Friday, April 01, 2011

Onigiri Bento and Milk Kanten Dessert

I made an onigiri bento the other day. It contains two onigiri, a potato gratin, meatballs, tamagoyaki slices, and a mini cup of ichigo/milk kanten for dessert. I'm going to write my quick gratin recipe sometime.

2011.03.30

Have you ever seen a box of kanten powder at stores?
kanten powder

The recipe I'd like to share today is a milk kanten jelly. Kanten is kind of a jello, kanten powder is made out from seaweed, which is calorie-free and sooo healthy. I do recommend this for vegetarian/vegan people. When you don't want to use milk, you can use soy milk instead. This time I used them half and half. The best thing about kanten is to firm at room temperature as well unlike gelatin-jelly. So I think kanten desserts are perfect for a bento lunch. I'd really like you to try if you can get kanten powder. Although this milk kanten jelly is enough good without fruit, it would be even better if you put on your favorite fruit!

babykins milk kanten jelly recipe --- Yields 6 -7 cups
3 cups milk (600ml) or 2 and 1/2 Amecican cups milk
2 tablespoons sugar
1 heaped teaspoon kanten powder
(I improved this recipe.)

1) Put all the ingredients in a pan and cook it over medium heat stirring slowly until right before boiling. (Be careful not to make the milk boil, milk is easy to bubble over.)
2) Then cook it over low heat for a couple of minutes to dissolve the kanten powder completely.
3) Pour it into cups then cool it down at room temperature until firm. Then refrigerate it if you like it cool.
I made mine somewhat soft and smooth. If you like yours firmer you can add a little more kanten powder.

milk kanten jelly-1

And only one thing, I want to say thank you to those of you who've listened to my heart recently. I so appreciate it. Actually I may take a break for a while from blogging. I think I need a bit long rest, I'm so tired....
milk kanten jelly desserts

HAHA I'm sorry, just joking!! Do you know what day it is today??

10 comments:

  1. Lol! April Fools day!! You scared me ^_^ I haven't tried kanten powder before, I'll have to look for it. I love this bento so much! It has a little bit of everything. Your onigiri look beautiful and delicious!

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  2. tee hee, happy april fool's day! elegant little cow glasses are so sweet! love seeing recipes here, just adds to the yumminess of your blog--thanks :D

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  3. hehe I wanted to shoot the bull so bad! ^^ Yeah I really hope you have a chance to make a kanten jelly. It would be so nice for the coming warm season. A set of a-little-bit-foods is fun to look and eat!

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  4. Hi, have tried your milk kanten jelly today - it's simple to prepare, cool and light and very yummy with some fruit. Thx for sharing. We had a very warm spring weekend (actually 24 °C, that's much warmer than normal) and actually started the grill season today. Had to find out first that kanten is nothing else than "normal" Agar I usually have in the pantry ;-)

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  5. My pleasure! I'm jealous of the weather over there. Still cold here so I make my kanten jellies not too cool. Thank you I'm glad you tried and liked it! :)
    haha agar is so similar to kanten but its texture is closer to gelatin jelly. I like both. But *your agar* may be exactly the same thing as kanten.

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  6. Hm, now I'm confused. For my understanding kanten _is_ agar powder 8-) Maybe you could help to sort this out? I know there are agar flakes that are supposed to result in a smoother texture but I have no own experience with. My agar is a powder and I can also use it for the glaze on top of a fruit cake (1 teaspoon agar per 250 ml juice). My milk jelly hasn't been that strong than gelatine is but smoother. The texture is not creamy or so, just a smooth jelly. Any idea how to explain the difference between kanten and agar?

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  7. Aha ... So I think the mine is Agar. Thats why (turns out clear) I use it for fruit cake glaze, But the milk jelly is really great with Agar too. I will find real kanten and retry ;-) Promised.

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  8. Looking forward to the result and your opinion.
    Fruit jelly cake sounds fantastic! I made one only once before. I'll have to try again sometime. This is it... http://www.flickr.com/photos/babykins1206/4075914709/in/set-72157622857625804/lightbox/

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  9. Hm, yours look great but is more a kind of dessert I think. The fruit cake we have here in Germany looks like your fruit & jelly topping but over sponge cake, it's a big cake of 30 cm in diameter. We can buy ready-made sponge cake and add our fruit topping. It's a typical summer cake here. I will take a photo next time I make one - strawberry season is getting closer... Fruit (jelly) cake is very yummy - fruity and light.

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  10. Yeah I imagined a whole round cake with a sponge cake as you say. And I know thats delish without tasting hehe. I thought I would try one like that. But I'd like to recommend you a combo of cheesecake and fruits jelly if you are a big fan of cheesecake ;)

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