Vietnamese Coconut Tapioca "Soup" Pudding

I never seem to remember how much I love tapioca puddings. I think it's the texture that makes it so appealing for me personally. A local Vietnamese sandwich shop frequently has a delicious coconut tapioca pudding with bananas, only it's not firm like the tapioca puddings I'm used to; it's much more loose/watery. I finally got around to making my own tonight!

Coconut Tapioca "Soup" Pudding

Coconut Tapioca "Soup" Pudding (Che Chuoi)

Adapted from myRecipes and Food Network

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 C water
• 1 14oz can coconut milk
• 6 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 C small tapioca pearls
• 2 large bananas

Method

1. In a medium sized saucepan, combine the water and coconut milk and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add in sugar, salt, and tapioca pearls, stirring to prevent the tapioca from clumping.
2. Turn heat down to low and simmer gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally to break up tapioca pearls.
3. Halve each banana and cut into small 1/4" pieces. Add banana to the pan. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 15 minutes.

Serve tapioca warm or chill in fridge and serve cold.

I cut down on the sugar, but I think next time I will try with even less sugar, using perhaps 1/4 cup in total. I think this would also be divine served hot with a float of coconut cream over the top.
Update: As this chills, it gets pretty thick and is no longer "soup" like. So if you'd like a more loose pudding when cool, use half the amount of tapioca.

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Mango Summer Rolls

This recipe is basically just an assembly of fresh ingredients and can be customized as much as you want to incorporate your favorite flavors. This is my version, adapted from Vegan with a Vengeance, incorporating the ingredients I had on hand. I recently saw Giada De Laurentiis do a fruit spring roll that looks quite delicious, so really, the sky's the limit.

Mango Summer Rolls

Ingredients

• Rice paper wrappers, softened in hot water
• 1 mango, peeled and sliced into matchsticks
• 1 cup sprouts or delicate greens (I used pea shoots)
• 4 oz saifun bean threads, softened (or rice noodles)
• Cilantro, mint, coconut, ground peanuts, etc (optional)

Method

1. In the lower portion of the rice paper wrappers, place a few tablespoons of noodles, any optional ingredients, 5 slices of mango, and sprouts.
2. Tuck the sides of the paper in and begin rolling. Keep covered with a damp cloth, chilled, until ready to eat.
3. Serve with dipping sauce.

Summer Roll Dipping Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tsp shiracha hot sauce, or to taste
• 1 tsp soy sauce, or to taste
• 1 garlic clove, pressed/minced
• 1 1/2 tsp super-fine sugar

Method

1. In a small bowl, mix all ingredients until combined. If necessary, microwave for a few seconds to dissolve the sugar.
2. Serve chilled.

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