A Light, Cooling Jelly for Hot Days
Preeta Samarasan's Mrs. X with a recipe to enjoy by your own wall
When Preeta hatched the Object Permanence series for FED, she gave its narrators names and formal identities in both the spring and summer. This season, the object—in this case, a wall—took billing instead.
So much of women’s lives happens in anonymity, not by choice, but in a failure to assign credit—at its best for labor that is not valued by our commodity exchange economies and at worst because we are required to take one for the team and silently watch as others steal our thunder and assign their name and identity to our ideas, labor, and productions. It’s no wonder, then, that we find our own private ways to exist between the threads of public acknowledgment, that the fiber of our lives happens in ways rarely revealed to others.
Such is the case with Mrs X. and her afternoon jelly by the wall. I’d like to give our narrator her own identity, to give her credit for this recipe, and Preeta and I discussed whether and how to offer her a name, but in the end, we decided to respect Mrs. X’s privacy and left her to her moment and what it might offer us.
I, for one, am so very grateful to her and to the woman, the writer, behind her for inviting us in to savor this private moment. It stands for me as a reminder and model illustrating that such empowering morsels are available to us all. No matter the flurry about.
Our literal and metaphorical punctuation and our personal grammars carve out space and write us into the public narrative, dominant powers that be, be damned. Our unique voice emerges, just as Mrs X.’s does in her recipe below, and claims itself for all to see. Whether we notice or not, this voice knows itself. There’s power in this exquisite knowing.
If you’re in the southern hemisphere, summer’s about to kick in. If you’re in the northern, days are darker and darker. A chill’s descending. If you’re equatorial, it might about be business as usual. Everywhere, a flurry though. So, wherever you are, and whatever your personal temperature, FED invites you this season to find yourself a quiet spot to relish a moment all your own and to find your power there, like “spoonfuls of sweet scented air.”
Big love, Ashley
P.S. With our Fall issue, we open wide the doors for everyone to add their voice by contributing to a FED Friendsgiving, and I genuinely hope that you will share your taste of home with us. The table awaits…
Send a recipe, an anecdote, and/or a favorite food plus an image.
We’ll pull everything that arrives together and serve it up as FED dishes throughout the season. Yum!
A Light, Cooling Jelly For Hot Days
I used to make this when the children. were at school, cut into pieces and keep it ready in the fridge for when they’ll come Back sweating and tired. But without fail I’ll take
out four pieces for myself, carry it to the back yard on a small saucer, sit on a rattan chair and nicely whack by myself while looking at my husband’s wall and the backside wall.
Even to make this jelly is a thrill somehow. You pour the first layer
into the dish and it is so transparent you can’t even see it except for those Clouds of coconut meat which look like as though they are suspended in mid-air. Is it there or is it not there? and later when you are eating it also it is like eating cold air. A kind of magic. I used totake tiny-tiny spoonfuls and savour Each one between my tongue and the roof of my Mouth. Spoonfuls of sweet scented air.
Ingredients
About 350 ml from one or more young Coconuts. At least one of them should be the youngest coconut you can find, the flesh itself should be like jelly otherwise it will spoil the texture of your jelly
Scrape out the meat from that most Tender coconut, cut into 2-3cm pieces and keep Aside
10 g agar-agar powder
150 g caster Sugar
350 ml water
3 pieces pandan leaves
200 ml coconut milk, I used to buy grated coconut from the market and squeeze the milk fresh but nowadays with my arthritis I am using the packet and it is fine
Method
Take a vessel and combine, the agar-agar powder, Caster sugar and water. Mix well. Knot the three pandan Leaves together and put them in also.
Bring to boil on medium Heat while stirring continuously. Switch off as soon as it comes to a boil, do not let it bubble! Remove the pandan leaves from the liquid.
Now add the coconut water and mix well.
Using a ladle pour half this mixture into your tray or mould. which can be any even shape as long as it is flat on the bottom and not so big that the jelly will be too thin. When the layer of jelly is about 2cm high distribute the pieces of coconut meat evenly around it.
Bring the remaining mixture back to the Boil. As soon as it comes to a boil switch off the heat again. Pour the coconut milk into this and stir well.
Using a fork lightly score the. surface of layer of clear jelly in the tray to make squares or rectangles of your preferred size.
Using the ladle carefully pour, the coconut milk mixture over the clear jelly now. Hold the ladle close to the sides of the tray and pour the mixture against the sides to prevent splashing or disturbing the half-set jelly underneath.
With the back of a tablespoon pop any Air bubbles that you see.
Refrigerate for one hour.
After one hour use a knife to cut the squares or rectangles. You should be able. to see the lines faintly. If you have one of those special wavy jelly cutters you may use it but I. never did.
Arrange the pieces on a serving plate or tray and serve.
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For more goodies…
For more from Preeta, be sure to check out Object Permanence 1 from FED’s Spring issue, Object Permanence 2 from our Summer issue, and this season’s Object Permanence 3. And, to learn more about FED’s entire global crew of musicians, artists, writers, growers, gleaners, cooks, and craftspeople check out our Special Guests and the wonderful contributions they have added to the FED table.
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