CHINA GRASS

Some dishes stay in your memory due to the incidents around it. China Grass is one such dish, this dish was introduced to my family by our neighbours. It was an often made dessert at their place and I remember being very enthralled whenever it would be shared, as it was never made at my place.

There is a specific episode that I remember, I was in Class three and very ill with an inflammation in my abdomen, no appetite and a bad tummy ache. Aunty had then brought this cool china grass and I remember having that then.

Anyways later on when I started experimenting with cooking we did start making this dish at home but it was using the ready made pack available in the markets in various flavours.

The other day I decided to make it from scratch and thought I would post it too. That’s when I did some research on the etymology and found that it is called ‘China Grass’ as it is made using Agar Agar which is a vegetarian option for gelatine, hence the word ‘grass’ and the reason for the word ‘China’ is that it is very popular in many far east dessert preparations.

Let’s hop on to the recipe now…

Ingredients

7 grams of Agar agar (I used the one that comes in the form of a bar)

½ litre of milk,

1 cup of water,

¾ - 1 cup of sugar (depending on how sweet you want it to be),

A pinch of powdered green cardamom seeds,

Sliced pistachios for garnishing

Method

Cut the china grass or agar agar into small bits and dunk it in the water. (Sometimes it also comes in strands.) Let it soak for about 15-20 minutes.

Boil the milk in a pan and once it starts boiling add the powdered cardamom seeds and the sugar. Mix it and let the sugar dissolve. Turn off the heat.

Now heat the soaked agar agar along with the water used for soaking it. Heat it on a low heat till it gets completely dissolved. Once dissolved turn off the heat.

Return the pan with the milk to the heat and on a very low heat add the dissolved agar agar mixture after straining it. It is important to strain it as some bits remain undissolved. Mix it well and cook on a very low heat for about 2-3 minutes.

It is important to do the last step on a very low heat as it might curdle otherwise.

Now pour it into a flat vessel where you intend to set it, or you can also set it in individual bowls.

Garnish it with the sliced pistachios, you can also add sliced almonds and cashews.

Once it reaches room temperature you can transfer it to the refrigerator. If you have set it in a flat vessel, cut it into pieces before serving.

It is best served cold.