Kanten comes in many types, from powder, to threads, to dried blocks. The trick is to get the ratio right. We used a powder that I was not familiar with and the sweets turned out to be so hard they were like hockey pucks and had to be discarded.
Molding the koi for the most popular sweet was like sculpting with play-doh. The fish are made with white an and then orange and yellow bits are added randomly for color.
Here they are in the kitchen. Some fish are more lively than others. Some look like they are playing dead. But they all tasted good.
Final presentation on a glass tray. Don’t they look delicious and cool? We also made mizu yokan and kudzu yaki. The thing about kanten is that the longer it sits, it seems to get more cloudy, so they have to be eaten fairly soon after making them. Darn!
And for the inspiration of koi in the pond:
