Progressive Dinner For Jan 23

We're reaching the end of the road with this dinner, so let's make it a gangbusters meal.

Here are the assignments for this final shot:

Appetizer: Dan (fill-in for Anne)
First course: Ron
Soup: Mark
Salad: Dan
Seafood: Ahron
Main: Hila
Dessert: Brook

Hopefully, Ahron and Hila will get their entries posted quickly, so we can all post balanced dishes against them.

When I was much younger than I am, tapioca was a very common dessert. Like so many ingredients of that time, however, it became associated with deprivation, and fell out of favor. Now, I’m glad to say, it’s coming back into vogue.

Tapioca is produced from the cassava plant, and has been used, literally, for centuries to make sweet desserts and creamy puddings. It has a light, delicate flavor, that supports, rather than masks, other flavors such as fruits, vanilla, cardamom, and so on.

For this week’s dessert, we’ll have:

Tapioca Pudding with Raspberry Chocolate Sauce

½ cup tapioca pearls
¼ tsp salt
2 eggs, separated
2 ½ cups milk
½ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Soak the tapioca in 2 cups room temperature water overnight. Drain.

In a double boiler, heat the milk until just no longer cold. Add salt and tapioca. Continue heating until small bubbles appear at sides of pan. Cover, turn heat to very low, and cook for one hour, making sure the milk does not boil.

Beat the egg yolks and sugar together until light yellow. Temper the yolks by adding a little of the hot mixture and blending thoroughly Then add the egg mixture to the hot milk mixture, stirring constantly. Place the double boiler over medium heat and cook until tapioca mixture is very thick, ten to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the egg whites until stiff. Slowly fold the egg whites into the hot tapioca mixture. Stir in vanilla.

Chill several hours or overnight

Raspberry Chocolate Sauce

1 10-oz pkg frozen raspberries
½ cup sugar
½ cup orange juice
Splash Chocolate-Mint liquor
2 tbls semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 tbls cornstarch

Simmer all ingredients except liquor until slightly thickened and chips are melted. Add the liquor and remove from heat.

For service: Spoon portions of tapioca pudding into dessert bowls. Top with raspberry sauce.

   Here's a lovely salad that is simple and back to basics.  While It's written with Iberico Jamon in mind, of course substitute any type of prosciutto you enjoy.

    Nice course Ahron!  They look delicious!

I was trying to wait on the main but here goes. This could be a soup and/or a main.
Seafood Gumbo in a bread bowl with crispy corn cactus!