Thạch Dừa Sương Sa (Coconut Juice Jelly)

Fresh Coconut Juice is my children's favorite drink of all time. I can use it to coax them into doing anything including their Kumon homework or sweep the floor, even if it's only for a moment. Recently I introduced them to this Thạch Dừa Sương Sa and they've been hooked; they keep asking me to make it for them almost every week. Coconut Juice Jelly contained pure fresh coconut juice, coconut meat and agar-agar which is a vegetarian gelatin substitute produced from a variety of seaweed vegetation.

I bought the young coconut three times and had only been lucky once with finding a fresh coconut. The other times, either the coconut juice was murky or tasted sour or the meat was purple. I had to take the loss and toss them. The difficulty with this is you don't usually know how long they've been sitting out; there's no freshness or sell by date. Learning from this mistake, I've developed a backup plan; I buy a bag of frozen shredded young coconut and a few cans or bags of coconut juice that I know I can rely on just in case the fresh coconuts aren't fresh after all..

RECIPE: Thạch Dừa Sương Sa

Ingredients

1 bag Agar-Agar - 25 grams or .88 oz

3 Fresh Young Coconut (make 7 cups of coconut juice)

1/2 cup Sugar
*

Prepare Young Coconut

Chop the top of the young coconuts. Measure 7 cups of coconut juice. If there isn't enough of coconut juice, add water to make 7 cups total. Scrape the coconut meat with a spoon. Cut in into strips. Set them aside. In case your coconut doesn't have enough meat, get a bag of shredded young coconut meat.