錦玉羹（きんぎょくかん）
Kingyoku Kan / Agar-agar Jelly

The attraction of this sweet is its transparency and coolness as like crystal glass. So, it is popular especially in summer. You can enjoy wide application of this recipe by coupling various ingredients and/or by using various molds, as like European gelatin sweets. The sample in the photo image is 琥珀羹（こはくかん） (Kohaku Kan /Amber Jelly) which is flavored with caramel sauce. You can substitute molasses for the sauce. It is also tasteful to insert a grain of sugared beans in the Kohaku Kan. (Cooking Time: about 30 minutes except time of soaking agar-agar and cooling jelly)

Ingredients (for a square mold in 12 × 9 × 4.5 cm. (4 3/4 × 3 1/2 × 1 3/4 in.) size)

糸寒天（いとかんてん） or 棒寒天（ぼうかんてん） Ito Kanten or Bou Kanten /Thread- or Rod-type Agar-agar	7.5 g
Water	400 mL
Sugar (White granulated)	150 g
水飴（みずあめ） Mizu-ame /Starch Syrup	40 g (about 2 tbs.)

Directions

1. Rinse agar-agar and soak in plenty more water overnight. Drain the water off by using a basket. In the case of rod-type agar, tear it in small pieces.
2. Put the agar-agar and water into a pan and boil up. Slowly stir inside with a wood spatula, especially around the bottom of the pan, until the agar completely dissolves in the water. Please check that there is no rest of the agar by scooping the liquid up with the spatula.
3. Mix sugar into the liquid and boil up again until the sugar completely dissolves.
4. Cover another pan with a bleached cotton cloth and filter out the impurities of the natural agar in the liquid.
5. Boil the liquid down until it has evaporated and the temparature reaches over 100 °C (212 °F).
6. Mix starch syrup and turn heating off.
7. Pour the liquid into a wet mold. Leave it until the gel hardens. It is also okay to chill it in refrigerator.
8. Take the jelly out from the mold. Cut into pieces with suitable size and serve.

Notes & Arrangements

• Thread-type agar-agar is recommended because the transparency is important for Kingyoku Kan. The weight of wet natural agar increases about seventeen or twenty times heavier than dried. Please purchase as fresh products as possible because stale agar is hard to soak up water.
• If you use powdered agar-agar, increase the amount of the water at 750 mL and omit the direction #1 and #4. You can also use microwave oven for boiling because the powdered agar dissolves in water more easily than the natural.
• If the sugar is added before the agar-agar completely dissolves, the rest of the agar cannot dissolve any more.
• After the sugar has dissolved, stirring too much makes the elasticity of the jelly weak.
• If you repeat to harden and to melt the jelly many times, it may burn brown. If you need a time before firming the liquid, please keep it warm by soaking the bottom of the bowl in boiling water.
• If you would like to make layers of the jelly, evenly and slowly pour the liquid of upper layer when a skin has just been formed on the surface of lower layer. The best timing is called 半止まり（はんどまり） (Han-Domari), which is the condition that the liquid surface slightly sticks to your wet fingertip and then comes off immediately. Before the timing, the upper layer may blend into the lower one. After the timing, the hardened upper layer may come off the lower one.
• There are many special molds for the agar-agar jelly in Japan, but it is difficult to obtain them in U.S. You can substitute some tools for European confectionery such as small square-cake or pudding molds, and small cups such as tea cup, shot glass, etc.
• The good way to take the jelly out from the mold, insert a skewer or a butter knife between the jelly and the wall of the mold. Then, lead air into the interface and tilt the mold slowly until the jelly comes off. Please wet your fingers and knives when you cut and dish up the jelly.
• You can preserve this sweet in a sealed container in a refrigerator/freezer.

You can cook various kinds of 羹（かん） (Kan /Agar-agar jelly) by mixing the other ingredients as follows. Please control the amounts of water, sugar and starch syrup which depend on the ingredients. Most of the jellys may divide two layers if the hot mixture is poured into molds. To make the jelly uniform, please reduce the temparature of the mixture to around 42 °C (about 108 °F) by slowly stirring it in the bowl on cool water, and then pour into the molds.

練り羊羹（ねりようかん） (Neri/Kneaded Youkan)

Jelly of Azuki bean paste with deep taste and sticky texture. In the direction #5 of Kingyoku Kan, mix 600 g of Koshi-An in the liquid and knead well. Boil it down until a line can be drawn and immediately disappears on the surface by dropping the mixture. You can also make 白練り羊羹（しろねりようかん） (Shiro Neri Youkan /Keaded white bean paste jelly) with Shiro Koshi-An, and 小倉羊羹（おぐらようかん） (Ogura Youkan /Whole grain Azuki bean jelly) with Tsubu-An.

水羊羹（みずようかん） (Mizu/Water Youkan)

Juicier, softer and plainer than Neri Youkan, and usually chilled well before serving. Reduce the amounts of agar-agar and Koshi-An a half in the case of Neri Youkan and increase the water to around 500 mL as you like. In the direction #5 of Kingyoku Kan, dissolve Koshi-An in the liquid. When it boils up, add NOT starch syrup BUT a pinch of salt, and immediately turn heating off.

泡雪羹（あわゆきかん） (Awayuki/Light-snow Kan)

Pure white and airy texture to easily dissolve in your mouth. Beat chilled glair of an egg (about 30 g) with 2 tea spoons of white granulated sugar until the tips of the meringue do not bend. Gradually mix the liquid of Kingyoku Kan into the meringue. Another mixture with meringue and Neri Youkan is called 東雲羹（しののめかん） (Shinonome/Daybreak Kan).

道明寺羹（どうみょうじかん） (Doumyoji Kan)

Also called みぞれ羹（みぞれかん） (Mizore/Sleet Kan) because white grains are floating in the transparant jelly. Mix 30 g of Doumyoji-ko (grains of steamed and dried sweet rice) and 3 table spoons of warm water in a microwave-safe bowl and immediately cover with a plastic film. Leave it until the water disappears. If the Doumyoji-ko is still firm, mix hot water and heat in microwave oven for 30 seconds or 2 minutes until the grains become soft. Drain the water off and mix 1 table spoon of sugar. Finally, mix into the liquid of Kingyoku Kan. 道明寺（どうみょうじ） (Doumyoji) is the name of the temple in Osaka prefecture, which invented the ingredient as an emergency food for long keeping.

吉野羹（よしのかん） (Yoshino Kan)

Smoother texture than Kingyoku Kan by adding Kudzu-ko. Mix and strain 10 g of Kudzu-ko and 2 table spoons of water, and then add into the liquid of Kingyoku Kan. Boil the mixture up again in order to heat Kudzu starch. 吉野（よしの） (Yoshino) is one of the major producing areas of Kudzu-ko.

果実羹（かじつかん） (Kajitsu/Fruit Kan)

Insert fresh fruits or its conserve into Kingyoku Kan when the liquid is a little cooled down. The fruits may go down to the bottom of the mold or float to the surface if the liquid is still hot. If you would like to add fruit juice, mix it after the sugar dissolves in the direction #3 of Kingyoku Kan.

Others

味甚羹（みじんかん） (Mijin Kan /Jelly with flour made by grinding and roasting Doumyoji-ko), 薯蕷羹（じょうよかん） (Jou-yo/Yam Kan), and so on. You can also mix with wine, liquor, coffee, black tea, Japanese tea, Chinese tea, etc.

Examples

紫水晶（むらさきずいしょう） (Murasaki Zuisyou /Amethyst)

This sample represents a gemstone of amethyst by using blueberry which is in season of early summer (even though amethyst is the birthstone of February... ^-^;). The jelly has three layers, purple Kajitsu Kan, clear Kingyoku Kan, and white Awayuki Kan. Two eaches of mini pound-cake mold with 6 × 12 cm (about 2.5 × 5 inches) in bottom are used instead of トイ型（といがた） (Toi-gata), a special mold for Kingyoku Kan which has the shape of gutter on roof.

1. Put 25 g of fresh blueberries (about 20 eachs) and 2 table spoons of water in a small microwave-safe bowl and heat for 1 or 2 minutes. When the blueberries crush and the liquid boils up, keep heating more 15 seconds and turn off. Filter out the seeds and the fibers of the blueberries through a bleached cotton cloth or a paper towel. Rinse 8 eaches of the other fresh blueberries and wipe extra water on them.
2. Make twice amounts of Kingyoku Kan. Take a half of the liquid and color purple with 2 table spoons of the blueberry juice of the direction #1. Keep the rest of the liquid warm on the boiling water.
3. Slowly pour the purple liquid into wet molds. Insert the fresh blueberry of the direction #1 with a constant space and then remove bubbles on the surface by using a toothpick or a spoon.
4. Make meringue from 15 g of glair and 1 tea spoon of sugar.
5. Take a half of the colorless liquid in the direcrion #2 and reduce its temparature. Evenly pour it on the purple gel when its surface becomes Han-Domari. Remove bubbles as well as the direction #3.
6. Gradually mix the rest of the colorless liquid into the meringue of the direction #3 in order to make Awayuki Kan. Reduce its temparature with slowly stirring. Evenly pour it on the colorless gel when its surface becomes Han-Domari.
7. Leave until the gel hardens. Take the jellys out from the molds and cut into pieces each of which includes a blueberry.