[Chinese Recipes] Grass Jelly (cincau)

Iced grass jelly has been one of my favorite summer desserts as it helps to keep the body cool during hot days. 

Grass jelly (仙草烧) is a sweet dessert, popular in Hong Kong, Southern China and Taiwan area. Traditionally, we boil leaves and stalks from a plant named Mesona Chinensis with a small amount of starch or rice flour to make grass jelly. After cooling down, the liquid will firm into a jelly like texture. However, this method cannot be popular in our daily life as it is quite time-consuming. In order to simplify the process, there are popular canned grass jelly (outside China) and powdered grass jelly (in and outside China).

To make grass jelly from grass jelly powder (the ratio of powder and water need to be adjusted according to the package), you will need to mix sugar and cornstarch as well.

If you use grass jelly powder like this one: use 2 packages (6g)+3 to 4 tablespoon sugar (optional)+10g to 20g cornstarch(the more starch you add, the firmer your jelly will be). Firstly mix all the ingredients together and add around 200ml water to dissolve.

Heat the left 800ml water to a boil and stir the mixture in slowly. Continue heating for 1-2 minutes until there are lots of large bubbles on surface.

Transfer the mixture out.

Cool down several hours in fridge. And move out.

Cut into small cubes.

Add fresh fruits(mango cubes) and sweetened red beans. Drizzle some cream or condensed milk.

To make a classic grass jelly drink with a cold soaking method (perfect for summer):heat around 100ml water in a sauce pan and then throw in 2 bags of black tea and 3 tablespoons of sugar, simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the fire and then add around 300ml to 350ml milk. Cover the pot to cool down and set in refrigerator for several hours.

Lay the grass jelly cubes in the bottle of the container.

Add chilled milk tea in.

Grass Jelly (cincau)

 

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Prep time

4 hours

Total time

4 hours

 

Grass jelly made from powder with a cold soaking milk tea. It can be also served with fresh fruits, usually mango and sweetened red beans in China.

Ingredients

For homemade grass jelly from powder (you can directly purchase canned ones)

• 2 packages of grass jelly powder
• 10g to 20g cornstarch
• 3-4 tablespoon sugar
• 1000ml water

For the cold soaking milk tea

• 2 black tea bags
• 100ml water
• 2-3 tablespoon sugar
• 300ml to 350ml milk

Instructions

To make the grass jelly from powder

1. Firstly mix all the ingredients together and add around 200ml water to dissolve.
2. Heat the left 800ml water to a boil and stir the mixture in slowly. Continue heating for 1-2 minutes until there are lots of large bubbles on surface.Transfer the mixture out.Cool down several hours in fridge.

For grass jelly milk tea

1. heat around 100ml water in a sauce pan and then throw in 2 bags of black tea and 3 tablespoons of sugar, simmer for 2-3 minutes. Turn off the fire and add sugar. Stir to dissolve. Add around 300ml to 350ml milk. Cover the pot and set in refrigerator for several hours. Take the tea bags out.
2. Cut the grass jelly into cubes, transfer them into your serving container carefully. Add chilled milk tea.

Nutrition Information

Serving size: 2

Bon appetite in summer. This has been my favorite dessert in 38 degree C days. I hope you will love it. Just comment, rate or tag me #chinasichuanfood on Instagram of if you tried it. 

This recipe and image sources are referred in website: Chinasichuanfood.com. Thanks so much!