Monday 16 January 2012

Frog spawn anyone :o)

Here's one for Toffeeapple, she doesn't like tapioca pudding :o) The cooking instructions on the side of this packet are incomplete, due to me removing the 'whoopsie' label, silly billy. I marked the price on the front to remind myself how cheap it was if I didn't use it up immediately. I bought it from Asda at around March time 2010, so it's a bit out of date. It's been sat in my cupboard for ages, and I haven't found any inclination to use it. I well remember this frog spawn pudding from school days.

Anyway, in these times of austerity, a buzz word which everyone seems to be using now, I have got to make an effort and use up every single item in my store cupboard. I think it is recommended to cook this in the oven, but as my oven doesn't work properly, and I wouldn't use it anyway even if it did, I thought I would try it in the slow cooker. Quinn makes rice pudding in a slow cooker, so I wondered if this would be the same.

I started it off last night, boiled some water in the kettle, added some Coffee Mate, and was intending to leave it all night as I didn't know how long it needed. I checked before I went to bed and found it was cooked, but a bit lumpy, so I transfered it to a saucepan.

This morning I tasted it, yuk, tastes of nothing, needs some milk and something to sweeten it. I have soya milk on my bran flakes, but yesterday in Tesco I noticed how the price of the organic long life has rocketed to £1.10 from 89p. I started using this one after the price of the soya milk in the chiller cabinet also went up. So now I am looking for a cheaper alternative.

I don't expect the Value one at 65p to be very nice, because the Value yogurts are awful, but it's worth a try. I'll let you know how I get on with that when I open it. I was perusing the shelves of long life milk reading the labels, and found some good old fashioned evaporated milk. I used to love that when I was a kid, maybe this is the time to go back to it.


So, I opened the evap milk, poured it into a jug and put it in the fridge. I swilled a drop of water around in the tin and emptied it into the tapioca. Next I added two teaspoons of honey and put it on the stove to warm up. Quick taste, a drop more milk was needed, and hey presto, it's not too bad at all. Frog spawn.


It says on the packet it is microwaveable so I will try that next, there is plenty left. I am determined I am going to eat it. I should add here that I don't eat puddings after a meal, because my meals are so filling. My puddings come any time I fancy one, breakfast, elevenses, mid afternoon, or bed time.

Tomorrow I will try diluted evaporated milk on my bran flakes, if it tastes alright I will make a switch to that. In my coffee I always use Coffee Mate, I buy it cheap on offer, and I can get zillions of cups out of one packet, so very cost effective. It's a cereal day tomorrow by the way, I had a fruit, veg, oats and seeds smoothie this morning, with a cup of green tea. I have updated my food spend diary after yesterday's shop if anyone is interested. Toodle pip.

24 comments:

  1. Now Ilona I was with you with the rice pudding but tapioca is a step too far for me. Reminds me of wallpaper paste :p. Evaporated milk on the other hand is amazing stuff. My mum did allsorts with it and made everything taste nice. Don't you think evap milk is expensive now though? Was looking at powdered milk to have in my store cupboard and that too has gone through the roof! :( Debs x

    ReplyDelete
  2. DO NOT.....I repeat DO NOT ever try powdered soy milk ....it is so gross!! I thought I'd keep some on hand for emergencies BLECH!
    As for tapioca...I used to have it when I was little.....but would have preferred rice cremola any day.
    Jane x

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm probably wrong but I thought that there were only two kinds of soya, organic and GM. So if GM has been banned from foodstuffs in this country, that value stuff is probably made with "organic" soya as well? I used it in the past but can't tolerate that much soya in one go any more - I can just about manage a little soya cream on a crumble but I couldn't take a rice pud made with soya milk, nor cereal with soya milk over it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Just for me eh? Ha ha, this has just re-confirmed my conviction that it is frog-spawn without flavour. It says on the pack front that is is delicious but I note that the picture shows it with fruit and Amaretti biscuits I expect that delicious comes from those two things.

    When I was little, we used to have tinned fruit for tea on Sundays and it always had evaporated milk over it which I hated, it used to mix with the syrup in the dish and look curdled. And we had to eat bread and butter with it. I've never really liked tinned fruit either...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I lovve tapioca pudding, especially with rose hip syrup, reminds me of school dinners....

    Gill in Canada

    ReplyDelete
  6. Eughhhh...like Toffeeapple, I remember being expected to eat bread and butter with tinned fruit. The thought still disgusts me. I'm not sure I've ever actually tried tapioca. I remember it being a staple pud with school dinners (of course they call them 'lunches' now...)but I think I went without because other children told me it was disgusting, along with rice pudding and semolina! I used to cook rice pud for my family, but never ate it myself... I would rather go without!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Rice creamola is luvverly :0) You cannot buy the packet any more but I managed to track down a recipe using ground rice and custard powder - just as good as the real thing!
    Tapioca is blurgh!
    I also remember tinned fruit cocktail with evaporated milk and bread and butter, it was a very special treat when we went to my nan's, didn't realise it was a nationwide thing, thought she had invented it lol

    ReplyDelete
  8. I used to get into bother at Junior school for not eating my tapioca. In the end I used to hide it in my hanky and lose it in the toilets later.... blerghh...
    shudder.......

    ReplyDelete
  9. Reading the comments has reminded me that we used to have it with rosehip syrup too. I also used to have tinned fruit with bread and butter. Why not put some tinned fruit with your frog spawn Ilona. My favourite is ground rice. Yum. Do you remember at school having jam with milk puddings and stirring it in until it was pink?

    ReplyDelete
  10. All the English terms for things confuse me since I have not heard of many of these things. However, Cremora is something I know but don't use.

    Cream of Rice makes a nice thick dish to eat hot with butter, sugar, and a little milk in it. I make my own by grinding rice in my coffee bean grinder.

    Semolina is a high-protein wheat flour over here. I can imagine that it did need something if you just cooked it!

    I bought Rice Dream, a rice milk, to try since everyone says it is delicious. It is not. Plus, I made some and it was horrid, but maybe you would like it.It's too sweet for me.

    Do you dilute the evaporated milk? Our Pet Milk is meant to be diluted half and half for milk. I do use it to cook and bake with.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Have you tried dried milk ? Best if mixed and put in the fridge for 12 hours to "bloom". I did nt like it at first but got used to its "burnt"taste. You can get a big box in Aldi, might work out price wise for you.
    Carnation do it but there are quite a few generics and I cant tell the difference.
    Tapioca................yes school dinners............

    ReplyDelete
  12. ooo I love frogspawn, we had it at school when I was little. My Dad told me years ago they had prunes and custard and called it the black death :)
    Twiggy x

    ReplyDelete
  13. Mmmmm prunes and custard. I must be a one off, I loved nearly all my school dinners especially the puds. Chocolate concrete, cornflake tart, and all milk puds etc. The only thing I hated with a passion was pink custard.

    ReplyDelete
  14. As Lizzie says,Powdered milk made up in a jug and kept covered in the fridge isn't bad at all. We used it all the time when we were extremely hard up and we all got used to it. Don't know what guests thought though....they were too polite to complain I think. lol
    Personally I like semolina best made with evap.
    Briony
    x

    ReplyDelete
  15. I used "instant" tapioca pudding. These are the instructions for THAT- maybe you can modify it for the tapioca you have!
    1) Combine 1/3 cup sugar , 3 tbsp. tapioca, 2 3/4 cups of milk and 1 egg (slightly beaten) in a saucepan. Let stand 5 minutes.
    2) Cook and stir over medium heat until the mixture comes to a full boil.(Puddding thickens as it cools).
    3) Remove from heat. Stir in 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Cool 20 minutes. Stir.Serve warm or chilled.
    I LOVE this! You need to put in vanilla and sugar! Let me know your mailing address and I will mail you a box when I come to the UK next month!

    ReplyDelete
  16. I too am using up dried ingredients from the storecupboard. I have lots of different types of rice, thought I would be really posh and bought risotto rice AND paella rice. Of course, have never got round to making either! However, I did use up the pot of short grain (pudding rice) so am thinking I may use the Italian rice to make more rice puddings as that too is short grain. Have you thought about some stewed fruit on your tapioca? I sometimes stew apples etc, or buy the value frozen berry fruit (either leave this to defrost or cook slightly) The berries especially make a lovely rich fruity 'sauce' which really goes a long way with milk puddings or yogurt etc.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Frog spawn pudding. That took me straight back to the dining hall in our village school. I couldn`t bear school rice/tapioca/ semolina puddings but we had to eat them. Lots of red jam was the only way!

    ReplyDelete
  18. I don't think I've ever tried tapioca, but it REALLY looks like frogspawn, haha!

    I have a story about that Value soy milk. Today, I was inspired by remembering that you went on a rubbish-collecting walk every so often. I thought I'd do the same. My lane doesn't look toooo messy but I'd noticed some bottles, so I thought I'd see what I can clean up.

    Anyway, I came home with TWO BIN LINERS after 0.4 miles!! If I see anyone dropping litter down my lovely country lane there will be TROUBLE. I'll be writing a blog post about everything I found, but one of the bin bags was almost filled by two shopping plastic bags CRAMMED FULL of Value Soy Milk cartons, tossed in a ditch. Who would DO THAT?!?!

    So yes, long story short, I'm hoping they were just ignorant people, rather than the milk turning people into litterbugs... Let me know how you get on! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  19. Glad you managed to make up your tapioca in a way that was palatable, Ilona. Bringing back a lot of memories for me of school dinners.

    Used to have tapioca in school also, a lot of people used to refuse it, and the cooks would pull the bowl out of their hands and put an extra big ladleful in, then the teacher would sit over them until they ate every bit. Re evaporated milk, my mam would use it to make mousses, half set jelly and then blitz in the milk and leave to set, never lasted long. What you need for the tapioca, Ilona is condensed milk! ;-) Malt extract in a jar was another thing we used to get, haven't had it in years, very sweet, like condensed milk.

    All this talk of milk puddings has made me crave some semolina. Enjoy your pudding, Ilona. Cheers, Christy.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Ugh, hate it! Hated it at school too, that and rice pudding. Semolina I could eat but used to be put off when people on the table used to stir their jam into it!

    We used to hang around the kitchens after school dinner for leftover steamed puddings which were always gorgeous. Nothing like a ginger sponge cooked in one of those big tins with a lid on!

    ReplyDelete
  21. oh Tapioca is bloomin lovely with a big spoonful of jam.
    You could always grind it and use it as a flour substitute if you have a grinder.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I loved nearly all school puddings apart from tapioca, sago, suet puddings and anything with apricots in. The blob of jam we had on tapioca and sago had to be stirred in thoroughly to try and get a better taste!
    We weren't allowed to leave anything, and when we had apricots I used to eat all around them, then just before I left the hall I'd put all the apricots in my mouth and quickly go and spit them down the toilet.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wean of the Woods19 January 2012 at 07:03

    I LOVE soy milk - positively crave it actually !
    I'm a veggie and use it a lot and I've made my own from soybeans too - it makes lovely yoghurt.
    I like the suggestion here of grinding rice before cooking - gonna try that one.

    ReplyDelete
  24. hi ,I have just purchased some ground rice , so will try to make some

    creamola , wish me luck , if like me you love custard slices but find that apart from being very small if purchased from a shop and are very expensive I make my own ,-buy one packet of Jacobs cream crackers , take 4 crackers tedgingo make two custard slices, now make a small amount of custard not runny and stand till cool but but not cold while cooling you have time to make some icing ,cover two crackers with icing edge to edge , next on the two remaining crackers cover with a custard as thick as you please ,now place the iced covered crackers on top of the custard covered crackers all done but not ready to eat , very important ,you must now place your fantastic slices in the fridge overnight , they are big and moist and oh so moreish, enjoy ,great for party's ,I make them buy the dozen .george

    ReplyDelete

Some comments will be accepted. I decide which are published.

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.