Tapai

Medium·25 min active + 35 min resting

Fermented sweet cassava — steamed cassava (or glutinous rice) inoculated with yeast starter and left to ferment a few days into a soft, sweet, slightly boozy, tangy treat eaten as a snack or dessert.

Cassava

Sugar

Yeast

Tapai is the fermented cassava (or rice) sweet of the Malay world, eaten in Timor; the natural yeast fermentation turns the starch sweet and lightly alcoholic.

Bite tapai and the cassava is soft, juicy, and yielding, sweet from the fermentation with a tangy edge and a gentle warmth of alcohol. Bite: the starch has turned syrupy-sweet, the texture almost melting, a faint yeasty-boozy aroma like a mild rice wine. An ancient, living-culture sweet — refreshing and a little intoxicating, eaten chilled.

The ragi starter's yeasts and molds ferment the cooked cassava's starch into sugars and a little alcohol over a few warm days — the same process as rice wine, stopped early while still sweet. Cooling the cassava before inoculating keeps the starter alive.

Variations

Made with glutinous rice (tapai pulut). Black glutinous rice version. Sweeter (less fermented). Boozier (longer). Served with coconut. Used in desserts and drinks.

On the Palate

Where Tapai sits in the Timorese flavor cloud

Ingredients

Serves 6

800 gCassava

2 tbspSugar

1 ragi ballYeast

How it's made

8 steps · 25 min active + 35 min waiting

1
22 min
Peel and cut 800 g cassava into pieces; steam until just tender, 20 min.
2
15 min
Cool the cassava completely to room temperature (heat would kill the starter).
Watch out
Cool the cassava to fully room-temperature before adding the starter — any warmth left will kill the yeasts and molds and the ferment won't take.
3
3 min
Crush a tapai/ragi yeast starter ball into a fine powder.
4
4 min
Dust the cassava evenly with the yeast powder and a little sugar.
5
4 min
Pack into a clean container lined with banana leaf.
6
5 min
Cover and leave to ferment at warm room temperature 2-3 days.
Watch out
Keep it somewhere reliably warm — in a cold spot the ferment stalls; too hot and it turns sour and boozy fast.
7
2 min
Check for a sweet, tangy, faintly alcoholic aroma and soft, juicy texture.
Watch out
Stop it while it still smells sweet with just a whiff of alcohol and the flesh turns soft and juicy — go longer and it slides past sweet into wine.
8
3 min
Chill and serve as a snack or dessert.