Bo Bo Cha Cha
08:11
Lately, I have been craving for something sweet after dinner, which is very unusual as I am not known to be a "sweet" person.
I have gone from polishing off the whole fruit cakes (during the festive period) to popping truffles every evening (to a point HRH starts rationing)
While super marketing the other day, I was attracted to some pretty edible gems - tapioca jellies.
I don't know about you, as for me (and Empress Dowager) the tapioca jelly is the only reason we eat Bo Bo Cha Cha.
(One could make these tapioca jellies by creating a dough by adding hot water to tapioca flour and then adding colouring to this dough)
Our bowls of BBCC are filled up mostly with the tapioca jellies and the "incidental" cubes of yam and sweet potatoes.
This blissfulness came to an abrupt end when the "pretty one" discovered the "plot" and checked every bowl that comes out from the kitchen.
Ok, I don't mind the rest of the ingredients that go in there as well, but I simply dislike coconut.
It is also the reason why I am not a fan of Laksa and Nonya Kueh (which calls for coconut cream).
In this household, I substitute coconut cream with evaporated milk or yoghurt in my curries.
To make sure everyone eats the sweet potatoes and not fight over the tapioca jellies, I bought three types of sweet potatoes. The purple sweet potatoes, the yellow flesh and the orange sweet potatoes which really make a beautiful picture. Oh yes, not forgetting the yam.
When I first cooked this dessert decades ago, I made the mistake of boiling everything in the coconut soup which then become too soft and eventually mushy from repeated boiling/reheat.
So, do not boil them! Cut it into bite size cubes and steam till cook (about 10 minutes).
I slept comfortably and very well after BBCC that night, I dreamt I was popping colourful gems into my mouth.
I should have known, coconut is a sleep aid.
You will need:
tapioca jellies - (You can also get these from the stall that sells bean sprout in the wet market or see below for recipe)
1 purple sweet potatoes
1 yellow sweet potatoes
1 orange sweet potatoes
80 - 100gm yam
100gm sago
400ml coconut cream (600ml if you like your soup thick and creamy)
150 - 200gm rock sugar (do adjust to your preferred sweetness)
1.5 lit of water
2-3 pandan leaves (tie in a knot)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
ripe bananas (optional)
Tapioca jellies
100gm tapioca starch/flour (sifted)
75ml boiling hot water (must be boiling!)
1/4 tsp red food coloring
1/4 tsp green food coloring
Prepare the tapioca jelly
1. Pour boiling water over the tapioca starch and mix quickly.
2. Carefully knead it to form a smooth dough.
3. Divide the dough into three portions. 1 portion each for red, green and leave the last pain(white). Do knead till uniformly colored.
4. Roll each dough into long strip, shape and cut into approximately 1cm cubes. To prevent the cubes from sticking to one another, dust the cubes with flour.
5. Shake off excess flour. Add cubes to pot of boiling water until they float to the surface and become translucent (around 5 mins)
6. Remove cubes and transfer them to a bowl of ice water.
Methods:
1. Cut the yam and sweet potatoes into bite size cubes and steam till cooked (about 10 minutes), set aside.
2. In boiling water, cook sago until translucent and cooked, drained and set aside.
3. In boiling water, boil the tapioca jellies until translucent and cooked, drained and placed in cold water to prevent them from sticking together.
4. In a separate pot, boil water and sugar and toss in the knot pandan leaves.
5. When the sugar dissolves, add in coconut cream, bananas, salt and the cooked sago over low heat about 20 minutes
6. To serve, put pieces of yam, tapioca, sweet potatoes in a bowl. Ladle the coconut soup over it.
Eat it hot or cold.
Cooks' Note:
Please feel free to adjust the ingredient portion to your preference.
Do check the sweet potatoes, yam is not over cooked.
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