I was reading a French Elle magazine, I like Elle because they always have a great food/recipe section at the end called “Elle à Table” with fresh and modern recipes and tons of flavors. I got stuck on a tapioca cream recipe picture with a raspberry coulis. It looked so beautiful that I felt like eating the paper. I got inspired by Elle’s recipe for this one, eventhough I did not use the same ingredients or quantities, they somehow gave me the idea to mix fruits and tapioca. It’s a fresh and light dessert, perfect as a little treat after a heavy dinner, because as we say in French, “il faut toujours laisser une petite place pour le dessert” (you always need to leave a little space for dessert) not matter how heavy your meal was. I am not really too much into desserts, but I love fruit based desserts like this one, with a little exotic touch you get with the coconut.

In France, we use tapioca in soups, it’s not very common to see it in sweet dishes but it works perfectly well with coconut in sweet desserts. You can use raspberries instead of mango, they both tastes equally delicious.

I finally bought a car, it’s funny how a car can give you this feeling of freedom, I realized that when I no longer had one. So finally I can go shopping at my favorite grocery stores not accessible to public transportation. In Paris, public transportation is great and you don’t need a car, but even though San Francisco has a decent public transportation, a car is somehow not a luxury if you work in some parts of town.

Ingredients for 2 verrines

• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) tapioca
• 7.4 fl oz (or 220 ml) coconut milk
• 1.7 fl oz (or 50 ml) milk
• 3 tbs heavy cream
• 2.82 oz (or 80 g) sugar
• 1 mango
• zest and juice of one lemon

Preparation

Peel mango. Keep 4 slices aside for decoration, and cut the rest in cubes, add 1 tbs sugar and lemon juice and cook for about 7 minutes until it becomes a compote. Set aside

Cook tapioca in boiling water for about 5 minutes, to remove all the extra starch, then drain.

Heat milk, coconut milk and cream, add sugar, then add tapioca pearls, let it cook until tapioca becomes transparent.

Add some lemon zest, keep some for decoration.

Place mango compote in a glass and top with cream of tapioca, let it cool and place in the refrigerator. Decorate with mango slices, and extra lemon zests.

Travels always leave you some special memories, flavors, and sensations…My trip to Japan left me with an incredible and delightful sweet sensation I will remember for the rest of my life…eventhough I prefer from far savory dishes than sweet ones, but desserts in Japan are probably like in the rest of Asian countries, light, fresh and not sweet, so for someone like myself, you’re in heaven. The thing is that you can barely taste the sugar in them and that’s exactly what I love most. In the US, everything is very sweet, in fact even the mouth fresheners are sweet. Isn’t it weird? probably because Americans have been used to sugar since their childhood.

The thing is after our western meals, it is almost impossible to eat traditional dessert pastries or cakes. I need to have a light meal to be able to enjoy my dessert. I think Japanese have understood this, and their traditional desserts have just the perfect light sweet touch you need to close a meal, it’s like the “THE END” after a movie.

Those beautiful pearls are what I tasted in Japan, they were served with a big green tea shaved ice huge bowl, and it was perfect for a hot and humid August summer in Tokyo.

I think we can accommodate those cute tapioca pearls with some exotic fruit compote. In France, weirdly enough, people used to eat those in soups I guess, it is somehow remained a “soup ingredient”.

I made a few times tapioca with raspberry purée a while ago, and it was excellent but I just wanted to try to get something that had the texture of a flan, and this is it.

Ingredients for 4 flans

• 5 tbs tapioca pearls
• 1 banana, pureed
• 2/3 cup coconut milk + 2 tbs 
• 1 cup almond milk + 3 tbs
• 3 tbs light brown sugar + 2 tbs
• 2 eggs

Preparation

In a pot heat the cups of coconut milk and almond milk and 3 tbs of sugar, when the liquid is almons boiling, add tapioca. Stir at low heat for about 15 minutes.

In a mixing bowl, beat eggs with banana and the rest of the almond and coconut milks. Add the tapioca mixture and mix well.

Pour in silicon molds or individual ceramic molds previously buttered and cook in a preheated oven at 370F for about 20 minutes. Let cool and place in the refrigerator. Grill some slices of banana and decorate.