Brazilian Pudding

Pouding Brésilien (Brazilian tapioca pudding) teaches two kinds of control: courage over the sugar and gentleness with the custard. One true thing before you touch a pan: caramel pulled at old gold is aromatic and faintly bitter, but one shade further lets bitterness run through every pearl. The caramel is not decoration. It is the dish's only sauce.

The original preparation assumed a pastry station, a copper sugar pan, practiced fingers for judging syrup, and enough pudding to fill several moulds. Here, the quantity becomes one seamless 6-cup mould for eight servings. A pale-lined saucepan and thermometer replace the finger tests because hot sugar demands respect, while the broken ice used for clothing an aspic mould goes entirely because caramel sets against room-temperature metal. Those were brigade scaffolding. Chemiser, to clothe the mould evenly with caramel, and poaching the pudding quietly in a bain-marie are the dish itself, so both stay.

Cook the tapioca until nearly every pearl turns translucent, then keep the water bath below a boil. Most of all, pull the caramel at old gold. If it goes dark and acrid, don't bury the bitterness beneath custard. Ça se rattrape: begin a fresh small batch.