Sensuous, with smooth new style

MAYBE it’s all that boba that’s been floating around in frothy milk teas. Or maybe it’s a nod to nostalgia and the creamy tapioca pudding of childhood memories. Maybe it’s a little of both. Whatever the reason, something has inspired chefs to grab the tapioca from the shelf and create inspired, sophisticated desserts. These are tapioca desserts refined.

“Tapioca takes on any flavor you give it,” says Josef Centeno, executive chef at Opus Restaurant. “It’s a blank canvas, perfect for experimenting, so the possibilities are endless.”

Maybe that’s why so many pastry chefs are embracing tapioca, turning out show-stopping creations that also happen to be easy for home cooks to make.

At Opus, Centeno tops cinnamon tapioca with a brulee crust. Break through the crunchy, caramelized crown and a velvety pudding packed with tapioca is revealed. Served with Centeno’s dried-cherry gastrique, caramel sauce spiked with a generous amount of Banyuls vinegar, it’s a tart-sweet mosaic of eye-popping flavors.

Tapioca may not usually evoke glamour, but it is showing up in elegant dishes. (Thomas Keller’s famed “oysters and pearls” is a sabayon of pearl tapioca with oysters and caviar.) At Guy Savoy in Las Vegas, it’s elevated to a stunning dessert: a tapioca speckled with vanilla bean seeds and lined with a ruby-red gelee concentrated with the flavor of strawberries. At Wilshire in Santa Monica, a light, airy tapioca is served with macerated late-harvest peaches touched with fresh mint.

Tapioca gets its delicate flavor and distinctive texture from dried, powdered cassava root. The powdered root is mixed with water to form dough, then shaped into small spheres and dried (tapioca pearls); dried and flaked (granulated tapioca); partially cooked, dried and finely ground (quick-cooking or instant tapioca); or dried and powdered (tapioca flour). Because of the high starch content of cassava root, tapioca is often used as a binder.

For a light and creamy pudding, steer clear of quick-cooking or granulated tapioca. The processed flakes release too much starch, turning into a dense, congealed cafeteria-style pudding. Choose tapioca pearls instead; the quality of the pearls can make a difference as well.

Pearls are sold in several sizes, usually 2, 4 or 6 millimeters, but you’ll find them as small as 1 mm and up to the size of a small marble. The largest pearls break down more easily and can release a lot of starch.

“Really big pearls are a mouthful,” says pastry chef Uyen Nguyen of Restaurant Guy Savoy in Las Vegas. “The small pearls are more subtle and delicate, complementing the dish without dominating it.”

Nguyen layers vanilla tapioca pudding with a vibrant, jammy strawberry gelee and fresh strawberries.

The 2-mm pearls, often labeled small pearls, are good substitutes for granulated tapioca in classic pudding recipes, imparting a chewy texture without leaching too much starch. Soak the pearls according to package directions, if required, and cook them until tender.

Nguyen recommends buying from a reputable source. “If your tapioca pearls aren’t well made, they may break apart during cooking, releasing too much starch and making the pudding sticky,” she says. It’s especially important to buy good-quality pearls for use in a recipe like Nguyen’s that calls for extended soaking and cooking, to keep them from getting mushy.

Choose larger 4-mm pearls (often labeled “large pearls” in grocery stores) to play up tapioca’s texture. Bigger pearls are a little chewier due to their size.

“Large pearls have an interesting, almost addictive texture,” says Danielle Keene, pastry chef at Wilshire in Santa Monica. “So the pudding becomes all about the tapioca.”

Keene recommends soaking large pearls before using them. “Unsoaked, large-pearl tapioca can be finicky,” she says. Soak pearls for a few hours or overnight to ensure they cook evenly.

Sona pastry chef Karen Yoo prefers to rinse tapioca before cooking. “Like washing rice,” she says, “it removes the external starch, so the pearls are chewy, not sticky.”

At Wilshire, Keene uses the soaking liquid (milk) as the pudding base. Many recipes recommend discarding the soaking liquid, full of starch from the tapioca, using fresh milk to cook the tapioca instead. But Keene lightens the pudding with whipped cream, giving it a billowy, mousse-like texture.

Cooking times for tapioca vary, so rely on your taste buds, not the package directions, to determine when the tapioca is cooked. They should be clear, without any white flecks. Lay a piece of plastic wrap over the pudding’s surface to keep it from forming a milky film on top as it cools. Served with peaches macerated in citrus syrup, it’s beautifully simple and delicious. No double-wide straw required.

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Tapioca with peaches and mint

Total time: 1 hour, 15 minutes, plus 1 hour standing time and 24 hours soaking time

Servings: 6

Note: From Danielle Keene, Wilshire Restaurant. Large tapioca pearls are available at select Whole Foods (Islands brand) and well-stocked supermarkets. This recipe calls for soaking the tapioca for 24 hours.

Citrus macerated peaches

1/2 teaspoon lemon zest (about 1/2 lemon)

1/2 teaspoon orange zest (about 1/2 orange)

3 tablespoons fresh orange juice (about 1/2 orange)

3 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon white wine

6 large mint leaves, sliced

thinly in a chiffonade

2 cups thinly sliced ( 1/4 -inch) ripe yellow peaches, peeled and pitted (about 2 peaches)

1. In a medium bowl, combine the lemon and orange zest, orange juice, sugar, white wine and mint. Add the peaches. Let sit 1 hour until the sugar is dissolved and the peaches have softened slightly. Remove the peaches, reserving the liquid, and refrigerate them until ready to serve.

2. Pour the liquid into a small saucepan and simmer, over low heat, until the liquid has a syrup consistency and is slightly reduced, about 2 minutes. Cool to room temperature before serving.

Tapioca pudding and assembly

1/2 cup large tapioca pearls

2 3/4 cups whole milk, divided

1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

1. Soak the tapioca for 24 hours in 1 cup of the milk, in the refrigerator.

2. In a medium saucepan, combine the tapioca-milk mixture with the remaining milk, vanilla bean and sugar. Heat to simmering then cook on medium-low, stirring constantly, for 15 to 20 minutes, or until thickened and the tapioca is cooked through (taste a tapioca pearl -- it should not be at all crunchy). Discard the vanilla bean.

3. Remove the mixture from the heat and pour it into a bowl set over an ice bath. Place plastic wrap directly onto the pudding surface and let stand until chilled.

4. Whip the cream to medium-soft peaks and gently fold it into the pudding mixture. Refrigerate until completely chilled. To serve, spoon the pudding into bowls. Top with the chilled sliced peaches and spoon the syrup on top of and around the peaches.

Each serving: 315 calories; 5 grams protein; 42 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 15 grams fat; 9 grams saturated fat; 52 mg. cholesterol; 56 mg. sodium.

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Cinnamon tapioca brulee with cherry gastrique

Total time: 1 hour, plus several hours chilling time, plus 4 hours soaking time

Servings: 6

Note: From Josef Centeno, executive chef at Opus Restaurant. Good-quality small tapioca pearls are available at Le Sanctuaire in Santa Monica. You will need 6 (4 1/2 -by-1-inch) ramekins, or any ramekins that hold about one-half cup.

Tart cherry gastrique

1 1/2 cups sugar, divided

1/2 vanilla bean, scraped

1/2 cup tart dried cherries (no sugar added)

1/2 cup banyuls or sherry vinegar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon fresh tarragon, minced

1. In a medium saucepan, bring 1 1/2 cups water and one-half cup sugar to boil. Add the vanilla bean and dried cherries and turn off the heat. Let it macerate until the cherries are soft and plump, about 4 minutes for lightly dried, soft cherries and 15 minutes for hard, fully dried cherries. Strain the cherries, dsicard the vanilla bean and set aside.

2. In a clean medium saucepan (make sure the pan has no traces of fat in it or the caramel will crystallize), cook the remaining sugar over medium-low heat until it turns a dark amber color and the sugar is completely dissolved, about 25 to 30 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of the pan. Stir the sugar with a wooden spoon occasionally to prevent the caramel from burning.

3. Slowly add the vinegar 2 tablespoons at a time. Be very careful because the hot caramel will splatter and bubble. Continue to add the vinegar until it is completely incorporated, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. Stir in the salt and tarragon, then the reserved cherries. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes, or until syrupy. When cool, transfer to a container and keep at room temperature until ready to serve. (To clean your saucepan, fill the pan with water and bring it to a boil to melt the caramel.) Makes 1 cup of sauce.

Cinnamon tapioca brulee and assembly

1/2 cup small pearl tapioca

3 cups whole milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon orange zest

3/4 cup sugar for assembly

1. Soak the tapioca for 4 hours in 1 cup of cold water. Drain the tapioca, place it in a colander and rinse under cold water. Drain well.

2. In a 1 1/2 -quart saucepan, combine the tapioca, milk and salt on medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. While simmering, add the sugar, a few tablespoons at a time.

3. In a separate bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Gradually mix 1 cup of hot tapioca mixture into the eggs, stirring constantly to avoid curdling. Pour the egg mixture gradually back into the pan with the tapioca, stirring constantly. Bring to a simmer and cook for about 3 minutes, until the pudding has thickened and the tapioca is cooked through.

4. Let cool off heat for 15 minutes, then stir in the vanilla, cinnamon, lemon and orange zest.

5. Spoon about one-half cup of tapioca into individual ramekins. Smooth the top of the pudding with an offset spatula, cover with plastic wrap and chill several hours or overnight in the refrigerator. Just before serving, sprinkle each with 2 tablespoons of sugar; tip the dish so the sugar evenly coats the top of the tapioca. Carefully pass over the sugar with a blowtorch until it has caramelized and forms a dark brown, crunchy crust, 4 to 5 minutes. Or place the ramekins under a broiler for 8 to 9 minutes.

6. To serve, drizzle a tablespoon of sauce on top of the tapioca brulee. Pass additional sauce as desired.

Each serving: 505 calories; 7 grams protein; 109 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 6 grams fat; 3 grams saturated fat; 83 mg. cholesterol; 266 mg. sodium.

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Tapioca with strawberry gelee and fresh strawberries

Total time: 1 hour, 25 minutes, plus 4 hours soaking time

Servings: 4

Note: From Uyen Nguyen, pastry chef at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Las Vegas. Small tapioca pearls are available at Le Sanctuaire in Santa Monica; gelatin sheets are available at Surfas.

Strawberry gelee

1 pint fresh strawberries

Juice from 1 lemon (2 1/2 tablespoons)

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 sheets gelatin

1. Remove the stems from the strawberries and cut them in quarters if they are large, in half if they are small.

2. Fill a medium pot halfway with water and bring it to a boil. Place the strawberries, lemon juice and sugar in a large stainless steel bowl, cover it tightly with plastic wrap, and place it on top of the pot.

3. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook the strawberries for 1 hour, until they render their juices. Let them cool, off heat for 15 minutes. Strain the liquid into a bowl, pressing on the solids to release flavor.

4. Soak the gelatin in 1 cup of cold water for 5 minutes. Squeeze out and discard the excess water and stir the gelatin into the warm strawberry consomme. Divide the strawberry consomme among four parfait or wine glasses. Chill at least 2 hours, or until set.

Tapioca pudding and assembly

1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon small tapioca pearls

1 2/3 cups whole milk

1 vanilla bean, split in half and scraped

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 pint fresh strawberries

1 recipe strawberry gelee

1. Soak the tapioca for 4 hours in 1 1/2 cups of cold water. Drain the tapioca, place it in a colander and rinse under cold water. Drain well.

2. In a 1 1/2 -quart saucepan, bring the milk and vanilla bean and seeds to a boil. Add the tapioca and turn the heat to low. Let the pearls cook, without boiling or simmering (to avoid burning), for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the pearls are cooked through. The tapioca should be tender and translucent, with no visible whiteness. Add sugar during the last 5 minutes of cooking. Remove the vanilla bean and discard.

3. Put the tapioca in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap (placing the wrap directly on the surface of the pudding). Let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

4. Remove the stems from the strawberries and cut them into quarters if they are large, or in half if they are small. Divide the tapioca into glasses on top of the strawberry gelee and chill 30 minutes. Top with strawberries and serve.

Each serving: 267 calories; 6 grams protein; 54 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 4 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 10 mg. cholesterol; 47 mg. sodium.