My Kitchen My World, Recipe My Kitchen My World

Posted the 25/10/2008 17:21:00 By Fun Foods On a Budget! (Visit website)

This week's destination for My Kitchen My World was chosen by the new MKMW moderator, Lauren of I'll Eat You. She chose Cambodia. Yeah, Cambodia. Never in my life have I even thought about Cambodian food. So this was a fun challenge.

A fun challenge that I failed to live up to. I chose a delicious-looking Cambodian chicken curry to try, and never got around to making it. I would today, but I'll be too busy to do anything more complicated than macaroni and cheese. So oh well to that. Sigh.

I did, however, also find a recipe for Cambodian Tapioca-Banana Pudding, and I made that yesterday. So I'll go ahead and post that, okay?

Sorry it isn't all that photogenic. It wasn't pretty, but it tasted pretty good. :-)

Cambodian Tapioca-Banana Pudding
1/2 cup small pearl tapioca
7 cups water, divided
5 medium ripe bananas, sliced (I only had two, so that's all I used)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup white sugar
3/4 cup coconut milk (I substituted regular milk and 1/4 cup shredded coconut. I didn't like it with shredded coconut. Don't add shredded coconut)

Place 2 cups of water in a microwave-safe dish and heat until warm in the microwave, about 2 minutes. Add the tapioca and let stand for 10 minutes (mine were larger tapioca pearls, so I let it stand for closer to an hour). Drain in a sieve. You'll have a mushy puddle of tapioca left over.

Pour the remaining water into a saucepan and add the drained tapioca. Bring to a boil, then simmer over medium heat until the tapioca begins to turn transparent. Stir frequently to avoid sticking (Here is where I added the shredded coconut. I didn't like it with shredded coconut. Don't add shredded coconut)

When the tapioca is transparent, stir in the bananas, sugar and salt. Simmer for 10 to 15 more minutes, stirring frequently. When the bananas are broken down fairly well, remove from the heat and stir in the coconut milk until well blended. The tapioca pearls will become visible and the pudding will be the consistency of thick soup. Taste and adjust the sugar if desired.

Cool to room temperature or slightly warmer. Stir again before serving.

This is the first time I've ever made tapioca pudding. The only tapioca pudding I've ever eaten has been in those silly little Jell-O pudding cups, and I never cared for it much. Now that I've made it, I know that tapioca pudding is yet another thing that just tastes better when it's homemade. I mean, look at all those fun little tapioca balls - they're tender and soft, not rubbery like in the commercial pudding.

This had a fun banana flavor that went over really well with Zaylee and Thomas. Like I've pointed out, I didn't like it with shredded coconut. So next time I'll skip that, and just use regular milk. Or maybe some evaporated milk would make this even better. You can use the coconut milk that the recipe calls for, but I won't because it costs more. :-) And next time I want to try it with all five bananas - talk about banana flavor explosion!

Check out what other My Kitchen My World-ers made this week.