When a hankering for sweets hits, I try to use local fruit wherever possible. But this late into spring, we are in a lean time right now for that! We're not quite at strawberry season, and rhubarb certainly needs a lot of help from sweeteners to make it tasty as a dessert. But Altufo Mangos are in season (somewhere tropical- certainly not here in the Pacific Northwest!) and are looking beautiful right now, so I was inspired to learn a new way to enjoy them.
Just last week, I invited my friend and talented cooking and wellness educator, Honami Watanabe, to teach with me for a workshop. She is currently excited about the benefits of agar (also called agar agar), which was totally inspiring and I decided to put the mango idea into jelly form. Honami is from Japan, and so has a comfy familiarity with the slippery texture of agar jellies (Kanten). I was more of a Jello Jigglers kid, but I guess that's the North American equivelent, anyhow, I love slurping these up too!
Benefits of agar:
Mango
Coconut Layered Agar Jellies
Ingredients
2 mangos
1 3/4 cups fruit juice or water
Optional- juice and zest of 1 lime and/or a few mint leaves
3 tsp agar powder, divided
2/3 cup coconut milk + 2/3 cup water
1 tsp vanilla
Directions
To make jellies, simply chop mangos, measuring 1.5 cups for the blender and saving the rest for adding as chunks to the jellies.
Blend mango (and optional lime, zest and/or mint) with water or juice and pour into a small sauce pan. Add 2 tsp of the agar, stir and cook over medium heat, stirring until thickened and bubbling, pour into 8X6 container, or use moulds/ramekins.
Let set at room temp or in the fridge for at least an hour, until it doesn’t jiggle when moved.
Now make coconut layer, add coconut milk, water and 1 tsp agar warming it to hot, but not boiling. Pour while still hot over the mango layer and let the whole thing set to firm.
Slice to serve and garnish with mint if you like.