Coconut Jelly

One of the best parts of going to Chinatown for yum cha, is that after you eat all those beautiful steamed dumplings, you can have a square of coconut jelly. There are health arguments for and against coconut (as with many foods), but as I am trying to achieve a low saturated fat diet (reasons here), I have left coconut products out of my diet.  Problem is, I love the taste of coconut, and coconut jelly would have to be one of my favourites, so can I make coconut jelly using substitutes?  Here's my version of coconut jelly.

Ingredients:
2 cups, 500ml Almond Milk
2 teaspoons, 10ml coconut essence (or to taste)
1/4 - 1/3 cup of caster sugar (or to taste)
2 teaspoons, 4grams of agar agar powder

Method:

Put all the ingredients (cold or at room temperature) in a saucepan and mix well.

Bring the liquid to the boil (you can stir while the liquid is heating), whisk well, then remove from heat.

Pour the liquid into a jelly mould or a Pyrex dish to set (I use a 3 cup pyrex dish with a lid).

As the ingredients cool the jelly will set -  at room temperature or in the fridge.  The key ingredient here is the agar agar.  Not enough and the jelly won't be firm enough.  Too much (say 5g) and the jelly will be too firm and chewy.  Once the jelly has set, cut into squares and serve.

Coconut jelly is delicious served with mango or passionfruit.

To make normal coconut jelly follow the above recipe but replace the milk and essence with coconut milk.  I made both versions for my family, and they said the coconut version wasn't as sweet as the almond milk version, so you may have to increase the sugar in the coconut milk version.  The almond milk version was sweet enough for my taste.

What is Agar Agar?

Agar agar is a natural substance that comes from red algae seaweed.  Agar agar is used throughout Asia to make jellies and as a thickener for liquids.

The advantage of using agar agar is that:

• it's suitable for vegetarian and vegan diets
• it can set the jelly to a much firmer consistency than gelatin  so you can cut the jelly into squares to serve,
• and once set, agar agar is stable in warm temperatures, so it won't melt like jelly.  You can keep agar agar jelly at room temperature.  It doesn't have to stay in the fridge (no wonder it's popular in Asia).

Agar agar comes in flakes, powder, and as threads or bars.  I'm not an expert on them.  I have only used the agar agar powder, which I buy in sachets from the Asian supermarket.  A 25 gram packet is less than A$2, and will make at least 6 serves of jelly.

Although agar agar is a natural product it is listed as E406 if you are reading food labels.

Further Reading on agar agar is at Chefs Armoury here.

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