[1] Tapioca pudding (photo © J. Java | Fotolia).

[2] Cassava root, the source of tapioca. It’s poisonous when raw (photo © David Monniaux | Wikipedia).

Tapioca pudding used to be as popular as rice pudding and was served in school lunchrooms. While its popularity began to wane some 50 years ago, it’s still popular with people who like creamy puddings.

Modern processing of tapioca began in the second half of the 19th century. As an easily digestible starch, tapioca pudding was often prescribed for children, the elderly, and the infirm.

> But you be the judge. A recipe is below.

So what is tapioca pudding?

Tapioca is made from the root of the cassava (pronounced kuh-SAH-vuh, also called manioc, arrowroot, and yuca—not yucca), a woody shrub native to South America that is cultivated for its starchy, tuberous root (a major food source, cooked like potatoes).

Tapioca is also a thickener. Add a tablespoon of arrowroot (dried ground cassava) or two tablespoons of quick-cooking tapioca pearls to berry pies or other pie recipes known to be runny. The arrowroot or tapioca will “thicken the sauce” as the pie bakes.

Raw tapioca is poisonous because it contains naturally occurring forms of cyanide. The milky, bitter liquid (yare) squeezed out of the pulp was used to make poisonous darts.

In the Tupi-Guarani* language, the processed cassava is called tipioca. Tipi means residue and ok (not O.K.) means to squeeze out. This describes how the starch is produced—by steeping the crushed root fibers in water and squeezing out the liquid.

Spanish and Portuguese traders inadvertently transposed the word to tapioca.
 
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*The Tupi-Guarani are one of the main indigenous ethnic groups of Brazil. It is believed that they first settled in the Amazon rainforest, but spread southward beginning about 2,900 years ago to gradually occupy the Atlantic coast of what is now Brazil.

This recipe couldn’t be easier. Just bring the ingredients to a boil and let stand for 15 minutes. The recipe, made by our mom, is adapted from The Fanny Farmer Cookbook.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. BREAK the egg into a medium saucepan and beat with a fork (just enough to blend the white and yolk).

2. ADD the tapioca, sugar, salt, and milk. Stir over moderate heat until the pudding boils.

3. REMOVE from heat; let stand for 15 minutes. The pudding stiffens as it cools.

4. STIR IN the vanilla and pour the pudding into a serving bowl or individual ramekins or goblets. Refrigerate for several hours or until ready to serve.
 
Variations

Matcha is the Japanese ceremonial tea. It’s shade-grown green tea. The leaf is deveined and then stone ground into a fine powder. The bright green powder is whipped into water that is heated to just before boiling. The result: a smooth, vegetal sweetness with no astringency.

Matcha is the type of green tea used to make the popular green tea latte. You can purchase it at most tea shops and tea departments of fine food stores, or online.

You can enjoy your matcha latte hot or iced. Given the weather, let’s start with the iced. Thanks to The Republic of Tea for this recipe. You’ll find a link to a hot green tea latte recipe at the end of this post.

If you hold the whipped cream, you’ve got a healthy drink: antioxidants from the tea, protein and calcium from the milk and sweetness from agave nectar, a low-glycemic yet delicious sweetener (our favorite).
 
 
FROZEN MATCHA (GREEN TEA) LATTE RECIPE

Ingredients For One Drink

[1] Serve a beautiful pickled vegetable tray or use the veggies as plate garnishes (photo © The National | NYC).

[2] You can make quick pickles in an hour (photo © Typhoon Housewares).

[3] Pickled apples: sweet and tangy (photo © Best Apples).

[4] Pickled radishes: zingy and tangy. Here’s the recipe (photo © Simply Delicious Food).

Have you ever made pickled vegetables? This tip isn’t about “putting up” vegetables for winter in sterilized jars.

Just a few days of aging in the fridge will give you delicious snacks and and garnishes to use on sandwiches, main dishes and cocktails.

You can even start enjoying them in about two hours’ time.
 
 
START PICKLING!

Paul Corsentino, Executive Chef at The National in New York City, is a huge fan of pickling. Here are his tips on how to pickle vegetables.

 
 
BE CREATIVE WITH THE BRINE

Chef Corsentino also chooses a different brining liquid depending on the vegetable. For example:

 
Look at your spices for inspiration: allspice, bay leaf, crushed red peppers, dill seed, juniper berries, mace, mustard seed, and peppercorns are all contenders. Pickled vegetables never met a spice they didn’t like.

Since these pickled vegetables aren’t sterilized in a water bath, they need to go right into the fridge to age. Eat them within two weeks (more likely, they’ll be gone in two days).
 
 
CHECK OUT RECIPES

There are plenty of pickle recipes online.

But if you’re excited about pickling, pick up a book on the topic. The Joy Of Pickling, first published in 1999, is now in its second edition.

You may find yourself making classic bread-and-butter and dill pickles, pickled beets and kimchi.
 
 
> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF PICKLES

The cognac-based orange liqueur, beloved around the world, has just gotten more loveable. If you can afford the price of this love, it’s a beautiful experience.

Marnier-Lapostolle Inc. has announced a new limited edition expression, Grand Marnier Quintessence. The name means “fifth essence,” from the Latin quinta essentia. It’s the company’s fifth expression, or version.

Quintessence is the first new Grand Marnier expression offered in the U.S. since Cent-Cinquantenaire, which was launched in 1977 to mark the company’s 150th anniversary. It will please those with the most discriminating palates—and the deepest pockets.

Quintessence is a rare blend of exceptionally old vintage cognacs. It includes cognacs that are from 25 to 100 years old. Part of the magic includes the 1906 Grande Champagne and the 1955 Grande Champagne bottlings.

Another part of the magic is the exacting and time-consuming double distillation of the bitter oranges after maceration. This extra step in the process creates a more velvety and concentrated orange perfume.

And what a fragrance! The nose is an exquisite, fresh and rich orange perfume, with no alcohol.* Thanks to all of the aged cognacs in the bottle, it is mellow and round on the palate, with much less heat than the signature expression and a long and complex finish.

If Quintessence is not in your cards, consider the flagship bottle of Grand Marnier ($38), the Cuvée du Centenaire ($155) or the Cuvée du Cent Cinquantenaire ($240).

Try these Grand Marnier recipes with the flagship bottle:

 
And of course, a fresh fruit salad marinated in Grand Marnier, or a drizzle of liqueur over sorbet, are treats that require no cooking whatsoever.

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*We’re very experienced with the aroma of Grand Marnier. In grad school, studying late every night, we’d pour ourselves a snifter and inhale it for hours as we studied. We couldn’t drink it, given the work load.

In the U.S., distilled white vinegar is typically made from corn. Photo courtesy H. J. Heinz.

Vinegar is more than a condiment or a recipe ingredient: It’s a health and wellness aid and a versatile household cleanser as well.

There are hundreds of uses for vinegar. Today we’re focusing on just two: vinegar as a cooking helper and as a kitchen cleaner.

Great-grandma and her ancestors relied on distilled white vinegar, for making perfect meringues and cleaning the ice box.

Here are 26 kitchen uses for distilled white vinegar—which is what you should call it to differentiate it from white wine vinegar and white balsamic vinegar.

Read the full article about distilled white vinegar.