How do I cook with "Grass Jelly"

Cafe Society
1

I love to shop in a local asian market and saw a canned product called “Grass Jelly”… any one have any advice or ideas about how is it used?

I bought a can and it is essentially a green jelly with a sweet subtle candy like taste…

fml

2

You could use it instead of boba in bubble tea.

3

I lived in Taiwan for several years. Its very popular there. Its served chilled with crushed ice and sugar by street vendors on hot summer days. It supposedly cools you down better than just ice water.

Now that I’m back in California (with my Taiwanese wife) I have occasionally during the summer. Its alright. I’m not a big fan.

4

yeah… you don’t “cook” with it.

5

Yeah, you just eat it, or you put it in a drink.

6

Ah, one of the joys of ethnic markets – go in, buy something (what the hell is it?), open it, taste it and if it stays down, decide whether you like it and can cook with it.

That’s how I discovered the god ingredient of beef stirfry. Fermented bamboo shoots in chili oil. And the first brick of tamarind pulp that I bought at an indian market – can’t cook sour tamarind soup with bean thread noodles without it.

7

Drain, dump into bowl. Open can of lychee fruit, drain and dump that in too. Jackfruit, starfruit, coconut – whatever tickles you. Shaved ice, yes.

Nom.

8

Very popular here as a drink, grated coarsely and boiled with pandan leaves and sugar to taste.

9

I never had it. You could try making a grass jelly roll. Everything is better with cake.

10

Can you tell us the recipe for the soup? Pleeeeeeease?

11

Sorry if you were waiting on my recipe == I haven’t checked the thread.
Well, you can get some soup mix from the Philippines (made by Knorr IIRC) and that’s an okay start, but has MSG.

What I do
put handful of tamarind pulp in water, leave over night, then push liquid and pulp through a strainer.
add to chicken stock.
brown ground pork, add to mixture.
add veggies that you have that’d work.
season a su gusto (fish sauce, chilis, lime juice, celantro)
add the bean thread noodles (will cook VERY quickly and can turn to mush) and serve

Made up myself – I take the blame

12

Thank you all for the responses…

Regards
FML