Sweet Potato Jelly (agar)

Submitted by WaterMelon

"This is a different way to cook sweet potatoes. It's a refreshing dessert. A perfect finish to an Asian meal, especially after heavy stuff like curry. It's served cold, so it's great for summer too. And you can use up those leftover cooked sweet potatoes. Agar-agar powder can be found in Asian groceries store/market. I prefer making jelly-type desserts using agar rather than gelatin because of the IMHO, better texture. To make an impressive dessert, you can set the jelly in a pretty mold or cut it into cute little shapes using cookie cutters (I usually use metal ones). Adapted from Amy Beh's recipe. Cooking time = chilling time (approximation)."

 

• Ready In: 3hrs
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 10

ingredients

• 200 g sweet potatoes, diced (I use the orange type)
• 200 ml low-fat coconut milk
• 20 g agar-agar, powder
• 100 g sugar
• 750 ml water
• 1 pinch salt
• 2 screwpine leaves, knotted (pandan) or 1/2 teaspoon pandan extract

directions

1. Steam sweet potatoes until soft.
2. Combine the sweet potatoes and coconut milk in a blender.
3. Strain mixture through a fine sieve.
4. Combine agar-agar powder, sugar, water and pandan leaves in a saucepan and bring to a boil until agar-agar dissolves.
5. Stir in pureed sweet potato and coconut mixture and simmer over low heat.
6. Add a pinch of salt and pour the jelly mixture into a wet tray or mold.
7. Leave aside at room temperature to set, then chill well before cutting into desired shapes.

Reviews

[mianbao]

I tagged this recipe for the Chef ABC game - it's a good way to make sure that I try recipes I've been wanting to. I tried to make half the recipe but had trouble with the agar, because I had to use stick agar at the last moment. My calculations were off, I think, so what I got is too soft. It also separated into layers. I intend to try this again sometime this summer, and will rewrite this review. Sorry for such sloppy cooking! No star rating now.

 

[Roosie]

I have had this recipe in my cookbook foreeeeever, because it just sounds like such an unusual and tasty dessert... well, my intuition was right and its exactly that! I made a half recipe, but this still made a fairly large quanity- I just used a 9" glass deep dish pie plate to set this in, and the jelly is about 1/2"-3/4" thick. I cut out small rounds with a metal cookie cutter, and they cut very well- this is fairly solid stuff. Now, don't expect Jello if you make this! It does have a nice dense texture and a sort of starchy mouth-feel from the sweet potaoes but still creamy due to the coconut. It's not overly sweet, just mild and refreshing- I think the flavors in these would be divine with a Thai ice tea! This is my first time using agar and i'm very happy with the results. I didn't have screwpine leaves or extract, so I just used 1/2 tsp vanilla (foodsubs.com says the flavors are sort of similar). I wasn't really sure about step 4- my agar dissolved just fine without boiling. I wasn't sure if I needed to cook it really or not, so I got it hot, added the sweet potato mixture and just brought it to a simmer and poured into my pie pan. You didn't say whether or not to peel the sweet potato, so I decided not to and pureed the heck out of it. I didn't find that I needed to strain this, as step 3 directs, my food processor did just fine pureeing the sweet potatos, skins and all. This is a lovely pale Creamsicle orange. I drizzled the top of mine with some coconut milk, and it looks very pretty. I ran a fork through the drizzles as you would to get a swirly effect with adding a glaze to cake icing (If you know what I mean?) so they're really lovely- looks great in the cut-outs too. All in all, really excellent. Great dessert for a heavy meal, I'm sure and a great snack too. Neat, fun recipe with very tasty results! Thanks, Watermelon, for another winner!!