Back in London. Back to my winter jacket and a runny nose.

Tuscany and its hills, famous estates, breathtaking vineyards and villas showed me the most fairy-like landscape I ever visited. Now I’ve got something like 800 pictures of this little trip, meaning that there’s a good chance I’ll be able to pick 8-10 images to share with you.

For the moment let me go back to my recent visit to Wembley, an area of northwest London and home to the famous Wembley Stadium, the second largest in Europe. Metallica, The Killers, Coldplay and AC/DC have performed in this stadium.

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While the majority of Londoners head to Wembley either to watch the English football team or Robbie Williams wriggling on stage like a mad squirrel I go there to taste the authentic southern Indian cuisine because of my foodie traveler soul to satisfy. Wembley has a high degree of ethnic diversity but the Indian community is predominant and it is guaranteed, being the area out of reach for tourists, that I am going to savour genuine and local curry.

Of course I cannot resist the temptation of shopping at local markets too and try out new ingredients: this time I brought home foods like tapioca pearls and sweet bites made with sesame seeds called “gingelly”. I enjoyed the kinda posh idea of having pearls as a dessert, beautiful drops of cassava starch for a delicate and exquisite pudding. Tell me, doesn’t this look a bit luxurious?

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p.s. The mango sauce is dark and dense since I used coconut sugar, my favorite sweetener which I first tried here in a smoothie. The pearls need to be soaked for at least a couple of hours in water: they will double in size and get ready for cooking in milk/coconut milk, which if you ask me, cannot be replaced by water or other liquids if we want a structured dessert and not just a mild gelatinous porridge.

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Print Recipe

Coconut Tapioca Pudding with a Mango Compote

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup small-pearl tapioca
  • 1/4 cup coco sugar
  • 2 tablespoons dried ground coconut
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 1 cup milk
  • 2 whole cardamom pods

For the Mango compote

  • 1 mango
  • 2 tablespoons coco sugar
  • 3-4 tablespoons water

Instructions

  • Soak the pearl in water for about two hours then drain off the liquid (I used a colander).
  • In a pan heat the coconut milk/milk with the tapioca pearls adding the liquids gradually, about a third cup at a time, and stirring continually.
  • Add cardamom pods and vanilla extract to the mixture. Stir until it starts to boil.
  • Keep stirring and allow about 15 minutes (how long exactly depends on when it reaches the desired consistency, bear in mind that cooling down the mixture becomes denser). Remove the tapioca pudding from the heat and cool down to room temperature.
  • Meantime prepare the Mango compote. Cut the mango in small pieces and heat them on medium heat with water and sugar. Lower the heat and while stirring simmer until the fruit is softened and the liquid thickened, about 10 minutes.
  • Serve your pudding with the mango compote either on the bottom of a little jar or poured on top. Refrigerate it for 30 minutes if you like it cold.

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  1. WOW! What an interesting dessert. I’ve myself only been to Wembley for a concert. Sounds like something to explore on one of my next London trips 🙂

    I like the sound of this dessert and will have to try to find coconut sugar.

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