tapioca with vanilla and caramel

I never thought I would make, let alone eat, tapioca... Memories of frog-spawn pudding from school days and all that... Anyway, G picked some up not long ago saying how much he liked it, and rather than be a curmudgeon and screw my nose up whilst making gagging noises I jovially accepted the packet of tapioca pearls into the kitchen. I decided to try a tapioca recipe I discovered the other day browsing online - as pudding for G's welcome home dinner (especially as the apple frangipane tart got singed!). The recipe was easy enough, but having never cooked tapioca before, "cook until tapioca is soft and translucent" wasn't that easy...I had no idea if it would take 5 minutes or 30. As it turned out, it was around 25 minutes, with almost constant checking as it formed a skin every few minutes which needed to be stirred out. 1/2 cup of tapioca pearls 1 cup of whole milk 1 cup of sugar (split into: 1/4 and 3/4) 1/2 vanilla bean 1 large egg Preheat the oven to 350 degs F. 1. Prepare your ramekins: this is enough for 4 regular sized ramekins. Grease each ramekin well with butter -sides and bottoms. 2. Prepare the caramel: put 3/4 cup sugar and 1 cup of water into a small pan and bring to a boil on high heat. Stir constantly until it is caramel in colour. Careful as it starts to turn brown, it will burn really fast if you don't keep an eye on it. As it caramelizes, put on oven gloves then add 1 tablespoon of water -caution: it will spit madly, hence the need for oven gloves. Stir the water in hard and fast to combine -before the sugar hardens. Pour the caramel into the ramekins immediately and leave to sit. 3. Rinse the tapioca pearls under cold running water. Set aside. 4. Prepare a bain marie large enough to hold the 4 ramekins. 5. Put the milk, 1/4 cup sugar and vanilla bean (split) into a medium sized pan. Cook on medium heat until the tapioca is soft and translucent...this is the part that took me 25 minutes. I did add about an extra 1/2 cup of milk throughout as it dried out and got sticky. Towards the end, the sugar started to caramelize but this was fine as I kept stirring it and it combined well. It added a bit of caramel colour to the pudding. Leave to cool for about 10 minutes. 6. Remove the vanilla bean and discard. Mix in 1 egg and stir very well. 7. Pour the tapioca mixture into the ramekins and place into the bain marie for about 30 minutes, or until the centre is almost set. You might want to cover it with foil if the tops brown too fast. 7. When done, remove the ramekins from the bain marie and allow to cool. Invert onto plates and serve. I actually liked this pudding -G enjoyed his (this is a recipe he'd not tried before). It is a very sweet dish...perhaps less sugar in the caramel next time. The texture is a touch firmer than a flan, and the memories of eating frog-spawn were somewhat lessened last night.