One of the fun thing about going back to my hometown is bringing back goodies. Among the things I brought back are a lovely pandan plant from my grandpa’s backyard and long forgotten cute moulds salvaged from my mama’s kitchen cabinets. I feel like a treasure hunter when I discover  something I can reuse. Being a firm believer in reusing and recycling, I make full use of any old functional items I find (or borrow from friends and neighbours) instead of letting the items sit idle. What items do you reuse?

Pandan leaves + cute moulds = Pandan Agar Agar or Pandan Jelly. A refreshing Malaysian dessert.

Pandan plant grows on the ground very easily and rapidly without requiring much care, but living in an apartment have me resorting to keeping the plant in a flower vase filled with water. With the glaring hot sunlight on my balcony, the leaves are starting to wilt. I am crossing my fingers that the plant can last more 2 weeks.

To readers who are new to pandan, it is used in Southeast Asian cooking to add a distinct aroma to rice and dishes such as nasi lemak, kaya jam preserves, and desserts such as pandan cake. Pandan leaf can be used as a complement to chocolate in many dishes, such as ice cream.

Besides the wonderful aroma, the extract from pandan leaves by blending with water gives a natural green colouring. Just like these enticing light green jelly. For this delightful refreshing dessert, I use agar agar powder instead of the strips (which I used in Mango Pudding).  If you do not have jelly mould, you can also use muffin tray, mini tart mould or just a 16cm glass dish / cake pan and cut into squares. Let your creative juice flow!

Normally adding coconut milk to agar agar makes the mixture separates into 2 different layers – clear layer & milky layer, but it is not  very obvious here. Doesn’t really matter, as long as it taste great!