osmanthus jelly recipe

[origamicrane]

hi just got back from holiday in Hong Kong

and had one of my favourite desserts there.

I'm back in london and am in seperate need of it.

桂花果凍

桂花 jelly

"gwai fa go" ?

osmanthus jelly?

"Kwai hua" jelly?

"Quan fa" jelly?

can't find anything google .

anyone know how to make it?

got a recipe

pretty please

Edited December 10, 2005 by origamicrane (log)

[andiesenji]

I buy osmanthus tea - and have even found the flowers sold separately at one time.

That is the only thing where I have heard the term Kwai Hua Chin Hsuan used.

Osmanthus flower tea

I know that some people make a tea jelly with it but I am unfamiliar with how it is used in a particular dessert.

I have eaten a sort of bean curd sweet that was made by cooking the bean curd in the tea but I have no recipe and my friends are now living in Hong Kong.

If you could describe the dessert and perhaps some of the other ingredients, I could look in some of my books.

Isn't "quan fa" the same as kung fu?

Edited December 10, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[origamicrane]

i got a recipe here in chinese

its a clear jelly with a subtle sweet floral scent and taste very delicate jelly.

my problem is I don't know how to ask for or where to get the main omanthus flavour ingredient?

http://www.leisure-cat.com/frm_1384.htm

my pinyin is pretty crap so not sure if the quan fa is correct.

[hzrt8w]

i got a recipe here in chinese

its a clear jelly with a subtle sweet floral scent and taste very delicate jelly.

my problem is I don't know how to ask for or where to get the main omanthus flavour ingredient?

←

According to Cat's recipe, she used 桂花糖. In translation, this is some kind of candy or sugar with Gwai Fa flavor. I don't know what it is either.

Perhaps send Cat an e-mail and ask her. (cat@leisure-cat.com) I have traded e-mails with her before. I am sure she would be delighted to have a fan in England.

桂花 in standard pinyin should be Gui4 Hua1, Cinnamonum cassia per this translation website:

http://cdict.giga.net.tw/?q=%AE%DB

[andiesenji]

It is a jelly made from an infusion of dried sweet osmanthus flowers, AKA Kwai Hua or guì hu? chá, ???.

You can buy the dried flowers in most Chinese herbal shops. or online.

here.

You have to make an infusion, add a sweetener then something to make it jell and cook it until that happens. (The Sure-Jel package has instructions- make it similar to a wine jelly.)

The flowers are used in other recipes

scroll down to where you see "osmanthus flowers"

And here is something about the tree/bush itself.

This is the wikipedia entry.

Edited December 11, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[helenjp]

[origamicrane]

thanks for all the info so far.

i actually have a big bag of osmanthus tea

you think i could make an osmanthus tea jelly with it?

i might try it and will probably trial and error with making a tea infusion

but if anyone got any guidelines about making the infusion be most grateful

[andiesenji]

I have made an infusion using white tea with osmanthus and used it to poach pears.

the flavor is quite remarkable.

I bought this particular tea from Tea Spring in La Habra

AhHa! I just found they now have a web site.tea spring

and they sell just the flowers.

I am sure there must be a place in the UK that would carry them.

Edited December 11, 2005 by andiesenji (log)

[andiesenji]

And here is something about the tree/bush itself.

The plant discussed in that link is Osmanthus fragrans, which has white flowers and is an unusual, but not an unknown plant in western gardens.

The variety used in teas etc is the heavily-scented orange-flowered variety, Osmanthus fragrans aurantiacus

If you are lucky enough to have a source for the white flowers, by all means use them, but you won't get the color or quite such a strong aroma.

←

You are entirely correct. I have a couple of other links that are now "blind" for the other varieties.

One of my friends in Vista has a good-sized tree that has three varieties grafted onto this main rootstock. She uses all of them for tea, one is a pinkish variety that has a faint cinnamon aroma/flavor along with the orange/chrysanthemum. She hasn't been able to find much information about it. However she has plans to travel to China next year - to tour tea gardens - and hopes to find some information. The man who originally grafted her tree has passed away and left no notes as to where he found the scion. (She is an avocado, persimmon and fig grower, as well as having an extensive herb garden.)

[helenjp]

That 3-variety graft must be a sight to see!

I'm interested in the cinnamon aroma you describe in the pinkish variety, as the Chinese name includes the word for cassia (or cinnamon). The orange-flowered variety is often described as smelling like apricot jam, so I'd always wondered why the Chinese name for the plant referred to cinnamon.

I bet you could get one or all varieties to grow from a cutting - the trees are fairly slow-growing, but if you used one of those hormone-rooting compounds, I bet it would strike roots.

[greenspot]

My aunt Mei made an osmanthus jelly for my birthday last year.

I can't remember all the ingredients, but I think she used agar agar jellly and added yellow sugar, dried osmanthus flowers, waterchestnut, gouzi (wolfberries), longan, and maybe chrysanthemum petals.

I'll have to try and get the recipe from her (she's always vague about measurements though).

Here's a link to a delicious-looking osmanthus waterchestnut jelly by Peony:

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=97856&st=90

Edited June 18, 2007 by greenspot (log)

[peony]

thanks-you greenspot...

yes, n the recipe for the osmanthus waterchestnut jelly is also given

[greenspot]

Here's the osmanthus jelly recipe from my Aunt Mei:

Crystal osmanthus jelly ®Ûªá¤ô´¹¿|

Ingredients:

Dried osmanthus flowers, 10g approx

Dried chrysanthemum flowers, 10g approx

Crystallised osmanthus sugar, 80g (about 1/3 of a 250g-jar)

White sugar, 300g

Osmanthus flower wine, 1 tsp

Gelatine powder, 50g

Wolfberries, small amount

Cantaloupe melon or apple, small amount

Water, 1 litre (4 rice bowls) (to boil the gelatine)

Ice, 1 litre (to cool down the gelatine mixture)

Extra ice

Add the gelatine powder and the litre of water to a saucepan and bring to the boil.

Add the dried osmanthus and chrysanthemum flowers. When the fragrance of the flowers is released, turn off the heat and drain.

Return the drained water to the saucepan and add the white sugar, osmanthus sugar and osmanthus wine to the drained water. Bring to the boil and turn off the heat once the sugar is dissolved.

Pour the hot mixture into a bowl or jelly mould and add the litre of ice. Place the bowl onto a larger bowl filled with ice to cool down the mixture quickly.

Wait for the ice in the mixture to melt completely, add the wolfberries, fruit and the osmanthus and chrysanthemum flowers.

Leave it in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

(Ingredients in Chinese)

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[LuckysticksPRC]

hi just got back from holiday in Hong Kong

and had one of my favourite desserts there.

I'm back in london and am in seperate need of it.

桂花果凍

桂花 jelly

"gwai fa go" ?

osmanthus jelly?

"Kwai hua"  jelly?

"Quan fa" jelly?

can't find anything google  .

anyone know how to make it?

got a recipe

pretty please

←

I live in 桂林, which if you look at the first character you'll notice that they're the same (Gui Lin actually means "Osmanthus Forest"). They've got all things osmanthus here, including ready made osmanthus jellies, tea, candies, etc.

The osmanthus cake (though more like candy) I've had here looks like this:

http://www.guihuatan.com/Article/ShowArtic...?ArticleID=4894

but maybe your's was like this:

http://www.guihuatan.com/Article/ShowArtic...?ArticleID=4895

Incidentally, that whole website is dedicated to all things osmanthus flower. The later photo had a recipe beneath it, so if its the one let me know. I can help you with the translation.

These also look pretty good:

http://my.poco.cn/myBlogDetail.htx&id=317743&userid=16902451

The funny thing is, when I was teaching English here, some of my local students would ask me how to say 桂花 in English, to which I would always say something like, "don't worry about it, you'll never use it."