Chè Bưởi

the most inventive thing done with any citrus anywhere: pomelo pith salted, rinsed to blandness, jacketed in tapioca starch, and floated in sweet mung bean soup under coconut cream

Origin: Vietnam

From the journey of Pomelo.

Chè covers the whole Vietnamese family of sweet soups, puddings, and drinks, usually built on beans, tapioca, and coconut, and eaten as much for texture as for flavour. Chè bưởi is its most surprising member, because its principal ingredient is the part of the pomelo that every other cuisine discards. The pith is bitter, spongy, and wet. Salting it draws out a great deal of water, and repeated rinsing and squeezing removes the naringin, which is water-soluble; what is left after the better part of an hour is a pale, bland, faintly squeaky dice that tastes of almost nothing. That blankness is the raw material. Tossed in tapioca starch and dropped briefly into boiling water, each cube acquires a thin translucent jacket that turns slippery and elastic whilst the centre stays soft and slightly yielding, and the contrast between the two is the entire point of the dish. It is worth setting beside the Cantonese braise to see how differently two cuisines answered the same question. Both begin by recognising that pomelo pith is a sponge with no flavour of its own and an unusual capacity to absorb. Guangdong filled it with dried flounder, pork fat, and stock; the Mekong delta jacketed it in starch and floated it in sweetened mung bean and coconut. Neither would recognise the other's result, and both are correct. The dish is associated particularly with the southern provinces and with Bến Tre, the pomelo and coconut country of the delta, where both principal ingredients are grown within sight of each other.

Ingredients

Pith

400 g pomelo pith, from about 2 large fruit, white part only
3 tbsp fine salt, for drawing out water
120 g tapioca starch

Soup

150 g split hulled mung beans (moong dal), soaked 2 hours
180 g caster sugar
1 litre water
3 tbsp tapioca starch, slaked in 4 tbsp cold water
2 leaves pandan, knotted (optional)

Coconut cream

250 ml coconut milk
2 tbsp caster sugar
1 pinch salt
1 tsp tapioca starch, slaked

To serve

40 g roasted peanuts, crushed, and toasted sesame seeds, to serve

Method

Pare the coloured zest from the pomelo rind and discard it. Cut the white pith into 1 cm dice. Toss with the salt and leave for 30 minutes.
Rinse the pith under running water, then soak and squeeze it repeatedly in several changes of cold water, ten minutes at a time, until it tastes of nothing at all. Squeeze very dry.
Toss the squeezed pith thoroughly in the tapioca starch until every cube is dry-coated and separate.
Boil a large pan of water and drop the coated pith in. When the cubes float and look translucent, after about two minutes, lift them into cold water.
Steam or simmer the soaked mung beans for 15 to 20 minutes until tender but still holding their shape. Set aside.
Bring the water, sugar, and pandan to a simmer, stir in the slaked tapioca starch, and cook for two minutes until lightly thickened and glossy. Add the beans and the drained pith and warm through.
Make the coconut cream: warm the coconut milk with the sugar and salt, stir in the slaked starch, and cook briefly until it just coats a spoon.
Serve warm or chilled in glasses, with the coconut cream spooned over and peanuts and sesame scattered on top.

Notes

Use the pomelo flesh for gỏi bưởi or eat it fresh; this dish needs only the pith. The pith preparation is the whole difficulty and cannot be hurried: under-rinsed pith gives a bitter dessert, and inadequately squeezed pith will not hold its starch jacket. Grapefruit pith can be used, though it is thinner and yields much less. Keeps two days refrigerated, though the jacketed pith firms up; let it come back towards room temperature before serving. The mung bean layer is sometimes replaced with a clear pandan syrup, which makes a lighter and prettier version.

The Gastrographer

Name: Chè Bưởi
Prep time: 1 h
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 2 h
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Vietnam
Ingredients: 400 g pomelo pith, from about 2 large fruit, white part only; 3 tbsp fine salt, for drawing out water; 120 g tapioca starch; 150 g split hulled mung beans (moong dal), soaked 2 hours; 180 g caster sugar; 1 litre water; 3 tbsp tapioca starch, slaked in 4 tbsp cold water; 2 leaves pandan, knotted (optional); 250 ml coconut milk; 2 tbsp caster sugar; 1 pinch salt; 1 tsp tapioca starch, slaked; 40 g roasted peanuts, crushed, and toasted sesame seeds, to serve

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Journey Point Map Key

Ingredient originTrade or transit route

Became a culinary stapleColonial / trade control