Summer Sweet, Lemon Agar Jelly and Okinawa Black Sugar Jelly (cake)
夏日甜品——檸檬大菜糕、黑糖粿
This jelly recipe is inspired by my summer essential, iced lemon tea in Hong Kong style. Lemon tea is one of the most common and popular drink for Cantonese. In summer, I usually prepare them at home – boil a pot of black tea and keep in jar, chill in fridge; melt some fine black or brown sugar and also keep in a small jar; for one serving, half or one lemon juiced, blend with black tea, syrup and lots of ice cubes.
In this recipe, I use less agar in making lemon jelly and the texture would be softer, so that I can drink the icetea and jelly together with wide drinking straw. Black sugar jelly (黑糖粿) is usually made of sweet potato starch or tapioca starch so it has a slightly chewy and soft texture. It’s one of my favourite Taiwanese sweets.
All ingredients in this recipe are vegan and can be easily obtained in Asian grocery stores.
Ingredients –
- Lemon, 2
- Agar strips, 8g, or any gelatin you can obtain
- White sugar, 3tbsp
- Okinawa black sugar, 110g, or any fine black or brown sugar in dark colour
- Sweet potato starch, 120g, for 4 serving, or use potato starch, tapioca starch
- Water
How to do –
1. Prepare the lemon jelly first.
Soak 8g of agar strips in water for a few minutes till soft; juice 2 lemon and you might have about 80g to 100g of lemon juice; agar strips drained and squeezed with hand; put the agar in a sauce pot, pour in 700ml of water, bring to boil then simmer till agar melted completely; heat off, add the lemon juice in, and seasoned with 3tbsp of white sugar, have a taste and adjust; keep in a glass food container, skim off the scum on the surface, set in fridge.
Note – the proportion of agar strips and liquid is 1g:100ml, the more agar you use, the jelly would become firmer. I wouldn’t suggest more than that, sometimes I even use less agar or more liquid.
2. Prepare the black sugar jelly.
For 4 serving, you need 120g of sweet potato starch and 500ml of water. Melt 110g of black sugar in 200ml of boiling water, or put them in a sauce pot, bring to boil and simmer till the sugar melt, then let it cool down for a while; mix 300ml of water with 120g of starch; pour the syrup in the batter and keep mixing; now let’s ‘stir-fry’ the batter – pour the batter in a nonstick sauce pan, in medium-high heat, gently move the batter with silicone spatula till you feel it starts to set at the bottom or at the pan edges; then lower to medium-low heat, you need to move the spatula faster; when the batter turns semi-translucent, sticky, darker, smooth and silky, it’s cooked thoroughly; also remove the lump into a glass food container, and let it set, cool to room temperature.
Note – you could chill the black sugar jelly in fridge but not too long. Its texture will be changed and it wouldn’t taste soft and chewy. If not certain, just let it chill to room temperature. This jelly shouldn’t be kept in fridge overnight and should be prepared freshly.
3. There are various ways to serve these two. The simplest combination is with icetea. You could serve them both with icetea or only lemon jelly and iced black tea, just like the usual lemon tea. For a Japanese way, served with Kinako (roasted soybean flour); for a Cantonese way, served with Red Beans Dessert Soup.
大菜丝是岭南沿海地区老式甜品会用到的材料，属于天然的植物凝固剂，吃全素的朋友可以吃。没有大菜丝的朋友可以用自己喜欢的凝固剂，吉利丁之类。黑糖粿属于台式和日式麻糬，我很喜欢冲绳黑糖的味道，用普通黑糖或红糖也可以。这两种甜品可以一起吃也可以分开配不同的冰品，可以配冰茶、芋圆冰、豆花或其他冰糖水，日式吃法的黑糖粿可以配黄豆粉和抹茶粉，黄豆粉的制作方式在‘dessert’里。
用料
- 柠檬 2个
- 大菜丝 约8克
- 细白砂糖 3汤匙
- 黑糖 110克
- 番薯粉 120克（4人份）
- 水
做法
- 先来做柠檬大菜糕。大菜丝和液体的比例是1克比100毫升，大菜丝越多出来的糕体更硬挺，我用的大菜丝的比例少一点，所以柠檬大菜糕可以直接用粗吸管吸起来吃；
- 大菜丝放水里泡几分钟泡软；
- 柠檬挤汁约有90毫升；
- 大菜丝挤干水后放700毫升水煮至完全融化；
- 关火，倒入柠檬汁；放3汤匙糖调味，尝一下按自己的口味调酸甜；
- 倒入玻璃容器内，撇去表面浮沫，放冰箱凝固定型；
- 来做黑糖粿。用番薯粉或木薯粉都可以，我自己觉得番薯粉比较健康。500毫升水配120克番薯粉，做出来约4人份；
- 用约200毫升热水把黑糖融化，或者下锅煮融化也行。不同牌子的黑糖或红糖的甜度不一样，我自己的方法是做糖汁的时候尝一下，如果觉得偏甜就可以了；
- 剩下300毫升常温水把番薯粉调开；
- 倒入黑糖汁搅拌均匀；
- 现在来炒糕。用不粘锅，倒入粉浆，开中大火，用矽胶铲抄底翻动；待铲到底部开始凝固结块后马上调到中小火，不断翻动；糕体逐渐炒熟，阻力会很大，要坚持不断用力翻炒；直到整体变色变半透明，可以用铲翻开检查里面有没有没熟的白点，要彻底炒熟；
- 也放玻璃容器。要快的朋友可以放冰箱定型但不要放太久，放至稍凉即可。黑糖粿要现做现吃，放冰箱久了口感会变得紧实，不软糯。
