Japanese Recipe: Momo Awayuki-Kan

It’s still hot and it’s still summer and I still crave me some sweets. Looking through my recipe research, I came across a recipe for kanten.

Kanten isn’t just the recipe itself, it’s also the Japanese word for agar agar, a seaweed with extraordinary gelling properties. Japanese preparations made from kanten are usually (not always) suffixed with either kanten or kan. Yokan, a kanten treat made with azuki beans, chestnuts, or green tea, for example is made from kanten (lemme know if anyone wants a recipe for yokan and I’ll post one!)

Agar agar, which can be extracted from red algae or tengusa seaweed, is a really useful sea veggie: it’s used in many culinary applications and it’s also used in medical and photo applications as well.

Kanten is a variety of seaweed harvested and dried for use as a gelling agent in Japanese cooking. When soaked and boiled in water, the result when cooled is actually firmer than animal derived gelatin and can harden at room temperature, unlike regular gelatin which requires refrigeration to harden.

There’s been renewed interest for kanten in Japan recently. Some people believe that eating kanten before a meal will help them lose weight. Egad! A diet craze in Japan? Really? Who knew…

Kanten is a great summer recipe since it’s served chilled and is so customizable. Fresh fruit, fruit juice, anko, coffee, caramel, tea; anything can be mixed in the kanten to flavor it.

There are many recipes available online for all sorts of kanten, but most of them use the rod or strand variety of kanten, which can be hard to find. Also, many of the recipes are in metric and need to be deciphered before making. I spent some time today making a two-in-one layered variety of kanten: Momo awayuki-kan or “peach and snow kanten”. Hopefully, my rendition will make sense and be easy for you guys to make!

Please read instructions thoroughly before starting!

Momo awayuki-kan

Momo Kan
Ingredients:

• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp. agar agar powder
• 2 tbls. sugar to taste
• 2 tbls. corn syrup
• 2 peaches, blanched, peeled, (frozen peaches are fine) and diced

Awayuki Kan

• 2 cups water
• 1 tsp. agar agar powder
• 2 tbls. sugar
• 2 tbls. corn syrup
• 2 egg whites ( I use the powdered variety)
• 2 tsp. sugar

Directions:

Momo Kan:
1. In a small sauce pan, bring water to a boil.
2. While stirring, slowly sprinkle agar agar into boiling water.
3. Make sure all powder has been dissolved then add sugar.
4. Dissolve all sugar and add corn syrup. Stir till corn syrup is dissolved.
5. Turn heat as low as possible to prevent kanten from hardening. Add peaches. Make Awayuki-kan.

Awayuki kan:

1. Beat egg whites and 2 tsp sugar together on high with an electric mixer for 3 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
2. Follow steps 1-4 for momo kan.
3. Thoroughly mix unflavored kanten into egg whites. Take off heat and set aside.

Wet a bread pan loaf pan or your choice of small mold. Pour in momo kan. Set aside to cool but keep a very keen eye on it as you don’t want to let it cool too much or the layers won’t stick together. Stir awayuki kan often to prevent hardening. When momo kan just has a “skin” developed on it, pour in cooling awayuki kan (the trick is to not have the awayuki too hot and not to have the momo too cool). Refrigerate till hardened (it’ll cool at room temp, but let’s help things along). After it’s cooled, flip kanten onto cutting board (you can use a wet knife to release it) and cut it into small serving sized pieces. I cut mine into 3 x 1.5 ” pieces. Serve chilled.

Kanten is beautiful in the light; like stained glass. Some colorful ideas for your own creations using seasonal ingredients might be:

Green:

• Green tea
• kiwi
• honeydew melon
• mint
• basil
• lime zest

Red:

• cranberry juice
• watermelon
• dragonfruit
• strawberry
• raspberry
• cherries

Yellow:

• fruit juices
• peaches
• pineapple
• lemon zest
• honey

Orange:

• pumpkin puree
• mango
• papaya
• orange juice
• orange zest

Purple:

• grapes
• blueberries
• blackberries

Brown and Black:

• kurosato
• brown sugar
• molasses
• tea
• coffee
• chocolate
• caramel
• soy sauce

Keeping in mind how to create layers, think about how each flavored layer could enhance or balance the next. For example, chocolate and mint or cream and coffee. Or, go beyond the mundane and into the sublime with cream and lime which would make key lime (get it? sub-, on the bottom, lime; sublime? C’mon that was pretty good.)

This is a subtle, light and fairly healthy dessert and the possibilities are endless with what you can create! *Note: If fruits with high acidity are used, such as pineapple, limes, lemons, etc., increase the amount of agar agar or the kanten won’t set.

I liked Momo awayuki-kan since it’s:

• Very inexpensive to make (about $1.75)
• Very healthy; fat free and low sugar combined with high fiber is a good thing in a dessert.
• Absolutely aglow in the sunlight (impress your friends with desserts that match your decor!)
• The meringue layer was a very tasty and unique experience.
• Easy to make if you only make one layer.

I disliked Momo awayuki because:

• Creating two layers was time consuming and a pain in the butt (I made many kan that slid apart before this one ).
• The texture was harder than animal derived gelatin and a bit unpleasant, to me.
• A pain to clean up if you don’t rinse everything in hot water ASAP.

Now, a confession: I really dislike gelatin desserts. I never have warmed up to ‘em and there was never room for Jello TM. So to keep things in perspective I enlisted David’s help. In a scientific and time proven manner, I asked David what his thoughts were:

Scientifically researched question: “So, what’da ya think?”
David: “I like it. It tastes like eating a peach pie.”

There you have it. Unbiased, non-Jello™ hating testimony from the other half of the original staff at The Anime Blog!

Difficulty: Easy to Moderate (depending on whether layers are involved)
Time: 30 minutes
Ingredient Availability: Easy