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Recipe: tea jellies

When thunderstorms rage overhead, I try not to work on the computer. So this afternoon I busied myself in the kitchen cleaning the dishes listening to the sound of hail pounding on the deck and roof of the house. It lasted a little longer than anticipated and I wound up digging through the cupboards, looking for something to trigger an idea.

Summer calls for refreshing food, which is why I love salads, fruits, cold dishes, iced drinks, and jellies. A child of the 70s, I actually ate a lot of Jello&trade, not jellies. Although I did eat almond gelatin with fruit, grass jelly, and lemon agar jelly – all Chinese desserts, I didn’t get the full scope of Asian jellies available to the masses until I began frequenting Asian grocery stores in college. These days you’ll find an assortment of tiny jelly cups with a piece of jackfruit suspended in the matrix. They are delicious and apparently deadly if swallowed incorrectly. I imagine that would apply to almost anything though.

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Today, I made mini panna cotta with espresso gelatin. They turned out wonderfully and make a great little pre-dessert or dessert chaser. Obviously, the quality of the espresso will determine how well the whole thing goes down. The last time I made panna cotta it had yogurt and cream. This one was half cream and half milk. Next time I will try Donna Hay’s recipe which I think has almost all cream. Decadent.

Yesterday we made the requisite stop for dim sum in which all three of us declared we weren’t that hungry after the previous day’s gorging on sushi and then proceeded to gorge some more once the hot and juicy morsels were paraded past our table. Thank goodness I had sense to run and bike in the gym that morning. We did more Asian market shopping (Ranch 99) and then had some boba (bubble) tea. Grandma wanted to order it at the small eatery attached to the store in Cupertino, but Elena knew of a specific tea shop that sold boba tea around the corner. Grandma’s instinct is to save money – to order the $1.99 tea. Elena’s instinct is to go for the treat, the good stuff. I have stated before that Elena has impeccable taste, and that extends to pretty much everything – especially food! The difference in price is less than a buck per tea, but it represents the constant battle between Elena wanting to treat her mother to something good, and Grandma’s frugality that got her through her 85 years of life. I sided with Elena, of course, because as a granddaughter I can only push so much before it becomes disrespectful. Elena is the hard-headed youngest daughter whose mind, once made up, cannot be changed without much effort and grumbling.

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