Our next chef in our January series of Celebrity Home Chefs is Perla Mondriguez, a pharmaceutical rep and mother of two in Union , NJ. She shares with us her grandmother’s unique recipe for Flan Ruso (Russian Flan). This looks delicious!!!
Enjoy and keep sending in your recipes! Reminder: it does NOT need to be an original recipe!
Flan Ruso
Ingredients:
1 large can of pears in light syrup
1 8oz package of cream cheese
1 gelatine envelope (not sure if you do gelatine or not)
24 marshmellows
1/3 cup of water
Instructions:
Place pears (not the syrup) in medium size glass mold/baking dish.
Put 1/2 the syrup in a pot @ low heat. Slowly add the marshmellows, stirring until they melt. Remove pot from stove.
Blend the other 1/2 of syrup with the 8 oz cream cheese.
Combine the two: marshmellows and syrup with cream cheese and syrup.
Boil 1/3 cup of water and dissolve gelatine completely.
Add the gelatine to the syrup/cream cheese/marshmellow mix.
Beat a few seconds to blend ingredients.
Pour the entire over the pears.
Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
5 Responses
Alma,
Did you see the ingrediants for this recipe? Looks like it was made up by Kraft test kitchens circa 1955: canned pears? gelatin? marshmallows?
Love you dearly, but this recipe is pretty contrary to what your brand stands for….
And of course you know that Russians have never heard of marshmallows and make their own gelatin from chicken or pork…and only use it for savory, not sweet dishes.
As a russo/latinophile I am offended by this recipe! đŸ™‚
That said, I have a wonderful and econmical traditional russian recipe for boiled cow tongue with homemade creamy horseradish đŸ™‚
I think I need to take a break from the chefs' recipes and address this comment in the next post. Stay tuned…..
The Committee for the Defense of Flan Ruso is meeting on Saturday!
It does sound like the punchline to and anti-communist joke(What do you call a flan that can't be made for lack of ingredients? A:Flan Ruso).
It worked better in the 80's.
Or perhaps Flan Russo as it was made in the cold war and those were the only ingredients available? They seem incongruous but somehow they're all worked into an odd but delicious dish? A cultural variation on the Puttanesca sauce named for the combination of the only ingredients you'd find in a prostitute's pantry? Or maybe an odd food challenge from "chopped?" anyway, looking forward to a review of someone who tries it out!
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a 1955 Kraft recipe. My grandmother used to make it before she passed away in 2000. A few years ago I went to my aunt's house and tried this dessert and the taste was like a long distant memory. I was digging and digging trying to remember where/when I'd had it. I asked my aunt about it and she said that my grandmother used make it and gave me the recipe… She called it Flan Ruso. I don't think it's Russian at all but being that it has a custard/gelatin like texture, like flan and that it's white-ish in color (snowy Russia?) it was called that. Or maybe your friends are right and there was an egg and sugar shortage but an abundance of marshmallows and pears. And Ruso sounds good after anything, no?
All kidding aside, I eat as natural as the rest of them, but every once in a while I throw caution to the wind and enjoy a Dunkin Donut. But if you must you can use vegetable based gelatin substitutes, peel your own pears, soak them in homemade light syrup and make this delicious recipe. It's like nothing else you've ever tried…and would probably compliment the boiled cow tongue well.