How To Make Gluten Free Tapioca Pudding On The Stove-Top
This is a really easy and quick Gluten-Free Dessert to make. It is a steamed pudding, which means that it is not cooked in the oven, but on the stove top. This conserves power. The steamed pudding is a handy method to use for when you go camping, or are holidaying in a place where kitchen facilities are limited. All you need for your utensils are a stove-top or burner, a large saucepan with a lid, and a smaller enamel or stainless steel bowl to fit inside the saucepan. The pudding basin should be large enough to hold the ingredients below, with a little room at the top for the pudding to swell when it heats up.
This is a never-fail recipe. All you have to remember is to stir the pudding at the beginning of the cooking for a few minutes, and not to let the water boil away as it is cooking. Check the water halfway through the cooking to make sure there is enough in the saucepan.
Now for the ingredients:
You will need
One large free range organic egg
Three tablespoons of tapioca powder, or tapioca flour. Tapioca is a gluten-free root vegetable which is very nutritious and easily digested.
Three tablespoons of dessicated coconut
Two tablespoons of brown sugar OR honey OR Two tablespoons of home made jam, such as quince jam.
Two cups of organic milk or soy milk
Pinch of Sea Salt
In your small enamel or stainless steel bowl, put the tapioca powder, coconut, sea salt, and the brown sugar or your jam or honey. Gradually add enough milk to make a smooth paste, and then stir in the rest of the milk. Beat the egg lightly in a cup with a fork, and stir into the tapioca and milk mixture.
Now put two cups of water into your saucepan and put it on the stove to boil. When the water has reached boiling point, take the saucepan off the heat while you carefully put in the bowl which contains the tapioca pudding. Make sure that you do not burn yourself with the boiling water in the saucepan. The bowl of pudding should sit inside the saucepan, with the water coming up to about halfway up the bowl. The water should not go inside the bowl, so make sure the water level is well below the top level of the pudding basin.
Put the saucepan with its pudding inside carefully back onto the stove with the lid on. Turn up the heat just for a minute, until it begins to simmer. Then turn the heat down to low. The water should be just bubbling lightly.
After a couple of minutes, take off the lid and stir the pudding for a bit, so that it mixes in smoothly with the milk. Be careful, again, not to burn yourself with the boiling water in the saucepan. Then put the lid back onto the pudding for two more minutes. Then, take the lid off and stir the pudding again, this time for a little longer, as the tapioca will be starting to thicken up. Stir for several minutes, then put the lid back on. This time, there is no need to keep stirring. Simply cook the pudding in the saucepan for around another 20 minutes. Now you can turn off the heat. Leave the pudding to sit in the saucepan, with the heat turned off, for ten minutes. Then serve. The whole cooking period should be no more than half an hour, with an added 10 minutes to leave the pudding to sit.
If you want to make a larger pudding to serve more people, then simply double the recipe and use a larger bowl. The method is exactly the same.
Dates or sultanas or other dried fruit can be used instead of the sugar if you wish to avoid sugar.
This gluten free tapioca steamed pudding is protein-rich and is a good food to nourish growing children or to strengthen older, frail people. It is a very delicious, creamy pudding.