Chubby Bunny

Dad-centric Weekend

Dad’s favorite food made by Chef Loretta would probably be oatmeal raisin cookies. However, since it is June and the weather was a dry, hot 80 something degree, baking was not a practical option.
It turns out that peaches were a good deal this morning at the produce market and mom bought around two pounds or so. This brought me back to memories of noci pesche (nectarines) and how we would consumer them by the kilo in my homestay family when I lived with them that summer.

How beautiful. What could be a better indication that summer is just days away?

Peaches are very good for fiber, vitamin C and other antioxidants. Mom also picked up some strawberries and kiwis as well. Since the kiwis were unripe and too many fruits would have been too busy for any dessert less than a tart or pie, I decided to be creative with the strawberries and peaches.

If baking was not going to be an option, I was left with using some kind of gelatin and the good old refrigerator.

The name of the game was to use some foresight to answer: What would Dad like to eat?

Making desserts and having my family as guinea pigs is almost like roulette, except the likelihood of winning is high since I have a good sense of what everyone likes. Out of personal belief and preference, I aim to keep it healthy, avoiding excess of sugar, butter and all things that are good, but bad.

So what does dad like? He likes tea. But I needed something stronger than his usual morning beverage, so I went to Ten Ren’s Jasmine tea bags. Two of them. It was sweetened with some honey and cane sugar, but not too much.

While the water was boiling to dissolve the agar agar strands, I sliced up the fruit and mascerated the pieces in a bowl using table sugar. Mascerating is a technique used to help sweeten fruits and draw out natural sugars; it’s a great way to intensify flavors for fruit, especially if they have not reached their peak ripeness.

I was debating which pan to make the jelly in, then realized I should not bother. I found the wine glasses I got my dad about two Father’s days ago (still unused until now) and decided those would be appropriate serving glasses.

So, ladle in one layer, let cool, set in fridge and then spoon on some fruit.

I intentionally put on the fruit carefully, to give an uneven layer with lots of height and open spaces.

Note: There’s a bag of Lindt truffles in my refrigerator; their prices went up, but my mom loves them. And yes, that is a small cup of yogurt tucked away.

But hey, here it is: Jasmine tea jelly with mascerated fruits.

It turns out that my family really enjoyed this for a summer dessert. It’s very cooling and the presentation was good. Dad did suggest that next time, I should sweeten the tea jelly just a little bit more.