Taro Yam with Tapioca Pearl Sweet Dessert Soup

One of my favorites is taro tapioca dessert. Taro tapioca dessert can be eaten hot or chilled. It is delicious chilled in the refrigerator overnight and served ice-cold as the soup will thicken and turns creamy after chilled. Like eating yam ice-cream.

Taro is a root vegetable, with a mild flavor. Yam helps stabilises blood glucose level, boost immunity, promotes urination and detoxify the body. Yam's dietary fibre helps establish regular bowel movements. Yam has abundant supply of starch and protein, it makes us feel full easily, thus do not eat too much at a time.

Getting a good floury ripen taro yam is difficult as you may end up with a floury or crunchy texture. Young taro tends to be more crunchy in texture rather than floury. I won't say you can't cook with that, but the result will not be perfect.

Usually a bigger or older matured taro yam, you will see a lot of purple veins which is more likely, will be floury. A good floury taro yam breaks down and turns mushy easily, so be sure not to overcook it. In the olden days or maybe you may still find in some wet market, some vendors will be willingly to slice off one end of the taro to show you the texture of the taro yam. But nowadays, if you are buying at supermarket, nobody will cut & show that for you anymore. So you need to do some own judgement yourself.

Choose yam that is hard and heavy. Taro contains calcium oxilate which causes skin irritation and itchiness. If your skin is sensitive, you may want to wear gloves while handling it. For me, I have no problem touching it.

Whole taro with head weighs about 580g. After remove head & skin, weighs about 490g. (I just use half taro yam to cook this recipe below)

Ingredients: (serves 2 paxs)

230g Taro (cut into small cubes)

35g Rock Sugar / to taste

50ml Coconut milk

10g Small Tapioca pearls (Sago)

2pcs Pandan leaves

450ml Water

Step by Step :

1. Add cubed taro and pandan leaves into a pot of water.

2. Bring to a boil & cook for about 10 mins.

3. Then add in tapioca pearls & coconut milk. Let it cook for 10 mins. (if you see taro starts to breaks down & turn mushy, add rock sugar too at this stage, then turn off heat after 10 mins)

4. Add rock sugar and cook for the last 5 mins till

sugar fully dissolve and yam has soften.

5. Serve hot or chilled.

* tapioca pearls can cook in 10 mins but still with a white dot in the center. Just turn off heat, leave it will cover on, let it stay covered for 15-20 mins. The heat will slowly cook the tapioca pearls and they will become fully transparent.

* different type of taro has different level of water absorbency. Do add more water if yours absorb too much and dries up.

Happy cooking!

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