This is my second healthy pudding for the week. The first one was made with just chia seeds and milk or soymilk. This one is made with just seaweeds, also known as sea birdnest or poor man's birdnest, as they resembles birdnest in terms of their dense collagen and high nutrients content.
According to an info by Matanjun et al, 2009, this coral glass seaweed (or sea birdnest) contains 10 times richer amount of collagen than birdnest, 37 times more calcium than cod liver. It is low in fat and calories but bursting with nutrients like magnesium, iron, sodium and calcium. In other words, to me, it's a cheap, nice, non-fattening dessert that helps to provide good nutrients for the skin, for my boy it's a healthy nutritious dessert that provides fiber and an array of great nutrients.
This coral glass seaweed or sea birdnest is available for sale at Just Health, Sandakan.
Preparation:
- First rinse the sea birdnest with water a few times.
- Soak the sea birdnest in clean filered water for about 3-4 hours (change the water in between for 2-3times).
- After soaking, rinse away the water, it is now ready to be consumed or cooked.
In Sabah, they are normally served as:
- Salad - the sea birdnest is chopped into pieces, mixed in with julienned cucumber and carrots, marinated with vinegar or lemon juice, salt and sugar.
- Jelly - see below for recipe
- Sweet dessert (tong sui 糖水）- the sea birdnest is boiled with dried longan, red dates, white fungus, water and rocksugar.
Recipe for sea birdnest jelly
Longan, goji and kanten jelly
- 1 kanten brown sugar cube
- 4 cups of water
- 1/2 tbsp. wolfberries (goji)
- 3 dried longan
- 25g sea birdnest, soaked and cleaned
OR
Soy and almond milk jelly
- 4 cups of water with 2tbsp almond powder and 3tbsp soy powder
- 25g sea birdnest, soaked and cleaned
- Boil all ingredients in a pan, stirring continuous, until sea birdnest dissolves.
- Pour into a jelly mould or a shallow container.
- Chill for at least 4 hours or until jelly firms up.
Hi Jennifer,
ReplyDeleteJust wondering have you encountered allergic reactions to eating sea bird nest before?
I prepared the soy and almond jelly following your recipe but omitted the almond powder for my 4 year old son. The 1st time he ate it, he was ok but the 2nd time, he broke out in hives! I wasn't sure initially if it was the jelly, so the next day, I gave him some again and within half an hour, he broke out again. BTW, the jelly is delicious and we all enjoyed it, but sadly now my boy can't have it anymore.
Thank you for your insights!
how can I differentiate genuine sea bird's nest from fake ones? One type I bought dissolves immediately when I put it in hot water. The other type doesn't. Which one is genuine?
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete