Most of the Brazilian recipes I Google pop-up on the first search page, but for Sagu I had to do a little more digging. I’m not sure if it has to do with the popularity of this dish, or that maybe it is more regional to the area we are living in. I say this because I happened to mention it to my host during my visit to Minas Gerais and she hadn’t heard of it before.
Sagu is basically tapioca pearls. It is served as a dessert around here and you can often find it among other sweets on per kilo buffets (which are the normal lunch for many Brazilians). Sagu can be made with only juice. However, I prefer the version made with juice and wine.
My husband’s coworkers have joked before that they loved it as kids when their grandmothers made Sagu because it meant they got to have a little wine. Although, considering the cooking process, I doubt there is much alcohol left in the final dish.
Sagu reminds me a lot of a jello salad (without all the artificial ingredients). The pearls become slightly chewy and the cooking process turns the liquid into a thick sweet sauce that has an intense tangy flavor from the concentrated wine. It’s good at room temperature or cold, but after it gets cold the pearls and sauce really solidify so it does become thicker and a bit sticky.
Since having Sagu out at restaurants I wanted to try it myself at home which is why I made it #24 on my 30 Foods List. Like most culturally specific foods there are different recipes for making it. Some cook the sagu in water before adding the wine or juice, others also include cinnamon and clove for flavoring. Me, well, I just followed the recipe on the back of the bag of tapioca pearls.
I think we’ve established that desserts in Brazil are sweet, really sweet. So it’s no surprise that in addition to a liter of juice the recipe calls for 2 cups of sugar! You’ll be happy to know that I left that out. I used ½ juice and ½ table wine, and knowing the juice had some sugar in it to begin with I knew it would be sweet enough for me and it was.
I think you should be able to get your hands on tapioca pearls in the States pretty easily so if you are looking for something a little different for dessert, give Sagu de Vinho a try.
Sagu de Vinho
1 cup tapioca pearls
½ liter grape juice
½ liter red table wine
Add all ingredients into a medium to large soup pot. Cook over low heat until the pearls become transparent and are cooked through, about 30 to 45 minutes.
A note to San Francisco readers and those headed to the Foodbuzz Fest:
I’m headed to the event and will be in the area for an extended period. If you want to meet up at some point to talk food, health and culture let me know!
You had me at tapioca. I LOVE tapioca. I will be trying this.
Tapioca pearls are definitely available at Whole Foods if people are looking for them.
What a beautiful color!
this sounds great like tapaioca in chinese bubble tea
That is so pretty!! And so few ingredients!
MMMMMM,..;looks truly tasty! A must try!
Yum! I bet it’d be good with different juices too – it reminds me of cranberries. Maybe using cranberry cocktail.
It looked like pomegranate seeds at first glance!! Wow-I love the colour. Indian sweets are also a bit too sweet for the western palate,so I’m guessing my family is gonna love this.
We make a kind of pudding(similar to the rice pudding) with tapioca called “kheer/payasam”.
I’ve tried Sagu on Brazil several times mmm the color is amazing too 🙂
Cheers!
Gera
Weird! And oddly yummy looking. Have you ever had bubble tea? It’s a tea with big tapioca balls at the bottom that you suck up with a straw. I’m sure that they’re quite different, but seeing this recipe with the big tapioca balls makes me think of it.
And just FWIW, it’s actually surprising how much alcohol can be left in dishes even with extended cooking. You can never boil it all off under normal cooking conditions – an oddity of a water/ethanol combo. Still, I’m sure that it wouldn’t be enough alcohol left to give even a child a buzz!
Oh… I love this kind of sagu! It’s wonderful for making drinks or sweet porridge 🙂
You are right – there’s not much info on the web about sagu. I also tried to research it and didn’t find much. I love your preparation with wine – such a gorgeous color!
What a beautiful dessert, I love the color!
this looks so exotic…..i have to try it soon.
in India we make many kinds of sweet n savory preparations with sago pearls and it is eaten on fasting days.
Such a pretty dish–love the bright color.
Amy – Thanks for the tip! Glad to know where to get them.
Meredith – It is a nice shade of purple, isn’t it? 🙂
C and C – I love bubble tea!
Emily & Sophie – Thanks!
Alison – The recipe I followed was actually for orange. Grape is the most commone, but I’ve seen strawberry and raspberry too.
Sweta – Yes, it can be very sweet! I love the sound of that pudding. My mom makes a tapioca pudding, but I’m willing to bed the Indian version uses more flavorful spices. 🙂
Gera – It’s good stuff!
cathy – I love bubble tea! I haven’t had it since I was an undergrad though. We had a shop at Purdue and we got it all the time.
That is one helpful piece of info. I was obviously mislead! 🙂
Selba – I love the sweet porridge version too!
5 Star – The wine gives it such great flavor.
Sarah and Deb – Thanks! Such a beautiful purple!
Sangeeta – I definitely need to experiment more with the pearls.
I’ve been doing a lot with tapioca lately and this dish sounds very interesting. I’m putting together a post and would love to include this recipe. Any other ones I should know about?
I have some tapioca pearls – I’ve been making bubble tea! This looks a whole lot better!
OysterCulture – I dropped you an email. I asked some Brazilian friends on Facebook and haven’t gotten much feedback regarding other uses. However, just as my experience with my friend in Belo Horizonte who hadn’t heard of it, another who moved to Bahia for a while also said her friends hadn’t eat it. I’m thinking it is more of a southern Brazil dessert.
Reeni – I love bubble tea. Let me know if you try the sagu!
Awwww Lori I’m so jealous of you, I looooooooove Sagu, I’m running to Whole Foods to buy the Tapioca right now, they better have it! I don’t know if I can deal with the disappointment if they don’t. 😉
Wow – what a wonderful idea! And the color is gorgeous. Extended stay in SF? I AM SO JEALOUS!
Good thing I went back through your posts – I can’t believe I nearly missed this one! Sagu de vinho is lovely to look at with such vivid coloring. Coincidentally (or maybe not!), these tapioca pearls are called ‘sago’ in the Philippines and are used in drinks and desserts, although I think they’re boiled first in water rather than in their final ‘sauces’ like this one.
A dessert with wine has got to be at the top of my must-try list!
This was my favorite desert growing up in Brazil. I never actually prepared it, but will give it a shot now.
nice post, i am from argentina and here sagu don´t exist, but when i was a child my grandmother make this sagu with milk (she live closser to brasil and buy sagu there. thanks for bring me back 20 years!
Oh to me sagu tastes like raspberries and cream, I am a brazilian expat living in the east coast, Im gonna try whole foods market for the tapioca pearls but I will change the recipe slightly and let you know after how it came out, I will add raspberries and condensed milk instead of sugar which I think will taste like the flavored sagu we usually buy in my home town Sao Paulo, I nevr had the sagu de vinho, I will try this one next 😉 thank you for posting the sagu recipe I use to eat this a lot during my childhood but never knew it was made of tapioca lol
I really enjoyed the sagu in Brazil. Your prep method sounds really interesting. Let me know how it turns out. I might give it a try.
boil it with mik! put some vanilla and voila!
Ah, that is how we would have it in the US. I would call that tapioca pudding my mom used to make it all the time growing up. The Sagu (which I know is both the name of the pearls and dish in Brazil) is different for me because of it being with the juice or wine in Brazil and not a cream base. I love it both ways!