Chrysanthemum Infused Agar with Granulated Honey Comb

Preparing this agar was a humbling experience.

This versatile flower were often steeped or boiled with rock sugar and served as "cooling drink", due to its medicinal properties. There are alot of variaties of chrysanthemum, usually the pale white or bright yellow ones are used for tea preparation.

I chose this flower, because i have been wanting to enjoy a home-brewed beverage. Somehow, to a certain extent, it just brought back memories.

How i prepared for this agar was simple.

The addition of agar to gelatinised the concentrated liquid, was served as a form of dessert, instead of as a drink.

Inspired by Japanese cuisine, with the focus on simplicity of food presentation, I tried my hands on, from preparing the ingredients, the mis en place, food styling and presentation, right up till photo capturing.

There were only 4 ingredients were needed.

1. Dried chrysanthemum flowers

2. Granulated honey comb

3. Agar strips

4. Fresh filtered water

Once the concentrated liquid were in dark golden tone, the agar strips were incorporated.

As it is still hot, the mixture were sweetened with honey comb.

(I abosolutely love how the black tone from the plate brings out the golden hue of the sandy crystals in the photo above.)

The liquid were then chilled to set.

Though I have few ideas in mind, i didn't want to spend so much time for the plating process.

After cutting the infused agar, I carefully position the firm dessert on the plate, as i try to minimise fondling it. This also prevents excess liquid from oozing out .

The crystals were delicately placed on plate to fill-up the negative section of the plate, otherwise, the agar might have looked plain, and lonely.

The refreshing agar were soothing to the eyes, throat, heart & mind.

Hope you like the photo and the dessert.