Che bap can be served chilled, warm or at room temperature (personally, I like it warm). Serve in small bowls drizzled with coconut cream and sprinkled with toasted sesame seeds.
Cook’s notes
Che bap is often labeled a dessert pudding in the Western world, but it isn’t exactly that. In the first place, dessert is a Western concept; so is pudding.
Che is a generic term for a wide array of Vietnamese sweets which can range from soupy to almost dry. Che can have beans, peas, fruits, jelly, root crops or glutinous rice. Che bap has corn and tapioca pearls or, occasionally, rice. Unlike Western pudding, che bap isn’t firm but, rather, has a consistency that’s similar to thick porridge.
How is che bap eaten? Here’s one thing I learned in Vietnam. If you order che bap in a restaurant that caters mostly to Western tourists, it will likely be listed as a dessert. But out on the streets where it is sold as street food, che bap is a sweet snack.
To make che bap, you’ll need sweet corn, pandan leaf, tapioca, sugar, salt, coconut milk and coconut cream. There are recipes that use tapioca powder dispersed in water to thicken che bap. While that will yield a thick che bap, I prefer the contrast in texture between the corn kernels and tapioca pearls. I used quick-cooking tapioca pearls.
Che bap (Vietnamese sweet corn, tapioca and coconut)
Ingredients
- 2 ears sweet corn
- 1 pandan leaf
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup quick-cooking tapioca pearls
- ½ cup coconut milk
- ½ cup coconut cream
- toasted sesame seeds
Instructions
- Using a sharp knife or vegetable peeler, shave the corn kernels and set aside.
- Pour six cups of water into a pot, add the corn cobs and pandan leaf, and boil for ten minutes.
- Remove the corn cobs and pandan leaf, and discard.
- Add the corn kernels to the boiling water. Stir in the sugar and salt.
- Boil for five to ten minutes then stir in the tapioca pearls and coconut milk.
- Cook, stirring often, until thickened.
- Taste and add more sugar or salt, or both, as needed.
- Ladle the che bap into bowls, drizzle coconut cream on top and sprinkle in toasted sesame seeds.
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