Sakoo Sai Tofu - Vegan Tapioca Dumplings
Cooking is a labor of love… Cooking is a labor of love. I have to keep telling myself that as I try to make my way through the congealed mess of tapioca pearl “dough”. In the end, it is worth it. I made a few dozen of these babies to freeze and steam when I have guests over. My parents will be in town this weekend visiting my new nephew and I’ll be steaming batches of these for them when they arrive. I think we live in a time of fast food so to make “slow food” is such a treat. Morsels of chewy tapioca dough filled with candied concoction of savory tofu and nuts, then lightly oiled and garnished with crispy fried garlic.
I took me about 20 dumplings to finally get the hang of making these again. The wet tapioca has to be soft, malleable, but no too thick. The filling has to be sweet, salty, and a touch spicy but extra bold to stand up to the doughy outside. I highly recommend using whole white peppercorns because the aroma will be so much stronger and brighter flavored. You want the filling to fry down and candy from the palm sugar. It keeps the filling firmer and easier to cover in tapioca dough. I know it seems like a lot of palm sugar/brown sugar but its absolutely necessary. Because this is Instagram/Squarespace, I didn’t post the uglies but instead just wrapped them in lettuce and ate them. It takes a bit to get use to trying to making these dumplings but they’re very worth it.