Mt Purple

                                         "Every mountain came from a molehill"


Mt Purple: Coconut milk-flavored Japanese snow jelly for the snowy peaks and ajar jelly made with liquid from boiling a beautiful sweet purple potato with sugar for the rest of the mountain, surrounded by shaved ice, potato cubes and doused with fresh coconut milk.

When Wey saw this jelly, he asked if I've finally run out of ideas. On the contrary, I told him, I have many more jelly ideas, so many that I'm scheduling them because there's only 13 more jellies to go for the Royal Selangor Pewter Jelliriffic! Challenge.

Sometimes ideas for new jellies and the actual results can turn out very different. Sometimes they turn out better, many times they are what Wey calls "atrocious". Wey keeps telling me that I have to make his fave jelly, broken glass, but I'm on a creative mode. I want to make new jellies with new flavors, not boring blobs. Well, this is what happened to my idea of a jelly of K2, the world's second highest mountain. Nick Munro, the British designer of the Jelliriffic! mould, said that the mould was inspired by mountains. Looking at the steep slopes of the Jelliriffic mould, Munro must've had the mountains K2 and Matterhorn in mind because the Jelliriffic mould has a sharp peak just like these majestic mountains.

I made the mountain peak with Japanese snow jelly, which is melted sugar and gelatine whisked under a basin of ice and water until the air bubbles foam and gel, just like beaten egg whites. In such a light suspended state, the jelly melted easily when the purple jelly was poured onto it. I had to re-do it, this time chilling the snow jelly thoroughly before cutting the jagged outline. I also couldn't get a sharp cut of the snow jelly. I think what I should've done was dip the knife in water before every cut. I couldn't think of any food that's grey so I used a purple potato I had in my kitchen. Eaten with shaved ice and coconut milk, the jelly actually tasted very refreshing. The purple potatoes were very fragrant, coconut milk was creamy and SO rich in flavor (makes anything nice, I told you) and eating this jelly, I'm reminded of bubur chacha and ice kachang. I don't know...I think with some refining like addition of boiled red beans and gula melaka, this jelly has great potential but it's too late to re-do it today so let's just go with it.


Whisk the melted gelatine and sugar over a tub of ice and water and it will foam like whipped egg whites. 

                      Snow jelly is very light and foamy in texture, looking kind of like snow especially when it's not fully set. If chilled longer, the snow jelly in the photo would look firmer, almost sponge-like.

Mt Purple
Top Snow Layer:
1/4 cup water
1/2 tbsp gelatine powder
2/3 tbsp caster sugar
a drop or two of coconut essence
Prepare: a bowl of ice cubes and water big enough to fit the cooking pot.
Boil,uncovered,1 small purple potato (peeled) with 2 cups water and 4 tbsp sugar until a wooden skewer can pass through the potato easily. Keep the purple liquid which would have reduced by less than half.
1. Scatter the gelatine powder over the water in a small pot, wait 2 minutes,then heat it, adding sugar and stirring until all the gelatine and sugar are dissolved. Cool and add 1/4 cup cold water and the coconut essence. Sit the pot over a bowl of ice cubes and water and use a hand-held electric whisk to whip the gelatine until it is foamy. Be careful not to whip for too long because the foam'll set and can't be poured into the mould.
2. Pour into a rinsed Jelliriffic! mould and leave in fridge to set.
3. When set thoroughly, cut away sharp Vs around the jelly.
Bottom Layer:
100 ml liquid from cooking the potatoes
1/2 tsp agar powder
1. Scatter the agar powder over the purple liquid in a small pot and heat, stirring well, until the agar is dissolved. Cool.
2. Pour onto the snow layer and leave to set. Put into fridge and chill very well.
To serve:
Put the jelly on a bed of shaved ice and serve with thick fresh coconut milk and cubes of boiled potatoes.