Chè Chuối Chưng - Vietnamese Banana Tapioca Coconut Pudding

So what the heck did hubby and I searched high and low for in Chinatown instead of Black Friday shopping? Ingredients to make this Vietnamese Banana Tapioca Coconut Pudding (chè chuối chưng)!

The traditional recipe for this pudding calls for a few ingredients that aren't available here in Japan, like the chubby and short (about half the length of a regular banana) but very fragrant banana that's only available in Southeast Asia (chuối sứ, it's actually not readily available in the US either, and when it does, it's expensive as hell!), and yuca roots. So I had to make do with just regular bananas and forgo the yuca. Oh well, it still turned out pretty well, and by well I mean delicious! It's a very heart warming dessert, perfect for the cold weather.

The recipe I used is actually very simple. And I made this pudding using my rice cooker, so it's super convenient too.

Here's my recipe for Chè Chuối Chưng.

Ingredients: makes 6+ servings

- Bananas, 5-6 medium, peeled and quartered

- Tapioca, as much or as little as desired

- Coconut milk, 1/2 a can. I made the pudding pictured below with (and prefer) Chaokoh brand, but any brand will work.

- Peanuts, crushed, half a teaspoon per serving (or more if you like peanuts), for garnish

- Optional: a couple of sprinkles of roasted sesame per serving, for garnish

Seasonings:

- Cane sugar, 5-6 teaspoons, or to taste

- Salt, 1/2 teaspoon

Steps:

- In the rice cooker, dissolve the salt in hot water, just enough to submerge the quartered bananas in. Soak for about 15 minutes.

- Cook the bananas in the salt water using the porridge setting (slow cook, takes about 1 hour).

- Mean while, boil water in a separate and cook the tapioca until almost transparent, then remove and set aside.

- About 30 minutes into cooking the bananas, add the tapioca into the rice cooker, mix in the sugar and stir gently as to not break the banana chunks. Make sure the tapioca is submerged in the water along with the bananas, add more water if needs be, but only enough to submerge the contents. Let cook for another 20 minutes.

- About 10 minutes before it's done cooking, gently stir in the coconut milk and mix well. Let finish cooking.

- Serve hot with crushed peanuts and a few sprinkles of roasted sesame. Enjoy!

I was too lazy to crush the peanuts, so I just left them whole ^.^