jake
It's not tapioca. Sago pearls is made from the starch of the sago palm. It is culinarilly interchangeable and indistinguisable from tapioca... cooks exactly the same. Actually if you read the ingredients many products labeled tapioca is actually sago.
sago SAY-goh A starch extracted from the sago (and other tropical) palms that is processed into flour, meal and pearl sago, which is similar to tapioca. South Pacific cooks frequently use sago for baking and for thickening soups, puddings and other desserts. In the Orient and in India it's used as a flour and in the United States it's occasionally used as a thickener. --- tapioca; tapioca flour tap-ee-OH-kuh A starchy substance extracted from the root of the CbuttAVA plant. It's available in several forms including granules, flakes, pellets (called pearl tapioca ) and flour or starch. The most widely available forms are tapioca flour (also called cbuttava flour ) and pearl tapioca. The flour is used as a thickening agent for soups, fruit fillings, glazes, etc., much like cornstarch. Pearl tapioca is used mainly to make pudding and comes in several sizes, regular or instant forms and in a variety of prepackaged flavors. Pearl tapioca is available in most supermarkets, whereas the other forms are more commonly found in health-food stores and Asian markets. If stored in a cool, dark place, all types of tapioca will keep indefinitely.
© Copyright Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.
Asian PestoI just made an "asian pesto" based an a recipe I got from Asian Ingredients, A guide to the Foodstuffs of China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam by Bruce...
Sheldon
