Paleo-ish Coconut Tapioca (a.k.a. Coc-ioca) Pudding

Ok…honest truth guys…how many of you have complete epiphanies in the shower (or washing dishes)?  C’mon…hands up.  No need to be shy.  Just me then?  Fine.

Well, this particular recipe (like many others I’ll probably end up sharing with you) came to me in the shower.  I think epiphanies come to me at the only moments during my day where I’m in a situation that I can’t possibly multi-task in.  If you’re in the shower, you can’t be sending emails, checking Facebook, or writing reminders to yourself to do those 3 things before you forget them.  (Well…you can…but your electronic device or agenda may not make it out of the shower alive.  Come to think of it, if your computer is plugged in, you may not make it out of the shower alive either!)

The same goes for being elbow deep in sudsy grunge water scouring the charred remnants of your bacon off your cast iron skillet. (The BF can verify the ridiculous number of times that I’ve charred bacon because I started looking at Facebook on my phone.  Thankfully, he likes charred bacon.  He also likes not having to cook the bacon.)

Anyway…It’s almost as if my mind goes, “Wait.  What the heck?  The only thing you’re giving me to focus on is scrubbing a pot in circular motions?  You’ve got to be kidding.  I can do that with your eyes closed.  Help!  I’m being deprived. *panic mode*  Must provide own stimulation!” and voilà, like that, a recipe or a vision of how I want to plate a specific dish pops in my head.

Now this doesn’t happen every time I wash dishes or have a shower (you’re probably thinking that I’m crazy.  You’re not the first one.  I would argue, however, that those folks have really just misspelled ‘quirky’).  Honestly, what more often comes raining through my mind are the 3 things I’ve been forgetting to put on my reminders list for the past week.  Then I have to tell myself over and over again to remember the 3 things long enough that I can dry myself/my hands and get to my reminders app.  Sometimes, however, I really DO have an epiphany.

In this particular situation, I was thinking about how I was getting bored of making various different fruit crumbles for my nightly dessert (I know…I’m spoiled.  Don’t worry.  I’ll share those with you too some day) and how I missed eating tapioca pudding with saskatoon berries and chocolate chunks; the way I used to eat it when I was in high school.  Then my brain side-tracked and started remembering about how much I hated that adrenaline-filled moment where you add the egg to the hot tapioca, when it side-tracked again and I began asking myself “Wait…what the he!l is the egg actually doing for the tapioca pudding?!” (That is actually how things went down in my mind.  Quirky right?).  But I’m going too fast.  I’ll backtrack a little.

You see, Mum was/is the weekend chef in our family, but sometimes she would be too busy making delicious thinks like roast beast with (real) Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes, Celery Root Anna (read: celery root slices layered with butter, cream, bacon/pancetta, and roasted with parmeggiano cheese), and gravy to slather over all of the above, that she wouldn’t make dessert.  However, Mum only got into cooking in the first place because she needed something to precede the desserts she planned to serve at dinner parties.  Ipso factor, not having dessert with her Sunday dinners was a no go.  So, I would often step in to make tapioca pudding.

When I was first tossed into culinary leperdom, I figured tapioca would forever be out of the question.  If you don’t do diary or eggs, the only thing left to the tapioca pudding recipe on the back of the box is tiny shrapnel-like pieces of tapioca balls, sugar, salt and vanilla.  Dry ingredients in a pot do not a creamy pudding make.

As I’ve baked more and more within the confines of my culinary leperdom, however, I’ve come to realize that a) coconut milk is delicious and can be substituted for milk in most recipes, and b) egg is usually added to puddings to give them that thick pudding-like texture.  Tapioca is also used as a thickening agent.  So…(and we’re back to where we started now) what the he!l is the egg actually doing for the tapioca pudding?!

In fact, now that I’ve tried my new way of making coconut tapioca pudding (a.k.a Coc-ioca) several times a week for the past month and a bit, I’m fairly convinced that the only thing that bloody egg was doing was making my life a living he!l.  You see, if you add the egg to the hot pudding mixture and DON’T stir fast enough for long enough, well…it looks nasty.  Can we say scrambled bubble eggs anyone?

My brother is also ‘quirky’ like me.  For the longest time, he insisted that if he could see the egg in front of him, he was allergic to it.  Eating cakes, pancakes, waffles, french toast, and pretty much anything else with egg IN it was all good though.  As long as you could slather liquidy sugar all over it, the bro would be all over that eggy dish like white on rice.  Thankfully, he has seen the logic in what being ‘allergic’ means, and will now tentatively eat things with visible egg on it.  Back in high school, however, it was all I could do to hide the egg chunks in the tapioca so that he would eat the stuff.

With my new way, there are no eggs, and the creaminess of the full fat coconut milk makes this pudding taste as rich as crème caramel or crème brûlée when it’s warm and…well, like pudding when it’s cold.  It’s just healthier (because I’ve cut back on the sugar/sweetener that most recipes call for) and only 5 ingredients strong!  I’ve also provided y’all with a completely paleo adaptation to this recipe!  AND…without the egg, it, like my Maple Walnut Granola from last week, is so easy to make, it practically makes itself!  Whoop whoop!  #culinaryleperdomforthewin #lookatmemakinglemonadeouttasomereallygnarlylemons

So…now that I’ve talked this stuff up for the past several hundred words, we get to the good part.  How to make said deliciously creamy Coc-ioca!

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Ok…now for some tips and things to consider:

• Firstly, this recipe is not 100% paleo. Though it initially comes from a plant, Agave undergoes processing before being bottled and sold as a syrup so it doesn’t technically qualify as a paleo sweetener.  I still use it thought because as I mentioned in my About page, I have already cut 25-ish pretty major food groups out of my life.  Cutting the small amount of processed sugar that I eat in a day just doesn’t seem worth it to me.  Further, given the amount of training and exercise that I get in a day (I usually walk about 6 km a day with a 40 pound backpack AS WELL AS do CrossFit 8-10 hours/week) the small amount of sugar I eat in a day doesn’t leave me worrying about developing insulin intolerance. And, really, let’s be honest.  I need all the carbs I can get at this point.  All that being said, if you DO want to make this recipe 100% paleo, you can switch the agave syrup for 4 tbsp of coconut sugar.  The only thing that will be different is your pudding will turn a nice caramel colour (coconut sugar is brown after all).
• Secondly, this is not a Facebook-friendly recipe; meaning, that if you walk away from your stove for even two mins without stirring before leaving and after returning, the good bits will all stick to the bottom of the pot.  Don’t fret though!  Even if I stir fairly consistently, I still get ‘lil stickems.  If they don’t unstick fairly easily while you’re stirring, they will release when the pudding sits. (The recipe is practically self-cleaning!  Win!)  If you do get some stickems from the bottom of the pot and they’re DARK brown/black, THEN the whole thing is banjaxed and you’ll have to start again.  Sorry.
• Thirdly, if you really want to jazz this stuff up, get yourself come Tahitian Vanilla Bean Paste rather than using regular vanilla extract.  The stuff is practically the price of gold and serves the exact same function as vanilla extract.  I use it because it makes the dish look prettier when you look up close.  That’s pretty much it.  This paste is not paleo for those paleo-ers out there.
• If you want to make this recipe ‘lighter’ on the calorie count, you can use ‘lite’ coconut instead of full fat.  It won’t affect the texture (tapioca is a wicked thickening agent).  It just may not taste AS creamy.
• Finally, I have some serving tips for you guys!  As mentioned above, this stuff tastes awesome with berries and chocolate on it!  You can’t go wrong with that.  Figs and honey would be another great topping.  Throwing some cocoa nibs in there.  Mangos or other tropical fruit like passionfruit would also be awesome.  See!  You can dress this baby up so many ways, you’ll never get bored!

Ok.  That’s it for this week folks.  I want to apologize for the late post.  I usually try to get my post up by Tuesdays at the latest. This week, has been brutal school-wise so I’m just trying to stay ahead of the ball right now.  Next week should be better!

Per usual, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave me a message in the comments box below, or send me an email from my Contact page!

Until next time!  Ciao!