Howdy, Jigglers! Normally my Gelatin in the Wild series focuses on gelatin products that are already made and set up for you, which you just open and eat. This product does none of that: it's not gelatin, and it's a mix that you make at home. It's Coconut Flavour Agar Dessert Mix, another oriental grocery store special!
I didn't take a photo of the back of the package, but half of it is in Thai, and what isn't just says to dissolve the mix in one cup of water, bring to a boil, and then cool to set. The directions also recommend layering this agar dessert mix with a differently colored agar dessert mix to create some of the cute effects pictured on the front of the package, but I only had the one kind of mix, so I just went plain-Jane agar agar, which, if you were wondering, is a vegetarian gelatin alternative made from an extract from red algae.
I decided to mold this mix in two individual-sized molds plus one silicone cupcake liner, and I'm glad I did, because this package didn't make nearly as much as this much Jell-O would have (#Jell-OChauvinist), though I imagine that's because you are supposed to mix and match it with other packs for the complete effect. On the other hand, the agar mix set much faster than Jell-O would have.
So what is agar agar really like? Well, for one, it sets up far firmer than gelatin. It does jiggle a little when you give it a light tap, but it's a reserved, respectable kind of jiggle. When you cut it, however, it keeps its shape much moreso than gelatin, and is far less floppy. The surface of the substance is smooth, except at the bottom (which was the top while it was being molded), whence the froth created by boiling the mixture rose. The bite of the agar agar is the strangest part, though. It's got the not-quite-solid-but-not-quite-liquid aspect that gelatin has, but it isn't chewy at all. Your teeth just kind of shear it, whereupon it crumbles into small-curd cottage cheese-like chunks in your mouth (you can see this a little bit in the second photo in this post). I am familiar with agar plates in the scientific world, which are petri dishes containing an agar matrix that fosters plant growth, and, honestly, this stuff very much reminded me of that material. Only coconut flavored. Oh, sorry, "flavoured."
Which is what made me so excited about this mix in the first place. I love coconut, and I'm sad that coconut gelatin has never really been a thing (except when I made my Banana Splits, Recipe #65 from The Joys of Jell-O), and I will say that the coconut flavour and the level of sweetness is just right on this product. Other than that, though, the texture is a little too off to make this product a strong recommend. Instead, I recommend that you use maybe half coconut milk and half pineapple juice with some unflavored or lime-flavored gelatin to make a tropical experience that won't make you feel like you're eating a petri dish! Or if you must go all coconut (and believe me, I understand if you must), gelatinize two cans of coconut milk, adding sugar to taste, then mold, unmold, and encrust the mold with toasted unsweetened coconut flakes!
That all said, Coconut Flavour Agar Dessert Mix certainly isn't bad, just weird. It was worth trying, certainly, because I've always heard about agar agar from different southeast Asian culinary blogs, and now I know definitively that gelatin is more my speed. Which is great, as I've now spent almost four years making lots of gelatin recipes! So it's a win-win. Just a weird one.
No comments:
Post a Comment