Red Dates and Dried Longan Konnyaku Jelly

The idea of making this came from Gina Choong.  She has a blog Taste of Time and a baking supply store in Singapore.  Go visit her and her store if you are in Singapore, she is pretty popular!  Do visit her blog for more information.  I have known her before I started this blog in her Kitchen Capers forum, so back in 2004?  Wow, we go way back and we haven't even met once.  I hope I will get to meet her at her store when I am in Singapore in the future.  I will make an effort to go see her and surprise her!  :)  Actually one of the members in her forum encouraged me to write a food blog and see where I am today?  Without her persistent, I won't even know what is blogging back then.  Thank you!

I saw a picture of this at Gina's FB (well different mold but basically the same thing) and thought it would make such a great Chinese New Year dessert!  I had never tried using Chinese tea in making konnyaku jelly before hence the kick was there (I love to challenge myself in new thing) and that was all the motivation I needed.  I chose this pineapple mold because pineapple "Ong lai" means prosperity in Chinese.  Jujube (red date) means wealth, prosperity and fertility (I don't need this, haha) and longan (龙眼, dragon eye) means many good son (well for the married couples who want a son).  For Chinese, we have an old tale that if you are pregnant and someone older in your family dream of a dragon, you are highly carrying a son.

With that said, I am sharing this dessert with Aspiring Bakers #15: Auspicious Dishes for CNY hosted by Wen's Delight.  Go check out the roundup on Feb 1st.  :-)

Ingredients:

• 1000ml red dates & dried longans tea
• 10gm konnyaku jelly powder

Method:

Arrange some longans into the mold.  Mix konnyaku jelly powder into the red dates and longan tea, whisk well until it dissolved.  Heat the mixture until almost boiling while continue whisking.  Take it off the heat and pour into prepared molds with longans (since I don't eat red date, I omitted it).  Let it cool slightly before refrigeration.  Refrigerate for 2-3 hours before serving.

Red Dates and Dried Longan Tea:

In a slow cooker, add in 4 little of filtered water.  Add in about 30 dried longans and 25 dried red dates.  Turn it to low and let it cook overnight.  The next morning, season to taste with Chinese rock sugar.  Turn to warm if you want to drink it throughout the day warm.  Or turn it off and when cool, pour into a glass jar and keep in the refrigerator.  You can enjoy this tea for a few days if keep in the refrigerator.