Making Tapioca With My Sister

My sister, Faith, is visiting from Pittsburgh. She came to NC to visit my mother who was in the hospital this past week. It's been fun having Faith here and share good food and have her helping in the kitchen. Eating whole foods and nothing processed is newer to Faith and she is adapting well to eating uunprocessed foods. She helps me chop vegetables for salads and she cleans up my mess, which I love.

We were talking about comfort foods and the topic of tapioca came up. Dan and Roy, Faith's husband, both love tapioca. My mother also loves it. Faith doesn't like tapioca or oatmeal because they have a funny feeling in her mouth. I supposed they are too starchy or gummy. Whatever the reason, she wont eat either. She loves to make tapioca though. And so I asked her if she wanted to make some from scratch using fresh eggs from the farm and whole milk, and whole tapioca, not quick cooking kind.

She started out soaking the tapioca the night before in filtered water. The tapioca is then drained and added to warmed milk in a double broiler. The tapioca milk mix has to cook for one hour on low heat, stirring occasionally. Once it cooks you can add two beaten egg yolks and salt. The eggs needed tempered, adding a small amount of the warmed milk mixture to the egg yolks and then adding the egg yolks into the milk mix to prevent the eggs from scrambling in the pot. Sugar was added, 1/2 the recommended amount, and vanilla and beaten egg whites. Stir this well on low heat to completely cook the egg. The mix thickens up beautifully.

I tasted the tapioca hot and it was perfect and creamy. I loved it! Chill the tapioca well and enjoy with a glass of cold milk.