It has been a crazy year so far and an insane two months. In the blink of an eye, October arrived and one of my favourite festivals is here! Halloween! Been some time since I made osmanthus jelly and to celebrate the festival as well as a treat to my colleagues at work, I decided to make some just in time for 31 October. I have made eyeball osmanthus jelly before back in mid-Oct 2014 and I remember my colleagues were not in the mood to enjoy because we were still in the midst of a busy period.
So this year, I got smarter and planned my telecommute day very carefully at the beginning of the month just so that I can bring the jelly on the actual (Halloween) day. Wanted to do something slightly different this year so had been brain-storming for ideas. Saw some gardening friends posted their blue pea flower drinks on Facebook and an idea came to me. Why not turn the jelly into blue colour using blue pea flowers? It should add some spooky effect on top of the gory eyeballs.
So I asked for some blue pea flowers from one of my gardening friends and she happily gave me a handful last Tuesday. Tried using a few of the dried flowers to make drink and had a fun time playing with it. Do you know that the blue colour will turn into purple after you have added some lemon juice? Yep, I felt like Harry Potter in front of my colleague. Haha...
Finally came the day to make the jelly. Started off by making the eyeballs using canned longan, lingonberry jam and blueberries. Then went on to make the blue water using about 80 dried flowers to 2 liter of water. The result was an Electric Blue colour which I didn't think will work because the eyeballs won't be visible enough. So had to dilute it to get a lighter blue. And what do I do with the extra blue water? I used it to make honey drink. Yum!
Next was adding the osmanthus flowers and two slices of licorice root to the blue water, then boiled for a few minutes to let the flavour out. Once done, strained the liquid to remove the flowers and root. Then cook the jelly using the usual method. As I stirred the liquid, it slowly turned into greenish colour. Fascinating... Finally, assembled the eyeballs and jelly in the 3¼ oz plastic cups I bought from SKP. It was kind of plain so I added some chia seeds to the jelly at the very last minute. It was really exciting to see the final product take shape. Had to control myself not to tell my colleagues what I have prepared for them. Hopefully they will appreciate the jelly.
What are you looking at?
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Oops! I dropped my eyeball!
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Saw Ellena Guan of Cuisine Paradise posting her Halloween-theme spooky seafood bee hoon on Facebook and thought "How about blue colour rice?". Hahaha... Being lazy, I didn't prepare the blue water beforehand. I merely threw a few dried flowers into the rice cooker while it cooked the rice. The result wasn't as stunning as the bee hoon that Ellena has. Oh well... Maybe next time.
Happy Halloween!!!
Ingredients (Makes 35 cups):
35 longans
35 blueberries
some lingonberry jam*
5 tsp dried osmanthus flowers
2 slices licorice root
1900ml blue pea flower water^
20g konnyaku jelly power
420g sugar
1 tsp chia seeds, soaked
50 dried blue pea flowers
2 liter water
Method:
1. Fill longan with some jam before inserting a blueberry into the opening (scrape off excess jam, if any) and set aside
2. Bring 2 liter of water to a boil in a pot, lower heat, add blue pea flowers, stir and simmer for a few minutes to get the blue colour
3. Strain the blue liquid, measure 1900ml of the liquid into a pot and bring it to a boil
4. Add osmanthus flowers and licorice root, then simmer for roughly 5mins before removing from heat
5. Strain the liquid, bring it to a boil then lower the heat
6. Add konnyaku jelly powder and sugar. Stir until powder and sugar are fully dissolved then off the flame
7. Place one "eyeball" into one plastic cup, spoon some chia seeds in then pour enough jelly solution to cover the eyeball
8. Let the jelly cool down a bit in room temperature and chill in fridge till the jelly is set
* You can use any jam that is red in color
^ Make using 50 dried blue pea flowers with 2 liter of water
---------------- Edited on 31 Oct 2017 ----------------
Brought 34 cups of jelly to office. Man, they were heavy. Fortunately, feedback was good and a few were spooked by the eyeballs. Had a colleague who asked if the flavour was sour plum. Hrm... wonder if it was due to the blue pea flowers in large quantity that affected the osmanthus flowers taste. All in, glad that they enjoyed the jelly and a good laugh. Mission Spooky accomplished!
35 longans
35 blueberries
some lingonberry jam*
5 tsp dried osmanthus flowers
2 slices licorice root
1900ml blue pea flower water^
20g konnyaku jelly power
420g sugar
1 tsp chia seeds, soaked
50 dried blue pea flowers
2 liter water
Method:
1. Fill longan with some jam before inserting a blueberry into the opening (scrape off excess jam, if any) and set aside
2. Bring 2 liter of water to a boil in a pot, lower heat, add blue pea flowers, stir and simmer for a few minutes to get the blue colour
3. Strain the blue liquid, measure 1900ml of the liquid into a pot and bring it to a boil
4. Add osmanthus flowers and licorice root, then simmer for roughly 5mins before removing from heat
5. Strain the liquid, bring it to a boil then lower the heat
6. Add konnyaku jelly powder and sugar. Stir until powder and sugar are fully dissolved then off the flame
7. Place one "eyeball" into one plastic cup, spoon some chia seeds in then pour enough jelly solution to cover the eyeball
8. Let the jelly cool down a bit in room temperature and chill in fridge till the jelly is set
* You can use any jam that is red in color
^ Make using 50 dried blue pea flowers with 2 liter of water
---------------- Edited on 31 Oct 2017 ----------------
Brought 34 cups of jelly to office. Man, they were heavy. Fortunately, feedback was good and a few were spooked by the eyeballs. Had a colleague who asked if the flavour was sour plum. Hrm... wonder if it was due to the blue pea flowers in large quantity that affected the osmanthus flowers taste. All in, glad that they enjoyed the jelly and a good laugh. Mission Spooky accomplished!
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