Heidi made this Longan Golden Osmanthus Jello (Gwei Far Longan Goa) in advance as the jello needs time to set. However, she brought the ingredients to the community kitchen to show us.
The Longan Golden Osmanthus Jello is very refreshing. Osmanthus is a plant which produces flowers called gui hua (or cinnamon flower or cassia flower). The flowers are used to infused with tea leaves to create a scented tea called gui hua cha.
Wolfberries have long played important roles in traditional Chinese medicine where they are believed to enhance immune system function, improve eyesight, protect the liver and improve blood circulation, among other effects. I usually use them in making Chinese herbal soup.
Dried longan is considered a warm fruit in Chinese medicine and has a calming effect.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons of Golden Osmanthus
- 3 tablespoons dried longan flesh
- 1 tablespoon of dried wolfberries (kei chee in Cantonese or qizi in Mandarin)
- 90g Lychee flavoured jelly powder
- 4 tablespoons unflavoured gelatin powder
- 3 cups water
- 1 cup granulated sugar
Instructions
 Soak the dried longan in 4 oz of cold water until soften.Soak the Golden Osmanthus in 2 cups of boiling water for 30 minutes.Dissolve the gelatin powders in 4oz of cold water.
Bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Mix in the sugar until the sugar dissolved. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil. Place the mixture in a container and let it cools and sets in the fridge for at least 3 hours. |
 To remove the jello from the container, place the container in a pan of hot water for a few minutes. |
 Turn the jello onto a serving platter. Slice and serve.
Heidi, thank you for sharing the two great recipes with us. |
Wolfberry is the same a Goji berry – which is supposed to have a lot of antioxidants.
In the recipe instructions above, when you say “add the rest of the ingredients”, does that mean the longan with the 4 oz of water that it is soaked in and the osmanthus with the 2 cups of water? Or do you drain the ingredients before adding to the 3 cups of water.
Hi Angela, the rest of the ingredients include the soaking water.
Hi Suanne,
You totally caught my attention with this recipe. I’ve being living in China for 2 yrs (and counting) and to be honest with you my *Chinese Cooking* is almost nonexistent.
I specially want to do this recipe since I have most of the ingredients, except the lytchee jello (I have never seen it on the supermarket..but will try to find it). The rest of the ingredients, I just looove them.
Thanks for sharing it
Hi Susanne,
I’m from San Francisco, and the chinese bakeries here sell it for about $3USD a PIECE! and my boyfriend’s mom decided to make it.
however, can you tell me where to locate the “Knorr Lychee Powder” in your ingredients list?
Thank you.
Hi Nancy, we can find ‘Knorr Lychee Jelly Powder’ in many Chinese groceries stores in Vancouver. Perhaps, chowtimes readers from San Francisco can help Nancy out. Otherwise, you can use plain jelly powder and substitute some of the water with lychee water from can lychee to get the lychee flavour. The lychee jelly powder just enhance the flavour and is not necessary.
Hi. When I used to live in CA, I was able to purchase the Knorr Lychee Powder at the local Ranch 99. Hope that helps.
Thanks Suanne and Suzanna. I’ll check it out at our local Ranch 99. Otherwise I am visiting Vancouver next weekend and will definitely make a stop at the grocery store to pick up a few boxes!!
Hello, so I was in Vancouver this weekend and stopped by the market thats across the street from Aberdeen. They didn’t have the Lychee flavour 🙁 .. but I did purchase the passionfruit, taro and peach to try.
I think Osaka supermarket might have a better selection. (The one you went to was T&T, but sometimes Osaka sells things that T&T don’t despite being owned by the same owner)
Hi Suanne,
I live in Boston and I want to try this recipe but I am having difficulty finding Golden Osmanthus. I tried looking for it in Chinatown but they don’t seem to have it. I don’t read chinese characters and the people at the grocery store don’t know what is osmanthus.
Hi Amabel.
You can copy down the Chinese characters from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmanthus. That will help when you are shopping at Chinatown.
Suanne
I stumbled upon this receipe as I was looking for Osmanthus flowers. I was just wondering where did you get the jar of dried flowers that you have in the picture? I live in the Vancouver area, and I’d love to purchase some. Thanks!
Hi Lia, I’m not sure where can we get that bottle of osmanthus flowers as the person who demonstrated the recipe no longer comes to the community kitchen. However, you can get other brand of osmanthus flowers from Chinese herbal shops.
Hi everyone,
I just bought dried osmanthus flowers at T&T in the Chinese dried herb section!
Hi! I’ve been following chowtimes for awhile now, especially the recipes, and they are all really good! I live in Richmond, BC, and I have looked in a number of Chinese supermarkets for lychee jello. I didn’t see any in Osaka supermarket (in Yaohan centre). Where did you get yours? Thanks!
Hi Jeanie, I have not seen the lychee flavour jello in the Asian supermarkets in Richmond. I had made this with can longan and I used the liquid that comes with it as part of the water to dissolve the sugar and reduce the amount of the sugar to taste. You can use other flavour jello to substitute the lychee flavour; it’s a matter of preference.
I see. If it weren’t for your picture, I would really doubt there is such a thing as lychee jello! Thanks for the tip, I’ll stop hunting for lychee jello in Richmond (I looked in so many stores…) and try the canned liquid method. By the way, I love the recipes on chowtimes, so keep up the good work!
About a year late, but I just saw your comment… I think they have that brand of jelly at City Fresh beside Chapters, at Rice World on Garden City, and also possibly China Can(?) on Park Road beside Happy Date. Not sure which flavors they carry, but I have purchased lychee jelly in Richmond before. You could also try one of the Taiwanese grocery stores along #3 Road. Good Luck!
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