Jelly Kinabalu

Nick Munro the British designer was inspired by mountains when he designed the jelly mould for Royal Selangor Pewter, organizer of the Jellyriffic! Get Your Jelly On! Challenge to raise funds for the Breast Welfare Association Malaysia. The mould has inspired me to make Jelly Kinabalu, a tribute tothe 5th highest mountain in South East Asia,Mount Kinabaluin Sabah, the most beautiful state in Malaysia.

Growing up, Mt Kinabalu was known as the highest mountain in SEA. Now we know that the highest is Hkakabo in Myanmar followed by 3 other mountains in Indonesia. I climbed Mt Kinabalu at 17 and never climbed it again although I wish I did.Climbing Mt Kinabalu at the end of high school is a ritual for the people of Sabah (known as Borneo when it was governed by the Brits); you aren't a true Sabahan until you have climbed the mountain. The climb up is tedious, taking two days to go up and down, but the view from the top and the feeling of having reached the peak are unforgettable although every person I know who climbed said that they'll never climb again and a few years later they forget the misery and climb again. It's like childbirth.

In creating Jelly Kinabalu, I hoped to capture the colors and the flavors of the mountain as seen along the drive to Kota Belud and Kudat, towns in the north of the state: blue for the mountain, white for the clouds that hang around mountain, green for the padi fields and brown for the rich brown soil that supports the cultivation of padi for the native people. For the flavors, I've used the bunga telang (pea flower) for the blue, coconut milk for the sky, pandan leaves for the padi field! s and sa go pearls mixed with gula melaka for the land. The combination was a success--we loved it--but then anything with fresh coconut milk, pandan and gula melaka is delicious.

Bunga telang, a pea flower with the botanical name of Clitoria ternatea for obvious reasons, gives a natural blue color and is used in Malaysian cooking for making kuihs (desserts made of starch,sugar,coconut milk and more) and a blue rice dish called nasi kerabu. Pandan leaves are widely used in SEA for making cakes and desserts. I think that pandan flavor should be up there with vanilla, a flavoring made from the seed pods of tropical orchids.Gula melaka is the one of the most under rated ingredient in the world, in my opinion. Plain white sugar is nearly scentless but gula melaka, made from the sap of coconut palm, smells so good that I can't sniff it without squeezing my eyes. Fresh coconut milk is another great ingredient. While cows' milk is subtly flavored, coconut milk is rich, creamy, aromatic and sweet. I never use canned coconut milk or powder for making desserts. The richness and flavor of fresh coconut milk just can't be canned or packeted. Canned coconut milk is fine for savory dishes such as curries because it acts more like a thickener and not so much as a flavoring ingredient because the spices over power the flavor of coconut milk. Sago pearlshave a gentle bite and are fun to eat butare bland and so are perfect for taking on the flavor of other ingredients served with it.


This jelly was made with 3 bunga telang in the top layers and two in the second layer.


This jelly was made with 5 bunga telang flowers in the top layer and none in the second/white layer.


Jelly Kinabalu
The Mountain Peak:
50 ml water
1/4 tsp agar powder (reduce for a softer agar)
1 tsp (or more to taste) caster sugar
juice extracted from 3 to 4 bunga telang
1) Mix the sugar and agar powder and sprinkle over the water. Heat gently to dissolve. Add the bunga telang juice and stir well.
2) Rinse and stand a Nick Munro jelly mould in a mug and pour the liquid agar in through a sieve. You can work on the next layer straightaway because agar sets quickly.



The Blue-White Sky:
50 ml water
1/4 tsp agar powder (reduce for a softer agar)
2 tbsp of thick fresh coconut milk
1 tsp (or more) caster sugar
2 bunga telang, juice extracted (add a tbsp of water)--optional
1)Mix the sugar and agar powder and sprinkle over the water. Heat gently to dissolve.Add the bunga telang juice if using and stir well. Add the coconut milk.
2) Rinse and stand a Nick Munro jelly mould and pour the liquid agar in through a sieve over the blue layer. You can work on the next layer straightaway because agar sets quickly.

The Grass:
1/2 t agar powder
100 ml water
1 pandan leaf, pounded and 'massaged' with 1/2 the water (50 ml)
2 tsp (or more) caster sugar
1)Mix the sugar and agar powder and sprinkle over 50 ml of water in a small pot. Heat gently to dissolve.Remove from heat. Add the 50 ml pandan water. Stir well.
2) Sieve over the blue-white layer. Chill.



The Land:
3 tbsp white pearl sago
2 cups water
2 tbsp gula melaka syrup
1) Boil the water in a small pot and add the sago pearls. Stir well so that they don't stick to the bottom of the pot. Boil under a gentle flame until half transparent. Cover and turn heat off. After 10 minutes, if the center of the sago is still white, turn heat on again and repeat.
2) Pour the sago over a sieve under running tap water to remove the melted starch. Stir with a spoon until all the excess starch and water are gone. Do not remove too much melted starch or the sago will not stick together well when cooled.
3) Mix the gula melaka in and scoop onto the green layer. Cover with wrap and chill for at least 8 hours.

To Serve: extra thick fresh coconut milk and gula melaka.

note: I found that the juice from pandan leaves will coagulate into minute little specks when heated so do not cook the juice.