Chrysanthemum Jelly

I was dissapointed with the appearance of this jelly!!! Ugly dirty looking thing!

But, my colleagues comforted me saying that it's ok...... and they loved the taste and texture of it. Springy, with a slight crunch, and fragrantly chrysanthemum...

I might wanna change the solidifying agent to gelatine the next time I make it, so that it looks pretty... or konnyaku powder.... but the texture will not be the same. the greyish colour could be due to the water chestnut starch I used.. it looked greyish. Maybe different brands will yield different results. The pic of the brand I used is down below...

But still, it tasted cool and fresh... not matter how ugly it looks.


Ingredients
750ml water
25gm dried chrysanthemum flowers
100gm rock sugar
250ml water
115gm water chestnut powder
1 Tbsp chopped dried wolfberries (gei zhi)

Method
1. Boil 750ml of water in a pot, turn off heat and put in chrysanthemum flowers. Infuse for 15 minutes. Do not boil the flowers.
2. Strain chrysanthemum infusion.
3. Select a few infused flowers to collect the petals. Discard the yellow centres.
4. Mix 250ml water with water chestnut powder.
5. Boil 500ml of chrysanthemum infusion with sugar and chopped wolfberries. When sugar has dissolved and infusion is boiling, turn off fire. Put in flower petals.
6. Slowly pour (5) into (4), stirring clockwise until mixture thickens.
7. Pour onto a lightly greased pan and steam on high heat for 10 minutes and medium heat for another 10 minutes.
8. Cake will be ready when sit turns translucent
9. Chill in fridge until fully set before serving.

http://www.meishichina.com/Eat/Nosh/200808/45379.html

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Mango Pudding ????

If you like Cocon's Mango Pudding, you'll like this one.

Before Konnyaku Jelly came into the market, I was scratching my head..... How come the commercial packaged puddings have this springy texture that we can never achieve with gelatine, or agar or whatever....... Now I know.

I looked at the packaging, and tried to figure out the ingredients to make a copycat version.. and I finally got it.

I made loads of this for my home church's fund raising event, and it sold like hot cakes... No one could figure out how to make this.. Now, I'm revealing the secret.

Ingredients

10gm konnyaku powder (no malic acid added)

200gm sugar

1.5L water

100 gm creamer powder (coffeemate)

200ml mango concentrate ( Tesco Value, or Sun-Up will best replicate the taste)

Nata de coco (as much as u want)

Method:

1. Mix sugar and konnyaku powder together

2. Boil water, then add in creamer. Stir to dissolve.

3. Slowly spoon in sugar mixture.

4. Stir well, and let simmer for 10 minutes on low fire, stirring once in a while

5. Fill moulds with Nata de Coco with desired amount.

6. Turn off fire and pour in mango concentrate. Stir.

7. Pour jelly mixture into moulds. Chill well before serving.

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Homemade Strawberry Jelly ??????

homemade strawberry jelly



I often order Jelly & Ice cream at KFC, besides getting some for my nieces as well. Well, kids love strawberry jelly. I'm a kid.. haha!!


There are quite a number of brands in the market, Jello, Nona, Lady's Choice.... But why don't you try making one from scratch. It's not difficult. One can be assured that no colouring or flavouring essences are added in, and it's not that much dearer than buying it in a packet.


Last week, hub's fren Kenny bought us 2kgs of strawberries, so this is the first thing that came out of it.


My nieces had a great time helping out to make their favourite dessert. I gave them table knives (can't cut themselves) and flat dinner plates to do their bit of masak-masak.






Homemade Strawberry Jelly Recipe
2 cups of Strawberries (cut into smaller chunks)
2 cups water
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp gelatine


Put strawberry chunks, sugar and water into a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Use a fork to lightly squash the fruits as it comes to a boil.
When it has boiled, let it simmer for a minute until fruits are very soft.
Take it off the fire and strain the juice.
Sprinkle gelatine into hot juice and stir to dissolve.
When gelatine has dissolved, put in lemon juice.
Let jelly mixture cool down a bit and pour into jelly moulds or cups.
(I cool it down so that my niece can do it)

into taller cups, to go with ice cream later, shorter cups, to eat it on it's own

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Pink Dragon Fruit Jelly 2 (???? 2)

As I mentioned in the previous dragon fruit jelly posting, I'll do this again with modifications.

And yes I did! This time, more flavourful.

Ingredients:

1 cup of red dragon fruit puree (pureed with a fork)

2 tbsp lemon juice

6 cups water

400 gm honey (depends on the sweetness of your honey)

2 tbsp agar-agar powder (about 16gms)

Method:

1. Puree dragon fruit flesh with a fork. Mix in lemon juice.

2. Bring 5 cups water to a boil, mix agar-agar powder with 1/2 cup water and pour in. Rinse the container where the agar was mixed in with the last 1/2 cup water and pour in. Simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off fire.

3. Pour in honey and mix well.

4. Mix in fruit puree and pour into moulds to cool down.

5. Chill in the fridge.

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Pink Dragon Fruit Jelly (????)

During last year's class party, my student Ng Kher Chee brought this amazingly pretty jelly... It was dyed bright pink like magenta, dotted with some black seeds. She told me, it was made with the red dragon fruit.

I call this pink dragon fruit jelly, because it looks more pink than red.... wonderful colour.

I like eating the fruit raw, making it stain my lips with a pretty tint. Hehe..so vain..

the red dragon fruit..

Pink Dragon Fruit Jelly Recipe

Ingredients:
1.5L Water
200-250gm sugar
15 gm agar-agar powder
1 medium sized red dragon fruit (about 1 cup)

Method:
1. Bring the water to a boil.
2. Mix the sugar and agar powder together and pour into the boiling water. Let it simmer for 5 minutes.
3. While simmering, mash the red dragon fruit with a fork until it becomes a puree. Don't use a blender as we want the seeds to be visible in the jelly.
4. Turn off the fire and pour in the dragon fruit puree.
5. Stir and pour into prepared mould.
6. Wait for it to cool down and then chill in the fridge.

Actually this fruit isn't much aromatic nor does it have a distinct taste..but nontheless, it's the colour that is really pretty.

I think I may do this jelly again, with some modifications on the flavour.

I don't know why the camera cannot capture the real colour that I saw with my own eyes, it's more reddish rather than pink... a bit dissapointed..

The seeds of the dragon fruit tends to settle down on the bottom. I cut the jelly bottom side up to get a nice outlay of seeds.

The picture's reddish, I don't know why..but the seeds do look pretty ..

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