Tapioca Brulee

Sorry it has been so long since I last posted a recipe. This week in class we had Chef Jesse Yolt from Happy in Boulder come to class and teach us a lot about Asian food. I will be posting a bunch of his recipes, which were all amazing!
We made this tapioca brulee and it was awesome. I have never had tapioca pudding, but those in my class that had said this was way better than any pudding they had ever had, so don't shy away from this dish just because it is tapioca. We used shallow ramekins and everyone agreed that we should have used deep ones so that we could have more of the tapioca and less of the sugar on top, which added a nice crunchy contrast, but we would have liked a bit less. I think in the future I am going to make this with mango instead of pineapple purely because I love Thai mango sticky rice and this reminded me of that. We served it with carbonated pineapple! There is not a particularly easy way of doing this for home cooks, but it is do-able so let me know if you want to know how.

Tapioca Brulee

Servings: 12-16 individual desserts

Active Time: 1hr
Inactive Time: 2hrs
Total Time: 3hrs

Ingredients
1 bag tapioca pearls
1/2 pineapple, skin removed and pureed
1.5 cans coconut milk
sugar, to taste
salt, to taste

Directions
In a large pot, bring 2 gallons of water to a boil. Salt the water. Add tapioca and cook until al dente, or until there is a small sphere of white surrounded by a clear layer of about the same thickness as the white dot in the center. Drain tapioca. While the tapioca is boiling, blend pineapple and coconut milk. Bring to a simmer. Add al dente tapioca and sugar to taste. Cook unti the tapioca is cooked through and the mixture has the consistency of custard. Portion into deep ramekins and place in the fridge to cool for about 2 hours. To finish sprinkle with sugar and brulee as with a creme brulee.