Sago pudding/Tapioca pearls pudding/ javvari payasam

This glue stick to your heart!

I love bubble tea for the sensation of the bubbles gently tickling my tongue. The tapioca pearls at the bottom of the glass was an unusual twist in a drink and it was a very different experience.  My first rendezvous with bubble tea was in Vancouver downtown and almost every time after that when I went there. It has some strong memories linked to the cityscape for it accompanied me while waking on those busy streets. After that a bubble tea always tasted like a summer day in Vancouver. I normally use these pearls only in a pudding.

Tapioca pearls when cooked in water obtain a slimy texture around it when the starch is released. Those white pearls turn translucent, gluey and slippy. I am wildly amused by these smooth pearls caressing the taste buds. It is a subtle joy created by the rubbing and rolling of the elasticy bubbles. I used to make a pudding of sago pearls and vermicelli combined but not entirely with pearls. So this is my first!

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sago pearls
• 1 cup water
• 2 cups very creamy milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp crushed pistachio nuts
• a pinch of saffron
• a pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp cardamom powder

1. Boil water in a heavy bottom pan and cook tapioca pearls in it.
2. Keep stirring as it can stick to the bottom of the pan.
3. Tapioca pearls will swell and the mixture will become sticky as it cooks.
4. Remove from the heat when the pearls turn translucent.
5. In a different pan, boil thick creamy milk. (I used 18 percent milk. It is also called light cream but it is pretty rich with 18 % milk fat.)
6. Add cooked tapioca pearls and stir continuously to avoid burning and browning.
7. Cook everything together on low heat and add sugar. (Milk will curdle if the heat is high and when the pudding boils vigorously.)
8. Mix well and add a pinch of salt before removing it from the stove. (A teeny pinch of salt improves and enhances the sweetness of any dessert.)
9. Add cardamom powder and mix well.
10. Garnish with broken pistachio nuts and saffron strands.
11. Serve it hot or cold.

It may turn thick after refrigerating it. Add hot milk to liquify it to the right consistency.

This is a rich creamy dessert and was welcomed with cheers at home. Soaking Chia seeds in water and add it to the dessert gives it some crunch and more nutrition.

A cup of this dessert will be highly appreciated by any sweets lover.