Thai Tropical Tapioca Dessert

Desserts are a treat! I have been exploring recipes more than making bento lately. Thai food is my second favourite after Japanese and I really wanted to try out some new recipes. I made "Thai Heavenly Pineapple Fried Rice" which tasted divine and really lived up to its name. It inspired me to make some more hot and spicy Thai food, but after all that chilli I really craved a Thai-style dessert.



Tropical Tapioca with mango and coconut

Every now and then I like to try something new. I'd never eaten Tapioca before, or come across it in a restaurant. I bought tapioca the size of large pearls. Smaller beads of sago was also available; but although it looks very similar to tapioca, according to Wikipedia: Tapioca is cassava root. Sago is the pith of sago palm stems. 

Either way, I was a bit skeptical at first...

The first pot of tapioca got burnt and just didn't look right. Not that I knew what it was supposed to look like. The second time I kept a close eye on it - but when it was supposed to be done it looked more like a pot of thick glue with styrofoam beads (like from the inside of a bean bag). I thought maybe I'd gone wrong somewhere and almost threw it out again.

But no, I gave it a chance and carried on with the recipe.

So, after the pre-soaked tapioca was simmered in salted water, it was left to cool until lukewarm, to let the rest of the 'beads' soften. (It is still unbeknown to me if all the tapoica was supposed to become translucent).

To put together the pudding, scoop a portion of cooked, lukewarm (or cold) tapioca into a dish. Drizzle with maple syrup, top with mango slices, and pour over a few spoonfuls of coconut milk (the lite version is great, with just half the calories).

Take it from me, when you serve tapioca this way it tastes amazing. It's the toppings here that make this dish a success.

Eating this decadent dessert takes your mind to a tropical island, palm trees swaying in the breeze, coconut and mango go so well together. That's one thing I love about Thai food, it's never bland, always interesting and full of different flavours.