Comfort Food

The last of the leaves are falling and the weather has turned cold again this week. My cardigan sweaters have been out in full force. Something about wearing a wool cable knit cardigan makes me feel old-fashioned. And feeling old-fashioned made me think about tapioca pudding, a treat my grandmother used to make for me when I was in college.

So I made some tapioca the other day, using a simple recipe that Grandma would recognize:

¼ cup granulated tapioca
1 ½ cups milk
a pinch of salt
1 egg
¾ cup sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla

Combine tapioca, milk and the pinch of salt in a saucepan. Place on medium high heat and stir until boiling. Simmer for 2 minutes over the lowest possible heat. While the tapioca and milk simmer, beat the egg with the sugar in a separate bowl. After 2 minutes of simmer, add some of the tapioca and milk mixture to the egg and sugar to equalize the temperature (so the egg won't curdle). Return all to the saucepan and continue to cook on the lowest heat, stirring constantly for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat; add vanilla when the pudding has cooled about 10 minutes. Chill or serve warm.

Comfort in a bowl.