Coconut jelly is an delicious and nutritious dessert. It is sweet, and smooth in nature. It is natural and it uses 70% of natural coconut pulp. It is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food mainly made from coconut water.
Teódula Kalaw África invented coconut jelly
Teódula Kalaw África invented coconut jelly in 1949. Then he published an article. That article described the use of coconut water as a substitute for pineapple juice. Since coconuts were always available, he selected coconut water as a substitute. So it is easier to process Nata de coco.
Nata de coco
Nata de coco is another name for coconut jelly. It is a chewy, translucent, jelly-like food mainly made from coconut water. Nata de coco’s translucent, jelly-like texture is a result of the fermentation process. It transforms the coconut water into the chewy substance with a hint of natural sweetness.
Indian Tender Coconut jelly Preparation
Boil milk in a deep bottomed pan and add sugar. Then add chopped nuts, vanilla essence, food color, almond powder and stir for 5 min. Finally add agar agar powder to it and keep stirring. For fruit jelly making pectin, sugar, acid, water and fruit flavor are essential substances.
It is an easy preparation. We have to mix everything into a pot. Then poured it out into one of those floral enameled metal trays. Then add agar-agar.
Make sure that the agar-agar is fully dissolved. The water is heated before adding the coconut milk. The heated water will activate the agar-agar. It will help the water layer to be viscous enough to support the coconut layer. A perfect coconut jelly with two layers will be formed after a couple of hours. It separates after it hits boiling point.
If we want plain jelly, then we don’t want the pandan. We have to replace the 1/2 cup of pandan juice with plain water. The amount of sugar can be adjusted according to our taste.
Benefits Of Coconut Jelly
- Coconut jelly offers health benefits like promoting digestion, strengthening the spleen, and relieving toxins. It is due to the presence of paederia scandens and its traditional medicinal properties.
- It has vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fiber. The health benefits are great.
- It contributes to our daily iron, calcium, potassium and phosphorus requirements. These are the essential minerals for bone, cell and tissue health. And vital nutrients like calcium are definitely worth in our regular diet.
- An 100 grams coconut jelly contains approximately 150 calories, 1.5 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat, and 35 grams of carbohydrates. It is a good source of potassium, magnesium, and calcium.
- It contains protein. The gelatin is unique amino acid protein profile. It promotes good digestion. It is very good and beneficial for leaky gut. It provides our gut cells with the nourishment that the cells needs to repair itself.
- Tropical Fruit Salads with Coconut Jelly Cubes – Tropical fruit salads are added with pieces of Jelly Cubes to enhance their flavor and texture.
- The jelly cubes have a translucent appearance. It allows them to absorb the flavors of the surrounding liquids or syrups. So the jelly cubes are used as a topping.
- It complements the fruits such as papaya, kiwi, or banana.
- Use in Savory Dishes – Savory dishes include Coconut Jelly Cubes to surprise our guests .
- It greatly enrich the taste and texture of various beverages with the fresh sweetness.
Disadvantages Of Coconut Jelly
- These are high sugar content products. Consuming too much may lead to weight gain, spoil the cavities, leads to heart disease, and also type 2 diabetes.
- it is best not good to give jelly to children under 5 years old.
- Too much of jelly can cause poisoning.
- The too much of minerals, water, sugar, emulsifiers sodium alginate, agar powder, flavorings will affect human beings. They are not very good in nutritional values.