Coconut Tapioca Pearl with Butterfly Pea Tea (Ché Chuõi or Ginataang Bilo Bilo)

Coconut Tapioca Pearl with Butterfly Pea Tea (Ché Chuõi or Ginataang Bilo Bilo)

This particular easy, hearty and creamy dessert is total comfort food, popular in Southeast Asia, that we ate growing up as kids. It brings nostalgic summer memories, during typhoon season, as we stayed indoors.  My mom would make & serve this afternoon merenda—eaten as lukewarm or cold.

Called Ché Chuõi in Vietnamese or Ginataang Bilo Bilo in Tagalog (Philippines), this Coconut Milk pudding-like dessert is cooked with coconut milk, and a combo variation of bananas, jackfruit, taro, pumpkin, yam or sweet potato and tapioca pearls. In this version, we’ve modified it a bit by reducing the sugar, eliminating glutinous flour and adding Butterfly Pea Tea.

Ingredients:

  • 1x 400g can of coconut milk
  • 1 cup of cooked Tapioca Pearls (a mix of small & big size) *
  • 1 cup of water
  • 3-4 tbsp. of granulated white sugar
  • 2 Pandan leaves, bruised & tied in a knot or 1 tsp of Pandan Essence
  • 10 Butterfly Pea Tea dried flowers or ½ tsp of Butterfly Pea Tea Culinary Powder
  • 2-3 (just ripe) bananas, peeled, thickly sliced
  • Optional: ½ cup sliced jackfruit, ripe mango cubes and/or taro cubes, sweet potato cubes
  • Optional: 1 tbsp. of crushed nuts & 1 tbsp. of sesame seeds for garnish

Serves: 4 small bowl servings

Instructions:

  1. Combine the coconut milk, water, sugar, pandan leaves (or essence) and Butterfly Pea Tea dried flowers or powder in a pot in low-medium heat.
  2. Cook until the sugar has dissolved. Then, add the cooked tapioca pearls, gently stirring through, as the pearls tend to stick together. Taste and adjust the sugar & amount of Butterfly Pea Tea to your liking.
  3. Add the sliced bananas and optional fruits & root vegetables of choice. If adding root vegetables, this will take longer to cook, so add them first to get a head start. Cook until soft, then, add the banana last, as they cook faster. Be very gentle as you don’t want to turn the bananas into mush. Cook for another 2-3 minutes.
  4. Remove from heat, cover and set aside for about 20-30 minutes. This will thicken as it cools. Remove and discard the Pandan leaves.
  5. Serve warm or refrigerate. Garnish with crushed nuts & sesame seeds.

Notes:

The texture of the coconut tapioca pudding should be slightly thick and creamy.

Choose a firm, but ripe bananas. Traditionally, Saba bananas are used, which is a cross between a standard banana and plantains.

* Tapioca Pearls or Sago Pearls:

Tapioca pearls are similar to sago pearls and are used essentially the same way. You can find them in most Asian supermarkets (such as Lulu or Carrefour in Dubai).

There are different ways to cook tapioca pearls and the cooking time varies depending on the pearl size. The bigger pearls take longer to cook, but we added them anyway for enhanced texture.

To cook Tapioca Pearls:  In a pot of boiling water, add the Tapioca Pearls. Then, continue on medium heat, stirring at 15 min. interval until 80% translucent before turning off the fire. Remove from heat and leave to cool. Check and taste the tapioca pearl if it’s chewy, tender with no white center. Drain and rinse well to remove the excess starch and set aside for the coconut pudding. If you’re using big size pearls, consider soaking overnight to expedite the cooking.

 

If you do make this, share and tag your photo with #yvetteteas on Instagram!

Made by: Yvette A.

Posted on: August 2019

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