You put the lime in the coconut (and some mango and tapioca too!)

Last night I was planning to go tubing in the mountains. The middle school group at our church had a tubing night and I was looking forward to it, but when the day came I was just so worn out. Last week Eric and I kicked off the first night of Life Hurts God Heals, a teen recovery program we’re leading at our church. It went so great, and this Thursday night was our second week. It went great too and I love it and love the kids that come. But when I got home I was on such an adrenalin high, that I couldn’t sleep and only got about 3 hours of sleep before work. I still really wanted to go, but Eric suggested I take a “me” night. He was sad because he wanted me to come with him, but knew I needed it. His suggestion was just what I needed to decide to stay home.
So I decided I wanted to treat myself with a really special dessert that reminds me of Hawaii and document the whole process. So I made some Coconut Lime Tapioca with Fresh Mango. It was good! I also took a lot of photos of how to prepare a mango so look for those in my next post. The tapioca is great hot or cooled, and good with or without the fresh fruit, but I’ll NEVER turn down mango!

Pour 1 cup of water into a large pot. You want the pot to be big enough to be able to stir easily.

For coconut milk you want a good thick coconut milk. I love Mae Ploy and get a great deal on the large can at Cash and Carry. When you shake the can you should barely hear it slosh to know that it’s the good stuff.

Pour about half the large can of coconut milk into the pot (or a full small can). Pour the rest in a tupperware and use it tomorrow for curry, that’s my plan! (make sure you refrigerate it). Turn the heat to high, but as soon as it starts to boil, turn it down to medium-low.

Measure out 1/4 cup of tapioca pearls, you want the little tiny, long cooking ones. They’re about the size of the head of a pin. Pour them in once the water and coconut milk are boiling (and the heat reduced). It seems like not very much tapioca, but they’ll get bigger I promise. Now here’s the hard part. You have to wait a good twenty minutes for them to cook. Trust me, I’ve taken them off early before and the texture is wrong, be patient. While it’s cooking, cut up your fruit, and make sure to stir the tapioca every couple minutes.

This is at 1o minutes and you can tell they’re not ready because they’re still white in the center. At this point (halfway through cooking) stir in 1/8 cup of sugar. Then squeeze in the juice from half a lime. Hopefully your lime looks better than the sad one I had in my fridge. Make sure to keep stirring every couple of minutes so it doesn’t stick to the pot.

It’s been 20 minutes and the tapioca is nice and thick and goopy. Take it off the heat.

The way to tell it’s done is to take out one pearl (carefully, it’s hot and sticky) and make sure it’s completely transparent.

Layer with fresh mango in a glass, garnish with mango and lime slices.

If you enjoy it as much as I do your glass will look like this in 1 minute flat!