Taiwanese Grass Jelly Dessert ♥ (仙草) Xiān cǎo

Hey guys, it's Angel. Today I'm going to show you how to make a popular grass jelly dessert. We call it xiancao. It's almost like a black jello but it tastes kind of herbal and if you haven't seen it before, they usually sell them in these cans like this or even if you're lucky in a powdered form. Now I got my grass jelly in Chinatown and you can usually find it at your local Asian grocery store. I find that it's becoming more and more common. You can also find it online as well. Now if you haven't had grass jelly before, I feel like it tastes kind of herbal but even though it's herbal, it does have a cooling feature to it. So in traditional Chinese medicine, grass jelly is very cooling for the body which makes it a great summer dessert or even a low-calorie refreshing dessert. So with that, let's get started. Alright, so the first thing we'll need is a can of grass jelly. It looks like this. Now if you're lucky, you'll find powdered ones but it's okay to go ahead and use canned grass jelly because that's the most common. And after you buy it, go ahead and put it in your fridge so that way when you're ready to use it, everything's cold. Next, we're going to make some syrup for our dessert. And behind me, I have some syrup that I made earlier. Now this is just a brown sugar syrup. So earlier, I took one cup of hot boiling water, added a quarter cup of brown sugar, and stir with a spoon to dissolve. Then I put that in the fridge for a few hours so we have chilled syrup. Now of course, depending on how sweet you like your desserts, you can always modify the sugar levels. Next, let's cook the mochi balls. I'm using a bag of frozen sweet rice balls in a white and pink color which are super easy to cook. Just bring a pot of water to a rolling boil, then add the mochi balls and gently stir until the mochi begins to float. Boil for three to four minutes and then drain and rinse with cold water and set aside in a bowl with ice to quickly cool. Adding the ice in this step will help make the mochi balls chewier. Next, let's prepare the grass jelly. If you're using canned grass jelly like I am today, drain any excess liquid before cutting into smaller pieces or cubes and placing them in a medium-sized serving bowl. Add some of the cooked mochi balls on top, top with some additional ice cubes. Finally, pour over with a simple brown sugar syrup for a chilled grass jelly and mochi dessert. And that is how you make a Taiwanese grass jelly dessert with mochi balls. So now I'm gonna do a quick taste test and if you're wondering, I would probably serve this for two or three people. This is a lot of dessert right here for one person, so this is definitely one of those times where sharing is caring. All right, I just had a white mochi ball. Now I have to have a pink mochi ball because pink is one of my favorite colors. The grass jelly is herbal tasting, which is really kind of cooling. You'll notice it immediately once you eat it. Thank you guys so much for watching. I hope you enjoyed this quick and easy dessert recipe. If you guys like grass jelly, give me a thumbs up. I am always wondering if there's other grass jelly lovers out there because it is kind of a weird-looking dessert and it is kind of herbal, so I'm not always sure if people like it. Take care guys and I will see you in the next one. Bye!