The latest creations in the Great Jelly Experiment was inspired by a lovely time out with a colleague. It may be safe to say that M Planet, while quite the Hermit, should get out more. Anyway, an aborted trip to try the sushi at a local place ended up with a meal at a Thai place. Eons ago, M Planet was taught how to cook Thai food by a Thai friend, so that Thai food could be enjoyed at any time, any place, that was desired, rather than having to live in a place with Thai food available. Also – it’s more economical to cook one’s own food, and hanging out in Asian Grocery stores is marvelous.
Back to the matter at hand. In the last six or so months, the CO has been developing different jellies to have on hand for snacks, lunch, breakfast, what-have-you. Using Agar instead of animal gelatin allows for a firmer set, and a more natural neutral flavor. Beginning with a pre-sweetened powder, the use of the strands of agar or an unsweetened powder is now the norm. M Planet loves the taste of fruit, and the addition of sweetener to mask that is not really their thing – it seems that in the US, at least, everything is sweetened – a fresh blueberry is sweetened. A peach is sweetened. Grapefruit is sugar-laden. Here on Planet Sue, we like the taste of fruit, and add sweetening only when the end object is a sweet thing, or if the fruit is a bit too tart, such as lemons – and even then, only enough to be able to enjoy the flavor.
This particular jelly exploration involves Sweet Desires. The juxtaposition of a strong, dark coffee with condensed/evaporated milk and sugar in a Thai Iced Coffee on a Hot Humid day is one of the few times M Planet uses sugar in their coffee. Usually, they just use sweetened, condensed milk – sadly, there was non in the cupboard, so evaporated milk was used with added raw cane sugar. To make the jelly, brew a good quality dark coffee. Pour the hot brew into a pan and simmer in the agar for 3-5 minutes. This forms the bottom layer of the jelly. Heat the sweetened, condensed milk in a pan, simmering in the agar. Allow the coffee layer to set before pouring the milk layer. A few slashes of the bottom layer to allow the milk layer to seep into some parts of the coffee layer prior to pouring in the milk gives a bit of a ‘swirl’ to the jelly, similar to what one would get in a Thai Iced Coffee!
The second sweet desire is Mango with sticky rice. The use of a mango puree made this a fairly easy preparation. Heat the mango puree, some water, and some coconut cream to a simmer. Add in the agar and cook as necessary. Keep covered and warm. In another pan, make rice with water and coconut cream. It just happened that a small amount bit of bamboo rice was hanging out in the fridge (bamboo rice is instant rice that has been ‘greened’ with bamboo extract. It tastes a bit ‘green’ and was an interesting thing to try but found itself in the Lost Boys of Ingredients). Add in cane sugar or honey, and mix well with a bit more coconut cream and a bit of sale. Put a layer of rice in the jelly container, allow to cool a bit, and then layer the mango puree atop.
So, the proof is in the pudding — er, jelly – and in this case, the result was quite nice. Some of the ingredients were hanging around the kitchen for a while, so it was great to use them and have a tasty result in the process.