for the great response and wonderful ideas. I had a lot of fun.
Try the frog eye salad. It's all good. Home style and good. There you go.

1 comment:

Heather Hunt said...

This reminds me of my grandmother's Heavenly Hash.... fluff and fruit.... MUST be good for you! LOL