Monday 21 January 2013

Jello - not just for children any more!

I like umeshu. I REALLY like umeshu. I'm not picky about it - I'll drink the cheap stuff with soda, I'll savour award winning umeshu on the rocks (a bottle U's father bought, from Wakayama and made with honey instead of sugar - WOW! really really really good).

So when I found a recipe for ume-shu jello I was intrigued to say the least.  I made up a batch, pouring it into two glasses instead of five as the recipe suggested as only two of the nice glasses were clean, the others were in the dishwasher.

A friend came over for dinner and after we ate I brought out the desert, and my friend and I each  had one glass. "Funny," I thought to myself, "I don't usually get tipsy on one glass of umeshu!". Of course, I don't normally down an entire glass of straight umeshu in under 5 minutes either... Really really good.

Really good.

The recipe was one I found on Cookpad (original cookpad recipe), so was in Japanese, but I've included it here in translation.


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Ingredients (for 5 servings - or two if I'm cooking!)

5 g   gelatin
2 tbsp  water
150 cc  umeshu
50 cc  water (or skip the water and up the umeshu to 200 cc - what I did!)
300 cc Mitsuya Cider / Sprite (I went with plain soda water and was very happy with the flavour)
50 g   sugar (I don't remember exactly, but I think I cut the amount of sugar)


Steps

- add gelatin to first amount of water, mix and set aside
- add umeshu, second amount of water, and sugar to a pot, heat on low heat until sugar dissolves, turn off heat
- pour gelatin/water mixture into pot with umeshu, mix until gelatin has completely absorbed into umeshu mixture
- add cider/etc and stir very gently, pour into cups and cool in fridge


I had a bunch of ume in the bottom of the bottle that I fished out, pitted, and cut up. The were a nice textural addition, but I'm not sure if I would put them in again. But the desert itself? Oh yes! Definitely a keeper!!


5 comments:

  1. I grinned when I started counting the number of times you wrote "really really really really really good" in this post. :D

    PS: Mitsuya Cider? Interesting coincidence.

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    1. It was really good, really really really good!

      PS - I actually made it over the summer but never got around to translating the recipe so it was sitting unposted. While procrastinating yesterday I was doing a bit of spring cleaning and finishing up a few unposted posts. The Mitsuya Cider was a total coincidence as I made it with soda and hadn't even remembered the recipe called for cider! (but between the sweetness of the umeshu and the added sugar, do you really need cider in the mix?!) But I did think of you, and your mop-headed boy, when I noticed the cider!

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    2. Oh, well, still an interesting coincidence that you decided to publish the story NOW. ^^ Maybe the Mitsuya would add some interesting fuzzy (!) bubbles.

      PS: He's not so mop-headed anymore! :p

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  2. Mmm sounds really good, and quite dangerous...

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    Replies
    1. It really was good! As for dangerous... I served it at home, so didn't have to go anywhere myself afterwards. My friend, however, was amused by how tipsy desert (we had also had umeshu with dinner) had made her, and apparently remembers little from her train home!

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