What is tapioca?
We know tapioca as a delicious, creamy pudding. It is also used to thicken and cream certain soups. But before it reaches us it has gone through many adventures. It has also traveled a long ways for tapioca is grown in the tropical regions of the world.
It comes from a plant called the cassava. This plant stores its food in fleshy underground rootstocks, and the food is rich and starchy. First the rootstocks are dug up and given a good washing. Certain cassava roots are used as fodder for cattle. One kind is prepared for our desserts and soups.
The cleaned rootstocks are heated when moist. The drying starch gathers in small round grains, these are the small grains with which we start to make a tapioca pudding. Under slow cooking, the starch swells as it absorbs the moisture from milk and maybe eggs.