Taro Tapioca Dessert

My siblings and I were eating at an old school chinese restaurant and got all of our oldies: beef stew casserole, yang chao fried rice, soft shell crab...etc.  At the end came the taro tapioca dessert. We were super excited because Chinese restaurants used to ALWAYS serve this at the end of the meal but we never see it now. Although it was nostalgic.. it was bland and rather tasteless.

Chinese New Year is coming up and my mom wanted each of us to bring a dish so I volunteered dessert as always. So I thought I would try to make my own taro tapioca dessert. Some online recipes led me to make this!

Note: There are large taro and small ones. Sometimes I only find the small ones at the Asian market so it's a bit more difficult because you don't get much out of those. I would suggest the large one if you can find them. This one was about 8 inches tall and I got about 8 cups out of it. The recipe is just a reference since you can add more for a stronger taro flavor.

Taro Coconut Tapioca Dessert

Ingredients for small pot. You can have more tapioca pearls, taro, coconut milk, or sugar based on your preference. This just kind of gives you a reference to start with. I double/triple this recipe when I'm bringing it to a party.

• 1/2 cup tapioca pearls
• 2-3 cups raw taro root cut into cubes (purple looks nicer but white or purple taro works)
• 1 (13.5-oz) can coconut milk (unsweeten)
• 1/3 cup rock sugar
• 1 cup water (optional)

Directions

Boil a small pot of water and add the tapioca pearls. Reduce the heat and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. Cover the pan and let it stand for another 10 minutes or until most of the tapioca pearls are clear. Gently remove all excess water and run under cold water to stop the cooking process.

This is what it looks like when you first start.

This is what the pearls look like when it's close to done. The white inside gets smaller and smaller until it becomes completely clear. Stop the cooking when most of it is clear (some can still be a little bit white in the center). 

Use a larger pot and boil water. Add the raw taro root. Boil until the taro is tender and then drain the water. Mash it up like mashed potato based on your preference. I like a creamier texture so I use a puree immersion blender once I added some liquid in the next step. If you like chunks of taro, then I would suggest lightly mashing it up by hand. 

Add the coconut milk and rock sugar to the mashed taro and simmer until the sugar is completely melted. Taste it and alter it to your liking. Note that it should be a bit on the sweeter side because the tapioca will make it more bland. (I suggest getting the texture where you like because it's hard to mash/puree once the tapioca pearls are in.) For a soupier/creamier texture, I like to add a cup of water.

Add the tapioca pearls and stir. Taste it again and adjust to your liking. Serve immediately for best results. It looks like pudding once it gets cold and has a bit of a gritty feel but it goes away once you heat it back up. I like to have an extra can of coconut milk when I warm it up because I don't like to dilute the flavor too much.

Enjoy!