Red beans are for celebrating.

I had some zenzai with mochi a while ago, but I had found the red beans to be too sweet. Unrelatedly, I bought some boba off the street (well, OK, Library Walk) from the Taiwanese Students Association (or something like that...I don't think they're really called TSA) on Wednesday, and it was surprisingly delicious. (Well, OK, maybe the boba was a bit undercooked...) But what really sold me on it was a slice of lemon that was in the boba; its sourness and acidity added a whole new dimension that I had never known before.

Then I remembered that I had multiple packets of gelatin in the cupboard that I'd accumulated over the years, and I thought, "Hmm. I wonder if I can't make me some (fake) yōkan." So on Thursday morning, when I should've been grading my students' journal assignments, I got to making me some red bean jello. With, of course, a slice of lemon as garnish.

The red beans (which had sunk to the bottom) had a nice level of sweetness, but the top layer of jello turned out a bit bland. But that all changed with just a hint of lemon juice from the garnish—I don't know what the hell it is, but that tinge of freshness, and it's like...boom. Pig skin collagen + citrus = magic. Who knew.

So, I'm thinking I'm going to have to get some yuzu to try out some variations. Juice? Zest? Peel? In the jello, or just as garnish? Ah, what to do, especially with still so much gelatin still left in my cupboard...


Fake Yōkan

Sprinkle a packet of gelatin powder over 1/2 cup of water and let stand for 2 minutes. Add 1 cup of boiling water and mix until the gelatin dissolves. Add your handy instant zenzai mix and stir. Pour into a nice-sized container and let cool. Stick in the fridge until jello is set. Cut up into small cubes and spoon into a pretty container. Garnish with some kind of zingy citrus. Enjoy slowly.