Manten
Culture of Manten
Manten is one of the sweet bean jelly type of wagashi. It’s popular in summer, because its appearance and taste is cool and refreshing. The name means star-filled night sky in English.
Sweet bean jelly is made of azuki beans and agar. It is formed into a block which you slice and serve. Agar in Japanese is Kanten. Kanten is an ingredient mainly used for making Yokan (Sweet bean jelly) and Jelly desserts. It is made from seaweed which is stewed, frozen and dried.
Visual
This sweet bean jelly, called Manten is made to resemble innumerable stars brightening the summer night sky. The top of this wagashi is studded with small gold flakes to indicate the twinkling stars and white part looks like clouds.
The blue gradation is very vivid as you can see in the picture below.
It is a very beautiful Wagashi!
Recipe of Manten
We went to Saiundo which sells Manten and asked a wagashi chef how to make Manten.
He told us that It was very difficult to make blue food coloring and timing is important for getting the right appearance.
This wagashi is built in layers upside down. First, they pour the clear part made of agar into a mold to harden a little. When it is flipped over, this layer will become the top of the dessert.
Then, at just the right time, they pour blue colored agar and let it harden until the clear top layer and the blue layer firms together completely. This is how they make a wonderful gradation of color.
Kanten
There are many other kinds of sweet bean jell wagashi. The picture below is sweet bean jelly of berries.
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