[Thailand Recipes] Chilled Tapioca-Cantaloupe-Coconut Milk Dessert Soup

Many types of dessert soup, featuring various main ingredients, are routinely consumed in Thailand as well as other places in Asia, especially the East and Southeast. Some of these dessert soups are served warm; some are served chilled or topped with crushed or shaved ice; some are great at any temperature. I have covered some of them here already. You can taste the flavor dessert: Chilled Tapioca-Cantaloupe-Coconut Milk Dessert Soup.

Once cooked, tapioca pearls become soft, translucent, sticky, and viscous. Sweetened with sugar and topped with creamy and slightly salty coconut cream topping, you get a comforting, warm, and gooey pudding that comes in countless variations depending on what other ingredients you add to the tapioca base to create different flavors and textures (corn kernels, young coconut meat, and taro are among the most common add-ins). The way tapioca pearls are used in this case, however, is atypical. The presence of this large amount of coconut milk breaks up the starchy “glue” that holds the cooked tapioca pearls together, causing the tiny beads to loosen, separate from one another, and float freely.

The end result is not much different from a chilled bubble tea. The only exception is that it’s served in a bowl instead of a tall see-through glass, that the tapioca pearls are lighter in color and much smaller, and that you go after the little pearls and the added melon balls with a spoon and not an oversized straw.

The end result is not much different from a chilled bubble tea. The only exception is that it’s served in a bowl instead of a tall see-through glass, that the tapioca pearls are lighter in color and much smaller, and that you go after the little pearls and the added melon balls with a spoon and not an oversized straw.

To make this dessert, you need raw Asian tapioca pearls (sa-khu) which are tiny opaque white (sometimes pink and green) beads, each about the same size of the head of a sewing pin. Tapioca pearls are inexpensive (the bag you see here cost me 75 cents) and are commonly found at most Asian grocery stores. Do not use the instant tapioca in the Jell-O aisle of the mainstream grocery stores; it does not work at all in this recipe.

As for the cantaloupe, make sure it’s fully ripe and sweet for bland melon makes this dessert sad. If you’re not a cantaloupe fan, you can use any type of sweet, juicy muskmelon. Honeydew works beautifully, as do Crenshaw and Korean melon (which I love). Watermelon is the only thing that doesn’t work; it’s too watery.

Chilled Tapioca-Cantaloupe-Coconut Milk Dessert Soup

Prep time: 10 mins
Cook time: 15 mins
Total time: 25 mins

Author: SheSimmers.com

Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: Thai
Serves: 4

Ingredients

2 cups water
½ cup uncooked tapioca pearls
About ½ cup of sugar, more or less to taste
1 cup coconut milk (low-fat is okay) or cow's milk or a combination of both, at room temperature
½ teaspoon salt (not optional; the salt makes a difference)
2-2½ cups ½-inch balls of cantaloupe or honeydew melon (or a combination of both), kept chilled
1 cup crushed ice, optional

Instructions

Put the water in a 1-quart saucepan; bring it to a boil, covered.

Add the tapioca pearls and 1 tablespoon sugar to the boiling water; give it a stir to prevent clumping. Cover the saucepan and lower the heat just so the water is simmering instead of boiling furiously. After 5 minutes, give the tapioca another stir. Continue to cook until the tapioca pearls are translucent and the liquid becomes mucilaginous. This should take about 5 minutes longer. (The tapioca pearls will not become entirely clear; some will remain opaque white at the core even when they're cooked through. To be sure, taste a small spoonful to see if they're ready, i.e. soft yet chewy and no longer hard and gritty in the center.)

Add the coconut milk and salt to the tapioca; stir to combine. While the mixture is still warm, add the remaining sugar to the pot, one tablespoon at a time, and taste as you go until the mixture is sweet enough. (If you plan on serving this with crushed ice, you need to may want to add more sugar to the mixture than you think prudent as the ice will melt into the soup and dilute it; what starts out as adequately sweet could end up bland in the process.)

Once the taste is right and the sugar has fully dissolved, cool the cooked tapioca until it comes to room temperature. (You can use this time to prepare the melon, if you haven't done so.)
When the tapioca has cooled, decide whether you would like to serve this dessert a) chilled or b) iced. If A, chill the tapioca mixture until very cold. Then divide it among 4 dessert bowls. Divide the melons among the 4 bowls. Serve chilled. If B, skip the chilling; simply divide the tapioca soup among 4 dessert bowls (large enough to hold twice the volume of each portion). Then divide the melon balls and crushed ice between the 4 bowls, stir, and serve immediately.

Notes

The tapioca-coconut milk mixture can be made up to 3 days ahead. The cantaloupe (and the ice, if applicable), on the other hand, needs to be added just before serving.

This recipe and image sources are referred in website: Shesimmers.com. Thanks so much!