Chinese(?)?!
Chinese(?)?
Looking for a sort of soup recipe I ate at a chinese place in Little China Town Boston, MA. It was really light, white and milky, sweet with what seemed to be tapioca pearls as well as pieces of fruit, maybe mango or papaya.
~Thanks
Answers:
Tapioca Pearls with Sweet Coconut & Cantelope
Ingredients:
2/3 cup Tapioca (tapioca pearls - not the instant stuff, use the very small size)
1 cup whole milk
2 cups coconut milk (full fat)
3 cups water
1 1/2 cups sugar
Fruit: honeydew, cantelope, mango or papaya or pineapple -- diced small
METHOD:
Bring water and sugar to boil. Turn heat down to low, add the milk and stir. Once the mixture is almost back to a boil, turn off the heat. Add the coconut milk and stir. Remove from heat and cool in refrigerator.
While coconut milk mixture is cooling, soak tapioca pearls in cold water for 20 minutes. The pearls will expand a little and turn bright white. Bring 4 cups of water to a boil - and add the tapioca pearls. Stir constantly for 2 minutes. The pearls will turn translucent. Turn off the heat and drain the pearls in a fine sieve. Immediately use cold running water to rinse the pearls and stop the cooking process. Set the pearls aside until ready to serve.
When ready to serve, ladle the coconut milk into each bowl, add a spoonful of tapioca and top with diced fruit. Enjoy!
Some Notes:
Don’t boil the coconut milk - it makes it oily. For curries, its fine, because its a hot spicy dish. But for a cool, simple dessert, you need to make sure that the heat is turned off before stirring.
Do not overcook the pearls. If you are using the small sized pearls, 2 minutes is exactly the amount of time you need. If you use larger pearls, cook for a little longer time, maybe 15-30 seconds more, taste it and adjust time.
Don’t add the tapioca or fruit until right before serving. If you add it in and let it sit, the dish will become bitter. Why? I don’t know….my momma said so!
Use full fat coconut milk. I rarely use lite because its just not worth it. Save your calories on something else, but not the coconut milk! I also get my coconut milk at an Asian market. I’ve tried other brands at regular supermarkets, but they never are as full flavored, thick and rich as the Thai brands. The brand that I consistently reach for is “Chaokoh.”