I remember I was wafting about an Asian supermarket almost a year ago when I picked up a packet of dried tapioca and bought it, thinking I’d make up a pudding of some sort. I love tapioca pudding. The texture, everything about it, but I’d never made it myself. It’s taken this long, and the fact it was almost out of date, to come up with something. A nice big mango was already sitting in the fridge staring back at me so it was a no brainer that I bring it to the party somehow. Mango and tapioca pudding? Nah. I then remembered I bought a packet of dried lemon myrtle leaves from the Fiji Market, so the idea of making a tapioca pudding with lemon myrtle-infused coconut milk came about. Also from the Fiji Market was a big chunk of gula jawa, coconut sugar, that I grated into the coconut milk for some earthy sweetness.

Additionally I used the gula jawa to make a syrup for a final sugar hit over the pudding. This just wasn’t enough and I had a mango to use. How about some ice cream? Regular ice cream sounded ok but I wanted to do something a little different. Then I thought about goat’s cheese. Now that’s a little different. The mildness of the cheese goes virtually unnoticed but if you knew it was in there you’d pick up notes of it. Wow. It’s good. Teamed with cold and creamy lemon myrtle tapioca and a super sweet coconut sugar syrup, well, it’s pretty damn special.

coconut + lemon myrtle tapioca | mango + goat’s cheese ice cream

Serves 8-10

ice cream

• 500 g fresh mango flesh
• 115 g goat’s cheese
• 3 tbsp coconut sugar (gula jawa), grated
• ½ cup cream

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and mix until smooth. Pour into an ice cream maker and churn for half an hour. Transfer the mixture to a plastic container, cover with a lid and freeze until needed.

tapioca

• 400 ml coconut cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup water
• 80 g coconut sugar, grated
• 10 g dried lemon myrtle leaves
• 1 cup small tapioca pearls
• 2 litres water

Combine the coconut cream, 1 cup water, coconut sugar and lemon myrtle in a small saucepan. Place over medium heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. When it comes to the boil, reduce the heat to a very gently simmer. Cook for 2 minutes then turn off the heat and allow it to cool completely. When cool, remove and discard the lemon myrtle leaves.

Place the 2 litres of water into a large saucepan and bring it to a strong boil. Pour the tapioca into the boiling water and stir constantly for 6 minutes. Don’t stop stirring otherwise the pearls will clump and stick to the bottom. Pour the pearls into a fine mesh sieve and run it under cold tap water until completely cooled. Drain well and stir into the cooled coconut liquid. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.

gula jawa syrup

• 150 g coconut sugar, roughly chopped
• 80 ml water

Bring the sugar and water to the boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the syrup to cool. Set aside.

to assemble

Scoop some of the tapioca into glasses, top with a scoop of mango ice cream and drizzle over a little gula jawa syrup. Garnish with berries or fruit of choice.

Tagged as: Bush Food, Dessert