Tapioca Pearls with Jaggery Caramel

This lovey-dovey dessert looks and tastes rich, but it starts with tapioca
pearls, jaggery and cardamom infused coconut milk then turns classic when it is
dressed up with a dash of jaggery caramel into the tapioca mixture. It tastes
best when it is made and served on the same day.

Servings: 6 people

Author:

Prep Time
40 minutes

Cook Time
45 minutes

Resting time
2 hours

Total Time
3 hours, 25 minutes

Course:

Dessert

Cuisine:

Indian

Keywords:

dessert tapioca pearls sago pudding

🧂 Ingredients

4 litres cold water
175 g tapioca pearls
85 g light jaggery powder or palm sugar
400 mL coconut milk
½ -¾ tsp. freshly ground green cardamom powder
¾ tsp. salt or to taste
170 g light jaggery powder or palm sugar
160 mL cold water
75 mL freshly squeezed lime juice

Instructions

1 Chill 4-6 medium glasses in the refrigerator.
2 In a large deep saucepan, bring water to a rolling boil. Add tapioca pearls
gradually and stir as you add the tapioca pearls until the liquid returns to the
boil. Cook for 8 minutes. Remove from heat, cover and stand for 10 minutes or
until the pearls look translucent.
3 Drain well through a fine sieve. Rinse under cold water to remove starch. Stir
the pearls and while stirring continue to rinse even if it seems very starchy,
as the starch will wash away, and the pearls will begin to appear. This will
take approximately 2-3 minutes. Drain the rinsed pearls well, pour into a deep
bowl and set aside for 5 minutes only.
4 Meanwhile, combine 85g jaggery, 200mL coconut milk, cardamom powder and salt in
a medium saucepan and bring to the boil stirring to combine the ingredients.
Remove from heat and cool. You may pass this mixture through a fine sieve, but I
did not sieve this mixture. Add cooled tapioca pearls and the remaining 200mL
coconut milk. Mix throughly to seperate all the pearls. Refrigerate for 1 to 2
hours or until ready to serve.
5 Combine jaggery with 160mL water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir till
jaggery is dissolved. Continue to cook for 12-14 minutes or until the liquid
turns into a slight syrup. Add lime juice and stir to combine. Remove from heat.
Cool and refrigerate until required.
6 Divide the tapioca pearls among chilled glasses and drizzle over jaggery
caramel. Serve immediately.