Tapioca mango pudding in coconut milk

Sometimes the simplest foods can take you on a great journey through your memory bank. This was one of them.

I was at work one day when a co worker approached me with a little container of something he was going to eat.

"You want to try some of this?" he asked.
"No thanks" I replied. "I'm not in the mood for something sweet but thanks anyway".
"No really, just try a little. My mother made it." He insisted.
"No thanks I really don't want any."
"How rude!" He jokingly said.
"All right! I'll try it!" I said as I grabbed a spoon.

I tasted what was sweet coconut milk with corn and sago swimming in it. It was made by my co worker's Vietnamese mother.

It was quite soupy, and I tell you, it tasted like a blissful dream. In fact I felt like I must have had something like this during my first four years of life in Bangkok where I was born.

This further led me to a memory of my childhood, when I was around 10 years old.

My mother had already passed a couple of years before that. My Canadian father was not exactly, what one would label a cook. He tried. Most meals were simple, boiled or steamed or reheated from a can. I didn't expect any more than that.

One day he surprised me. He announced that he would be making tapioca pudding. I don't recall if I had actually had it before. Perhaps out of a can.

All I can say, is that my father making tapioca pudding, was the strangest and most intriguing thing, I could have ever imagined.

It was now time to revisit tapioca pudding, but with a plant based, coconut milk, and mango twist. My father had used real milk and real eggs.

I used tapioca pearls that were not instant.

Tapioca pudding
1 cup tapioca soaked in two cups of water overnight
800 ml coconut milk
1 1/2 cup raw cane sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
3 tablespoons vegan egg (optional) I used Just Egg
2 large mangoes

Soak the pearls overnight. Rinse and drain water. Add two cups of water and the pearls to a pot. Bring to a boil and simmer until the pearls are translucent and jelly like with no white spots. Do not cook them too much after this state. They will cook in the milk for a while after this.

Drain, rinse and set aside.

I am not an expert at cooking tapioca but I used my instincts and it all worked out. I did not follow a particular recipe, but got ideas from several. There were some instructions on the package how to cook the pearls.

Add 800 ml of coconut milk, sugar, salt and vanilla, to a pot and simmer until sugar is dissolved.

Sugar is something I do not consume very often, so it was a strange feeling to be adding it to this pot. I was okay with it this time.

Add the cooked tapioca pearls to the milk.

This has to be stirred frequently to keep it from sticking to the bottom. There was enough milk in it that it wasn't a problem. I stirred quite a bit anyway.

The vegan egg was stirred in at the end. It didn't seem to be needed but for nostalgia sake I used the Just Egg product. It is not easy to find but I can get it now and then. It's produced from mung beans, and cooks up much like egg.

When the pudding had thickened, I put it in the fridge to cool.

It was not planned originally, but I decided to add mango. I have had mango sticky rice with coconut milk, and I love it. Adding mango to this could be similar.

I don't often splurge on good mangoes, because of their price. I decided to anyway.

There is a store nearby that sells amazing fruits so off I went. I found some large perfectly ripe mangoes, and took them to the counter to pay.

When she asked me for 10 dollars, I had to pretend that I wasn't shocked. These were the most expensive mangoes I remembered ever purchasing.

As I was peeling them I could see the nice colour, and the sweet fragrance of the mango, assured me that it was worth the price I paid.

It was so juicy when I cubed them to garnish. It was decided that I would puree half of them to a sauce and use the chunks as well.

There was no need for more sugar. The mango was very sweet on it's own.

I added the tapioca to the glass, then drizzled the mango sauce over top, along with a couple of chunks of mango. I had strawberries and blackberries to use up in the fridge. They, along with a sprig of mint was a nice garnish.

But that was not the end of the garnish.

I remembered that I had some toasted coconut that I could sprinkle on top.

A couple of weeks ago, I purchase a whole coconut. Here in Canada it's not a common thing to do. Marc and I tried forever to crack it after poking the holes on top and draining it. I used a corkscrew. He got out some crazy tools from our survival trunk. I told him to forget it. We would not be using a little axe in the apartment.

I hit the coconut over and over with a big heavy knife in the centre while holding it in one hand. I was over the moon, when it crack in half.

Then came the part where I had to scrape out the meat. It was not easy but I got it out and made some coconut milk in the blender. It was drained and I was left with the pulp. I toasted it and put it aside.