Ingredients
- 3 cups (750 ml) water
- 1½ cups (300 g) sugar
- 1 cup (250 ml) whole milk
- 2 cups (500 ml) unsweetened coconut milk
- 2/3 cup (115 g) small dried tapioca pearls 2 cups (320 g) ½-in (1.25-cm)-cubed honeydew melon
How to Make It
- In a medium pot, bring the water and sugar to a boil. When boiling, turn the heat to low and stir in the milk. When the mixture returns to a boil, turn off the heat and stir in the coconut milk. Make sure that you are not boiling the coconut milk (which would make it oily). Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
- Soak the tapioca pearls in cold water for 20 minutes exactly. The pearls will expand and turn bright white. Drain. In a medium pot, add about 4 cups (1 liter) of water and bring to a boil. In the meantime, have a fine-meshed sieve ready at the sink. When the water boils, turn off the heat and add the drained tapioca pearls and stir constantly for 1 1/2 minutes. If you are using pearls larger than 1 millimeter, cook an additional 30 seconds or until the pearls are translucent with a very small white center. Bite into a tapioca pearl; it should be soft but not goopy.
- Immediately drain the tapioca in the fine-mesh sieve and run cold water through the sieve to stop the tapioca pearls from cooking further. Swish with your hands to make sure that the pearls at the bottom of the sieve have a chance to cool down. Drain and add to coconut milk mixture. Chill the entire mixture for at least 2 hours or up to 3 days.
- To serve, ladle the sweet coconut milk into a bowl and spoon in the cubed, fresh honeydew.