Cooking Japanese in Jamaica - Gyunyu kanten

Ai Irisawa-Coney, Contributor

If you are a fan of Japanese food, you have probably tasted green tea ice cream or even fried ice cream. If you haven't tried them, I definitely recommend you do.

There are some other Japanese sweets that taste great and are easy to make at home with very few ingredients.

Today's recipe, kanten, takes very little time.

Kanten is known as agar, which is a jelly-like substance made from seaweed that solidifies when cooled after being boiled. Recently, kanten has also been used as part of a great diet method in Japan as it is filling yet has zero calories.

Today, I am going to share a recipe of gyunyu kanten (milk flavoured kanten) which is a classic Japanese sweet.

First of all, you need to locate kanten stick or powder. The powder comes in sachets and is much easier to handle. If none of them are available, you can substitute with gelatin powder, which can be found in most supermarkets.

The only thing with gelatin is that it is a collagen extracted from pigs and has about 20 calories per sachet, which still is very small, but some of you may not want that.

Whichever you use, it is very important that you read and follow the manufacturer's instruction for correct measurement of the ingredients.

I am using measurements according to the instruction that is on the package of kanten powder.

For flavouring, I usually use natural ingredients like freshly squeezed orange juice, milk, coffee, sugar cane juice, etc. You can also use ingredients like strong Blue Mountain coffee, apple juice, lychee juice, syrup or canned juice. However, you need to ensure that when using freshly squeezed citrus juice with gelatin, the juice is brought to a boil before mixing with gelatin. You can also mix with some chopped fruit for more texture and flavour.

Gyunyu kanten

Cooking time: 10 minutes (Plus approximately 40 minutes to solidify)

Serves two persons

Ingredients

2 sachets kanten or gelatin powder (approximately 5g depending on the brand)

500cc of milk (soy or cow's milk. You can also use flavoured milk if you wish)

2tbsp brown sugar

Cooking Instructions

1. Bring milk to boil.

2. Mix sugar and kanten or gelatin into hot milk.

3. Pour the liquid into a mould then allow to cool in the fridge till it gets a jelly-like texture.

I usually love this served with sliced strawberries and a little condensed milk. But you can experiment with different sweeteners, as it goes well with molasses, pineapple chunks, cantaloupes, kiwis, blueberries, or even tinned fruits like peaches.

Itadakimasu!!

Ai Irisawa-Coney managed a Japanese restaurant in Soho, London. She is also a founder of Epiphany Media Solutions and ACI Consultancy.