Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Agar Agar Jelly Cake with Coconut and Pandan


Chinese New Year is coming up on 19 February. This year my in-laws from Malaysia is coming to spend CNY with us making it extra special. As usual for any Chinese celebration, there will be lots of cooking and eating. Agar Agar jelly is a popular sweet you would see in any Malaysian party. It is made from sea vegetable which is a good substitute for gelatine for vegetarian.  It also helps to create many colourful and healthy dessert. It is a great last minute dessert that is very simple to prepare.

I finally find the frozen pandan leaves from Yuen's Market at Sunnybank in Brisbane. I usually use the pandan essence which is very bright green in colour and taste not as good as the real one. I normally make this dessert using coconut milk, evaporated milk and mung bean.  As I don't want to over power the taste of the pandan, I have omitted the evaporate milk here. After discovering this Asian vanilla essence, surely there will be more pandan recipes to come. If mung bean is not your thing, you can omit it as well.

Have a great Chinese New Year!

Agar Agar Jelly Cake with Coconut and Panda

Ingredients:

A:
1/4 cup split mung beans or yellow split peas
1 cup water

B:
3 pandan leaves
1 cup boiled water at room temperature

C:
20g agar agar leaves
2 litres water
1 3/4 cup sugar or more to taste
1 1/2 cup coconut cream

Method:

  1. A: Cook mung beans with water till boil, turn down heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until the beans are cooked. Strain and put the bean aside.
  2. B: Cut the pandan leaves into pieces. Add into the blender with water and blend till the juice is green. Strain and preserve the water and discard the leaves.
  3. Place agar agar into boiling water and let it dissolves. Add sugar and stir till sugar dissolves.
  4. Pour about 1/3 of the agar agar sugar mixture into a large baking tray (25cmx30cm). Keep in fridge for about 15 minutes.
  5. Add coconut cream and pandan juice to the remaining agar agar sugar mixture. ( If not using pandan juice, you can add 1/4 cup evaporated milk here) Spread mung bean over the 1st layer of the cake. Then use a ladle to pour the coconut mixture into the tray.  Keep in fridge for at least 1 hour before cutting into slices. It is best to consume the jelly slices within one or two days.



5 comments:

  1. wow. this looks amazing and so much fun to make. I can just imagine how wonderful the flavors of the jelly are against the coconut

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    Replies
    1. Sorry Jess, I've just removed your comment as it is a repeat of the previous one.

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  3. Lovely treats, Veronica! Just popping by to wish you & your family a Happy CNY! xoxox

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  4. Oh I've eaten this in ages. Now you make me crave for some.. Lol yes we Malaysian love this simple sweet. 😀

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