Chinese Food: Making Almond Jello

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kirabarbie
Posts: 296
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 3:02 pm
Location: SF Bay Area

Chinese Food: Making Almond Jello

#1 Post by kirabarbie »

This is my second posting in my cooking series. Kika is helping me make almond jello, a light and delicious Chinese gelatin dessert.


Here are the ingredients:

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2 envelopes unflavored gelatine
2 cups boiling water
1.5 cups sugar
1.5 cups milk (you can use cow milk, soy milk, or evaporated milk or rice milk, or even almond milk)
about 1 tsp almond flavoring
Canned fruit

Note: In the picture I show Knox Gelatine and Agar Agar, a gelatin derived from dried seaweed. Either ingredient can be used to make this jello. Agar Agar makes for a firmer jello.

1. Boil the water and add gelatine and sugar until dissolved. Stir in milk.

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2. Stir in the almond extract.

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3.Pour into a 13" x 9" pan. Let cool and refrigerate about 2.5 to 3 hours. Note, this made pretty soft jello. You might want to reduce some of the liquid if it's too mushy.

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4. Cut into cubes and serve with canned fruit such a fruit cocktail, mandarin orange, or lychee.

Here's my finished almond jello with fruit cocktail. I love the maraschino cherry!
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Kika shows off her almond jello, which is a little different than mine. She used agar agar and mixed the canned fruit in with the jello prior to refrigerating. Looks yummy too!

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Mikan
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#2 Post by Mikan »

Oh gosh, this looks GREAT!
Is this like the coconut confection served at dim-sum restaurants? If so I am allll over this!

BTW agar-agar is completely vegetarian, and is not actually gelatin (according to Wikipedia agar agar is a polymer made up of galactose, which is a sugar; gelatin meanwhile is a protein (and an incomplete protein at that; you can't survive on gelatin as your protein source)). If people don't want to eat gelatin because it's derived from animals, agar-agar is a great substitute.

kirabarbie
Posts: 296
Joined: Sun Jan 25, 2009 3:02 pm
Location: SF Bay Area

#3 Post by kirabarbie »

Mikan wrote:Oh gosh, this looks GREAT!
Is this like the coconut confection served at dim-sum restaurants? If so I am allll over this!

BTW agar-agar is completely vegetarian, and is not actually gelatin (according to Wikipedia it is a polymer made up of galactose, which is a sugar). If people don't want to eat gelatin because it's derived from animals, agar-agar is a great substitute.
Thanks for the correction about agar agar. I always thought it was gelatin because it firms up after it cools down. I wonder who discovered agar agar's properties and thought, hey, this would make a cool dessert if we mix it with sugar and fruit.

I'm not sure about the coconut dessert at the dim sum restaurants that you are talking about. I haven't seen those personally. I know that sometimes they serve almond jello at dim sum. Speaking of coconut, there's a Hawaiian dessert called Haupia. Maybe that'll be my next recipe. Unfortunately, I don't think there's an equivalent Re-ment set. :?

Mikan
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#4 Post by Mikan »

Wiki says the Japanese have used agar agar extensively in foods (like desserts, of which I think I have had many), though I also associate it with petri dishes and microbe cultures ... lol. So maybe a Japanese invention given that it's derived from seaweed ... I mean, even that culinary popular villain MSG was (I think) first derived from seaweed by Japan....

I think the recipe you described, if one substitutes in coconut flavor somehow and uses agar agar, is pretty much the dim sum dessert. I don't like coconut but I looooove this stuff. It is sooo good with jasmine tea. So now I am kind of thinking about how I could try this out with your recipe as a base.

Re: no Re-ment: Aww, well, doesn't matter; Momoko can improvise something I'm sure! :D :D :D

elfinity
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#5 Post by elfinity »

oh WOW, I might actually start cooking with recipes like these! Looks really yummy!

kirabarbie
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Location: SF Bay Area

#6 Post by kirabarbie »

If you have an Asian market nearby, in the gelatin section, they also sell packages of almond jello, coconut jello, and other desserts. It's like buying a Jell-O package where there's already the power, sugar, and flavoring pre-measured and all you have to do is add the liquid, in this case the water and milk.

However, making almond jello from scratch isn't hard at all.

seafoam
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#7 Post by seafoam »

how fun, i love your cooking series! i think i will try this recipe using agar agar and almond milk.

Uyek
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#8 Post by Uyek »

The cooking series really is great fun to follow!

Not only are we learning to cook Re-ment at full scale but the photos and captions/speech bubbles are funny. :lol:

nataluna
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#9 Post by nataluna »

elfinity wrote:oh WOW, I might actually start cooking with recipes like these! Looks really yummy!
ha!
my thoughts exactly

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