Recipes from a Cook Wannabe: Agar-Agar (Jelly)

Agar-agar (Jelly) making is actually child's play and and the hardest bit is selecting the mold haha.. This time, I decided to put it into fish molds that I got from the marketplace. A couple of weeks ago, I made some with longans (from a can). But there is no way I could stuff the longans inside these fish molds. So, I decided to make some sago agar-agar instead. The adults felt that they were a little too pretty to eat... but the kids...they don't really care... jelly is meant to eaten..no two ways about it :)

Ingredients

2 packets of konnyaku jelly (or 20gm of any jelly powder)
1200ml of water
320g of fine sugar
3 pandan leaves
100gm of sago pearls (soaked for 2 hours and washed and drained)
250ml of thick santan (coconut milk)
Permitted coloring as desired

Method :

Cooked the soaked sago under low heat until they turn transparent. Rinse it thoroughly under the tap (cold water) so that they do not stick together.
Divide the sago into 6 portions and add coloring to each portion. A portion or two can also be left uncolored as this also forms a "color" by itself
Mix the jelly powder with the sugar well before adding it to the boiling water. Dissolve the jelly powder and sugar in slow heat. Add in the pandan leaves.
Once the jelly powder and sugar has totally dissolved, add in the coconut milk. Bring to a boil and then turn down the flame. This is to ensure the jelly does not coagulate whilst preparing the jelly to be poured into the molds.
Select whatever shaped type of jelly molds you like.
Take a cupful or two of the jelly mixture and add it to one portion of the color sago. Stir well so that the sago pearls are freely floating in the jelly mixture. (Leave the rest of the jelly mixture in the simmering pot to prevent it from setting before you are reading to pour it into the molds)
You can fill the entire jelly mold with one color or you can fill it with different color layers.
To do different layers, you will need only put in a tablespoonful of the mixture into the mold and wait for it to set (coagulate). When the jelly is set, scratch the surface with a fork. This is to ensure that when you pour in the next layer, the two layers will bind together. Or else, the layers will slide off each other when the jelly sets.
Repeat step 6 for different colored portions of the jelly mixture.
Place in the fridge and serve cold.