Monday, January 11, 2010

Tapioca Pudding

Over the holidays, we watched "New in Town" with Renee Zellweger. That got me craving some tapioca pudding (a central theme in the movie plot). So today I made some for supper. I used to make quarts and quarts of tapioca pudding when I was pregnant with my twins. Mainly because I needed to eat so often (!) and secondly because I needed additional protein to grow twin boys and not miscarry. Back then, I didn't have Internet so I looked up tapioca in the Dictionary to see what it was made of... and the entry said "tapioca." so unhelpful to my analytical mind! Now, I can log into Wikipedia and see it is a Brazilian root that is processed into starchy pearls. Oh... I just enjoy the warm, creamy taste--like having thickened ice cream in the middle of winter! Meggar and Captain were equally happy I revived the old recipe. (see recipe in comments below... Be sure to soak non-instant tapioca for 1-12 hours)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I was looking for you recipe for tapioca pudding, but all that comes up is your story behind it.

Candise and Crew said...

My recipe for Tapioca Pudding was inadvertantly left off the blog...
It really works from scratch. Not as fast as instant, but very yummy and satisfying.

1/2 cup small pearl tapioca (not instant)
3 cups whole milk (or half-and-half)
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

Combine tapioca, milk, and salt in pan on medium high heat. Stir until boiling. Simmer 5 minutes, uncovered at the lowest possible heat, stirring constantly and adding sugar gradually. Next beat eggs in a separate bowl. Mix in some of the hot tapioca very slowly to equalize the temperatures (to avoid curdling). Put eggs in pan with tapioca. Slowly bring mixture barely to a boil, stirring constantly. Reduce heat and cook on simmer, stirring constantly until you get a thicker consistency. Remove from heat. Add vanilla. Serve either warm or chilled.

Note: If you want to make it more light and fluffy, separate the eggs. Stir only the egg yolks in pan with the tapioca. Beat the egg whites separately to soft peaks. Once the pudding has become thick, remove from the stove and fold in the egg whites. Then vanilla and serve.