Lunar new year induction
It is about time for the lunar new year. My social media sites are filling with lunar new year images. This makes me absolutely miss the lovey people who embedded the celebration into my life. Those few years in Malaysia had so many lovely people packed in a short period of time. Within a short period of time, the basics of the lunar new year were taught to us. The mandarins passed on sure were good luck. The Ang pav packs were such love in delicately cut red paper envelopes. Ang that eeesang never was a mess. It was quite quickly we blend in and felt well.
Here is an earlier post about this celebration
In saying that, Chinese new year was never complete without a dear friend Effie. Her adorable collection of Jelly moon cakes for the kids always brought home flavours in agar jelly that we had not tried before. The strawberry, kiwi and mango ones were quick to have vanished. It was the litchi, longan and other tropical fruit ones that I was more interested in.
Once she had an absolutely adorable dragon fruit one in the collection. The little seeds of the purple dragon fruit stayed just in suspension, the not so overly sweet jelly worked perfectly with the red bean paste filling. Mmm now that is a jelly mooncake flavour I will never forget!!!
In the present
As the lunar new year is fast approaching, I couldn’t help miss the lovely people and the special mooncake collection. So headed to the Asian market and guess what, there I find gorgeous purple bragonfruit..yumm. Bought a few and came home.
The colour of the purple dragon fruit is out of the world and I simply love the deep pink-purple that it imparts to my smoothies and drinks. So this time, it had to be jelly…
The idea was to start with trying jelly mooncakes and then I realised I don’t have any jelly mooncake moulds… So I just had to be agar-based jelly. Agar being an extract from seaweed is much more firm than gelatin. I prefer to use agar most of the time as it is vegan and somehow love the cut feel it creates.
Here is how we made All Natural Orange jelly earlier and Jelly lemongrass with ginger-gula melaka syrup
So here we are with purple dragonfruit jelly for the lunar new year. I am missing all my wonderful friends in Malaysia. But still living what they taught me here and enjoying every it of it.
Dragon fruit jelly
Chinese new year celebration
Ingredients
for the jelly
- 6 cups drinking water
- 12 grams agar agar (if using stands use about 17 to 20 grams)
- 150 grams honey ( slightly vary according to the sweetness of the dragon fruit)
- 1 pandan leaf ( log leaf is knotted and added)
for the fruit addition
- 1 cup dragon fruit ( crushed or chopped small)
Instructions
- Wash, peel and cut the dragon fruit into small pieces.
- Taste a bit of the fruit and reduce the quantity of honey if too sweet.
- In a saucepan add the water and stir in the agar without lumps.
- Add the pandan leaf to the mixture and heat it
- when the agar is fully dissolved and the mixture boiled well, remove from heat and dicard the pandan leaf.
- Let it cool a bit and add the honey, dragon fruit and stir well. the idea is not to cook the dragon fruit
- Now pour into moulds and refrigerate. It usually sets in about 30 minutes to an hour.
- to unmould run a butter knife along the edges and it releases the jelly.
- If preferred top with a bit of milk or cream.
Nutrition
Calories: 144kcalCarbohydrates: 36gProtein: 1gFat: 1gSaturated Fat: 0.0003gPolyunsaturated Fat: 0.0003gSodium: 8mgPotassium: 7mgFiber: 1gSugar: 33g
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
Looks so good. Nice recipe with dragon fruit. Is there any substitute for pandan leaf as we may not find it here.
Thank you, Shobaji. Pandan leaf is screwpine, so is kewra. You can add that if you like, instead of pandan leaves.
Oh that color! Makes me want to run and get dragon fruit right way. So are the seeds soft in the jelly, or do they remain crunchy?
Hi Rinku, the colour is definitely stunning, so is the taste. The seeds of dragon fruit are never hard. they are crunchy to bite in so is best to leave them alone. They do not soften nor are hard to bite. If you just want a smooth jelly, I would suggest to blend the dragon fruit and sieve before adding.
Love the beautiful colour of the dragon fruit jelly. Healthy and such a delicious dessert to enjoy anytime. A different kind of sweet treat for Valentine’s Day.
Hi Mayuri di, I never thought of Valentine with this jelly. What a lovely idea to pour it in a heart-shaped mould and make it valentine special!!
Dragon fruit jelly seems a real colorful delectable dessert. The pandan leaf must be giving its characteristic flavor. Thanks for sharing. Enjoy your Valentine day with this dessert. Nice post!
Neha, thanks dove! yes it simple yet delicate dessert to share. Make it in fact, anytime, not just Valentines or Lunar new year. The Pandan is just a subtle earthy flavour, the main being dragon fruit sweetness.
I love this yum dragon fruit jelly! We do get dragon fruit now but since the colour is not guaranteed I may have to use some artificial colour. Will definitely try making some. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi Archana, It is a lovely treat. You can make it with the white variety too, I love the speckled look of the white one. I would refrain from the artificial colour and just go with the fruit as is.
Vibrant looking jelly using dragon fruit ..I am just looking at the pics and wondering if technology was advanced enough to make these come alive in reality 🙂
Haha, I will submit this to the scientific studies of printing food!! So maybe all we need is to send in the code to you.
I just love the colour of this jelly. Love the easy to follow recipe. I was glad to see that you have veganised it by using agar agar but used honey so I am wondering if maple syrup would work for this recipe?
Hi Mina, Thank you for checking the recipe out. I use agar a lot more than gelatine, I feel more comfortable with Agar for my jellies. I haven’t tried maple syrup, but if you are trying, I will reduce the quantity of water added so was to adjust the liquid quantity to accommodate the syrup. However, the pandan flavour will be masked by the stronger maple. Give it a go…
Looks Amazing! I’ll definitely make it.
Thanks Evelyn, rate the dragon fruit jelly when you are done.