Tapioca in Palm Jaggery (Paini Kilangu)

Paini Kilangu is a traditional tapioca recipe that can become a favorite for anyone with a sweet tooth (especially if you love tapioca in any of its cooked forms). Traditionally, it is prepared by cooking tapioca in palm sap juice (paini/padhani) from the Palmyra palm (or toddy palm). However, with very few options to buy paini when we were back in Saudi Arabia, my mom developed an ingenious way to make this delicacy for us without the paini/padhani by using palm jaggery (karupatti).

Palm jaggery or karupatti is a palm sugar that is made by boiling paini/padhani (palm sap juice from the Palmyra Palm) for about two hours until it thickens into a dark, viscous syrup that is poured into coconut shells and then allowed to solidify and set.

The paini for the traditional recipe is also boiled (with the tapioca in it) till it reaches this state. So to put it in a sentence, if you melt some palm jaggery with some water and cook the tapioca in it, you will have this delicacy without needing any paini/padhani.

I dare you to try this out, cuz I am damn sure you will not be disappointed. 😉

Ingredients:

1 kg tapioca, cut into 1-2 inch cubes
1 tsp salt (to taste)
1 1/2 liter water
750g palm jaggery (karupatti)
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp dried ginger powder (chukku)
3 cardamoms, powdered

Method:

In a large saucepan, melt the jaggery with the 1/2 cup water and bring to a boil. Run the syrup through a sieve to remove any impurities (there will usually be coconut fibers or pieces of leaves that mix with it during the jaggery-making process).

Transfer into another saucepan, add the dried ginger powder and cardamom powder and let it simmer over a low flame.

Cook the tapioca in 1 1/2 liter water with the salt, until it is 3/4th cooked.

Transfer the tapioca into the jaggery syrup and allow it to simmer until the tapioca is fully cooked and soaked in the syrup.

Serve warm with the syrup drizzled over the tapioca.