Malibu Koi Carp Jelly Shots - Celebrate the New Year !

I believe that koi carp fish are a symbolism of love, friendship and prosperity.  For this reason, I've chosen to make some koi carp shaped jelly shots to share with you and celebrate the coming of 2012. For those of you out partying and celebrating the New Year - many of you may already be swimming like fish !

Happy New Year everyone  - Wishing you all the best for 2012

These koi carp jelly shots were inspired by Ann Low of Anncoo Journal who made some awesome agar agar  koi carp jellies a year ago. We've now got a new koi carp silicone bakeware mould now available. I'm just dying to make some chocolate fish or little fish cakes !

I used normal granulated gelatine powder (Dr Oetker) here. I don't think agar agar can be used with alcohol anyway .... and besides, I'm not over keen on the texture of it. Agar agar is kind of crunchy as opposed to wobbly. That probably won;t made any sense until you try eating it for the first time.

Compared to normal gelatine, agar agar is stupidly easy to work with. It un-moulds beautifully with zero effort. Normal jelly is easy enough to work with too, but for a shaped jelly, don't go with the concentration on the packet.... One sachet of Dr Oetkers gelatine granules is said to set 1 pint of liquid. That it will - but only firm enough to spoon from a bowl and not firm enough for turning out shaped set desserts. For that, I use double the volume of gelatine.

To start, lightly oil the inside of your silicone mold with some sunflower / vegetable oil and then use some kitchen roll to wipe away any excess. We don't want a pool of oil on the inside - only a thin film.

RECIPE FOR MALIBU KOI CARP JELLY SHOTZ

2/3 cup of white sugar

35g powdered gelatine (I used 3 sachets Dr Oetker)

1 cup of water

1 cup of milk

1.1/3 cups of Malibu (coconut liqueur)

2 sultanas

note - I used a 250ml volume cup

Sponge the gelatine in the cup of water and set aside for 10 mins.

When sponged, remove 1 heaped teaspoon and set aside.

Add sponged gelatine, milk and sugar into a pan. Bring slowly up to heat - just below boiling point - until sugar and gelatine are completely dissolved. DO NOT let it boil as this will affect the setting properties.

Remove from heat and add in the Malibu. Set aside to cool.

Take the reserved sponged gelatine and add to it a couple of tablespoons of water. I melted these together in the microwave in short bursts.

Cut the sultanas into little pieces. You need at least 12 (make one or two extra). Roll them into little balls with your fingers. Take a little gelatine solution on a spoon and roll the tiny sultana piece in the solution, then carefully place the sultana ball on the indentation on the inside of the mould where the eye is to be.

Add some food colouring to a saucer. Don't be scared of it - we want a strong colour. I used some red and yellow together to get a deep orange. Add a tablespoon or so of the gelatine mix to the food colouring and combine. Use this to highlight detail areas inside the mould using a teaspoon. Don't totally cover the inside.

Put the mould in the fridge for a few minutes to chill and set the coloured markings.

Any left over gelatine (without the colour) can be added back to the malibu mix.

Remove the mould from the fridge and add a teaspoon or two of the malibu mix to the mould. Refrigerate again for another few minutes. It won't take long to chill that volume - literally only 3 > 4 mins. The reason for doing this is that I found by skipping this step, the coloured markings lift off the inside of the mould when you pour in the rest of the liquid and end up floating to the top of your jelly (which will become the bottom)

Pour in the rest of the malibu jelly mix and allow to set for approx 3 hours before turning out.

Every little fish will have it's own unique markings. Time to meet (and eat) your little fishy friends !

Sarah-Jane Nash, www.siliconemoulds.com - silicone bakeware specialists, 1st Jan 2012