"Gelatin" in the Wild: Coconut Flavour Agar Dessert Mix

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.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #137: Barbecue Salad

Howdy, Jigglers! This week I picked up one of my favorite classic Jell-O mold designs. On my way home from the store, I was thrilled as I contemplated all the recipes that would look slick in that mold--that is, of course, until I checked the list of recipes I had chosen to make next and saw that the first one was Barbecue Salad.

This recipe has about a thousand variations. The problem is that none of them sounds good. You've got the regular salad, which is basically just a congealed Bloody Mary, you've got the cubes, which is congealed Bloody Mary concentrate, you've got a bunch of additions you can use to disguise the fact that you're eating a Bloody Mary, you've got shrimp cocktail with a congealed Bloody Mary, and you've got Barbecue Cheese Cracker Pie, which is a congealed Bloody Mary served atop a Cheez-It crust for some reason. Faced with this plethora of unappetizing options, I chose to make a Barbecue Salad with some additions because I've been down the "tomato sauce and nothing else" gelatin road, and I don't want to travel that road ever again.

Specifically, I chose to add lemon zest, celery salt, Worschester sauce, Tabasco, mayonnaise in a separate layer of the mold, some corn, and some peas. Corn and peas are fine accompaniments to barbecue, plus they should add some much-needed texture. Mayonnaise makes just about everything go over smoother (my husband calls me the Mayo Queen for this reason), and Worschester and spicy sauce never hurt a savory dish, I'm pretty sure. I used lemon juice in place of the lemon Jell-O flavoring, so I just threw in the zest to make it extra zingy, and I used some celery salt in place of regular salt to mimic the celery salad Jell-O flavor--also because my subconscious couldn't ignore the fact that I was making a Bloody Mary here.

In this view you can see the top mayonnaise-laden layer of the mold. To get it to stick to the main layer, I mixed about 12 teaspoons of the gelatin mixture into roughly a half cup of mayo once the gelatin was very thick. Then I poured the mayo mixture into the mold and popped it into the fridge while I added the vegetables to the main salad. Finally, I poured the main salad on top of the mayo layer in the mold. Since the mayo layer started melting upon unmolding, next time I would add maybe twice the amount of gelatin that I did, which should help it stay together a little better.

To fully appreciate (or distract me from) this dish, I also chose to serve it first alongside some actual barbecue. I made some oven-baked country-style ribs according to this recipe. That way I could really see how well or how terribly the Barbecue Salad fits with a barbecue meal.

Yes, it looks a bit like an evil jellyfish. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the way this salad tasted. While it wasn't at all reminiscent of barbecue per se, it also wasn't reminiscent of tomato snot. The corn and peas gave it some texture, and the mayonnaise made it creamy. The gelatin part itself was mostly tangy from the lemon and savory in general, with a little hint of spice at the tail end. Not bad at all!

I was so conerned about how awful this recipe was going to be that I procrastinated for at least a month on Jell-O making because of it. Now I feel incredibly silly for having done so, especially given that I know I will end up eating every scrap of this salad.

Since I added the mayonnaise layer, I ended up with some extra salad gelatin that fit neatly into an individual mold. I was concerned that the chunky nature of this salad would prevent the ridges from showing up, but there they are!

Now, as much as I have been praising the taste of Barbecue Salad, let me reiterate: this has nothing in common with barbecue. It would be fine as a side salad with barbecue, sure, but it would be equally fine as a side salad with just about anything. Roast chicken, egg salad, Reubens, shish kabobs...the possibilities are endless. In fact, the recipe notes constantly bug you to eat this with shrimp as though it were a gelatinized cocktail sauce, and in practice it isn't that different. I could even imagine little cubes of the mixture topped with individual shrimp on a cocktail stick as a fairly decent hors d'ourve. As much as I wasn't anticipating this, you might be onto something with this one, General Foods!

Gelatin in the Wild: Jubes Lychee Flavor

Howdy, Jigglers! Have you ever seen a food product so odd, so indescribable, that you simply must try it? I often find myself in this helpless condition, which is precisely the state in which I bought a pouch of Jubes at the Asian foods store near where I live.

 Image courtesy of justasianfood.com

 

Seeing this on the shelves, I could not make heads or tails of what exactly the Jubes were supposed to be. I still have no idea what nata de coco is, except that it has something to do with coconuts.  Since I like coconuts, lychees, and chewy things, I figured I couldn't go wrong with lychee Jubes. Plus, I admired the creativity in suggesting that the cubes could be used as a cocktail accoutrement.

On feeling the cubes, I noticed at once that, whatever this substance is, it isn't gelatin. It's much, much firmer. It almost feels like a cut of a solid object, with only a small amount of give.

This texture holds true on the tooth, where it is every bit as stiff as a gummy worm left for a few too many weeks in the backseat of your car.

As for the flavor, it is as though the lychee flavor was only infused into the liquid surrounding the Jubes instead of into the stuff of the cubes themselves. However, the flavoring is not overly artificial, nor too strong or weak. The interior of the cubes is sickly sweet and grainy in taste, but it does not taste like anything in particular.

But I cannot stress strongly enough how chewy these things are! It took a very long time to eat them, and eating the whole pouch gave me a powerful jawache. Also, in retrospect, I don't have any earthly idea what Jubes could add to a cocktail. They wouldn't melt, but the insipid lychee flavor would not meld with any cocktail I can think of, and the texture would not impart any benefit.

Perhaps the other flavors of Jubes are delightful, but I doubt it. At any rate, the Lychee Jubes are not worth the physical effort required to eat them.

Way Out There #4: I made my own Joys of Jell-O-alike Recipe!

 Howdy, Jigglers! After having made a couple of other different Jell-O recipes lately, I had some leftover ingredients left lying around, so I decided to combine them to come up with my very own JOJ-style gelatin dish! To really understand the General Foods Jell-O scientists, you have to get into their heads and start to think like them, to wit: "How do I throw these random cheap foods together with Jell-O to make something that will pass as an innovative fruit salad to show off to the bridge club?"

Specifically, I had some grape juice, some pineapple tidbits, and some mini marshmallows. None of that makes any sense together, but that's never stopped General Foods, now has it?

 

So I proceeded to let some unflavored gelatin bloom over the grape juice, then heat it until the gelatin was dissolved. Thereupon I allowed it to cool until very thick, mixed in the pineapple and marshmallows, and scooped it all into a mold to set.

Regarding the appearance of this salad, I was thankful I put in so many marshmallows because otherwise it would have looked quite dark, especially since the pineapple tidbits are not quite recognizeable with a purplish tint to them. I do like the look it has of the particles trying but unable to escape the gelatin matrix; I can't escape Jell-O either.

 

 

As for the taste, it was pleasant but fairly generic. It was sweet and fruity. The marshmallows were the best part by far with their squishy fluffiness. To make it a home run I would have liked to add some quartered pecans for even more textural variation, or perhaps some mandarin orange slices to solidify the tropical theme. However, I was trying to make this exclusively with ingredients I already had on hand, which in this case would have entailed adding vegetables or meats, so given that limitation I am satisfied with the result.

Now I would be remiss if I didn't, in true Joys of Jell-O fashion, write up an entry for the book describing this umpteenth fruit-and-gelatin salad, which of course I would put in the Two-Way Salads chapter because half the fruit salads live there for some reason despite clearly being desserts:

Pineapple-Marshmallow Sorbet

This molded delight will simultaneously 

transport your guests to Tahiti and Provence

with its unique flavor combinations. We added

marshmallows for just a hint of decadence.

Garnish with whipped cream for a dessert salad

or mayonnaise for a side salad.

 

Doesn't that description just excite the palate?

Well, unfortunately this time I cannot spurn or congratulate General Foods for the outcome of this recipe. I have to take a good, long look in the mirror and say, "Self, this recipe was decent, I guess." Now I know how General Foods must feel.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #18: Grape Juice Bavarian

 Howdy, Jigglers! Thankfully our next recipe is a dessert recipe, and a very simple one at that. The Grape Juice Bavarian is a basic combination of grape juice-flavored gelatin and whipped cream. Since I used unflavored gelatin instead of Jell-O, I wanted to focus this recipe on the grape juice flavor, so I replaced all the water with grape juice, but everything else stayed the same, as indicated below.

I spent some extra time blending the two mixtures together, as I wanted to achieve an even color, but it didn't entirely work. 

Honestly there's not much else to say about the process of creating this dish. On the results I can only say that it tastes like a very thick purple cow. Has anybody else had a purple cow in their day?

It's fine on the whole. Nothing extremely special, but not bad either. It's the most neutral recipe yet, I think. Someday I might try it again with the anachronistic grape Jell-O flavor for extra grapiness.

So thanks General Foods for making a recipe about which it is impossible to have an opinion.

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #123: Summer Salad

 Howdy, Jigglers! I got too lucky last time I played Jell-O Roulette and got the Avocado Pie, which at least theoretically speaking is a dessert. This time, due to having some particular leftover vegetables after making a soup, I got to make Summer Salad.

Though it isn't the most appetizing-sounding of recipes, in a way I was excited for it. Out of all the "salad" recipes, this is the purest: a vegetable-flavored gelatin matrix mixed with a minimum of weird ingredients envelops salad vegetables. That's right: not salad vegetables and fish, or salad vegetables and fruit, or any other inexplicable combination. Just salad vegetables. The simplicity was refreshing, in theory.

Besides, it's summer! That means you have to make Summer Salad, right?

Anyway, as I said, I already had most of the ingredients on hand for this one, including enough celery that I decided to go ahead and puree a bunch of celery to express its juices to use with unflavored gelatin in place of the Salad Gelatin, which of course is no longer available (I wonder why...).  The only other change I made to the ingredients, though, was replacing the regular or onion salt with celery salt, just to punch up the celery-ness even more. Other than that, I made the recipe exactly as written.

May I take this opportunity to state that the photos of Jell-O salad molds in JOJ are definitely not to scale with the recipes as written? Case in point:

Honestly, this is one of the better-looking gelatin salads I've made, but it's not nearly as pretty as the picture. And I'm just now noticing that there are clearly green onion slivers in the photo, though they aren't in the recipe. Come on, General Foods!

The celery juice turned the whole thing slightly murky, but not too bad. Now, the taste of this salad was about as you would expect. It tastes of celery and cucumber with a little salt and vinegar. The green pepper flavor, which I usually find overpowering, was barely noticeable. The tomato, however, is a different story. I like tomatoes, but for some reason they just do not work in this salad. Maybe if I had gotten a less ripe or less flavorful tomato it actually would have been better, but the umami savoriness of the tomato mixed with the strong celery overtones was not a success.

I'm going to go ahead and call it: I would never serve the Summer Salad to anyone even though I didn't hate it. It's passable, but the same combination of vegetables served over, you know, some lettuce and salad dressing would be more palatable and wouldn't make people think I'm batty. General Foods, why did you insist on putting vegetables in Jell-O?

The Joys of Jell-O Recipe #80: Avocado Pie

Howdy, Jigglers! It's time for another wild and woolly recipe from 1964 Jell-O-Land. Avocado Pie has been staring me in the face since I got Joys of Jell-O, and I've never known whether to be more exited or more scared for it. But now it's time to take an up-close-and-personal look at this beast because I finally made it.

 

This photo has never sufficiently illustrated what this pie is supposed to be. The recipe isn't much better:

As per usual, I swapped out some ingredients, in this case using unflavored gelatin and a few tablespoons of sugar in place of the Jell-O and quadrupling the quantity of lime juice. Everything else, though, was as indicated.

 

The method for making this lime-avocado-pineapple-cream cheese-whipped cream concoction is basically no different from the normal "make Jell-O, chill until thick, fold stuff into it" routine that 80% of these recipes follow, except for the mashing avocado and cream cheese part. The further I got into the process, though, the more it started occurring to me just how strange this combination of ingredients is. It's half everything tropical and half dairy, which is odd on its own, let alone considering that the avocado itself is a creamy ingredient. More on that later.

At the last moment I had the brilliant idea to add a drop of green food coloring because, even with half an avocado mashed up in it and a lot of lime juice, the pie mixture was basically still white--again, the sheer preponderance of dairy in this pie would make a Wisconsonian blush. However, since the mixture was also very thick, the food coloring didn't dissolve very well, though it managed to give the final product a slight green tinge.

Tastewise, the Avocado pie is...just as confusing as anticipated. It is extremely creamy and thick, but not very sweet at all, even with all that pineapple and pineapple juice in there, plus the added sugar and sugar I added to the whipped cream. It's also surprisingly dense considering the quantity of whipped cream in there. What probably isn't surprising is that the lime and pineapple flavors totally drown out the subtle avocado taste of this pie. Honestly, you would have the same pie if you took out the avocado, only it would look a little more sane. The overall package is more strange than anything, but it's certainly edible--just not immediately recognizeable as a dessert.

 

Over the course of a couple of days, though, the flavors in this pie melded together a little bit, creating something that wouldn't be totally out of place as a key lime cheesecake or something, which is a pie I would really like, I think. Doesn't need avocado or pineapple, though.

If you were wondering, as I was, if the gelatin would preserve the avocado over a long-ish period of time, the answer is kind of! I was delighted with how not-brown the avocado stayed over the three-and-a-half days I had it. The chunks on top got a little discolored, but not badly considering.

 

All that being said, while I cannot wholeheartedly endorse this recipe, I can commend its inventiveness. I never would have thought of putting avocado in a pie. However, I do have some suggestions for any hapless Jiggler hoping to make the world's best Avocado Pie:

1. Mash up all of your avocado into the mixture instead of leaving half of it in chunks

2. Eliminate the crushed pineapple, but instead use pineapple juice in place of all of the water

3. If you want to use food coloring, add it to the gelatin mixture as soon as it comes off of the heat

4. Add the zest of one lime to the avocado and cream cheese mixture

5. Make the pineapple garnish as pictured; I skipped this step and the pie looked very plain without it

 General Foods get an "Eh" for effort for this oddball recipe, but if you think about it, this kind of recipe is the reason we love vintage Jell-O in particular: it breaks all the molds!

;)