ホモテナシ

• Read きんぎょく
• Of this, the oldest form is the 琥珀羹(こはくかん). It's amber coloured and quite stiff. It comes from Edo period, where the amber colour comes from the less refined sugar. It's the proto-水羊羹, so to speak. Nowadays, 亀屋良永 still makes it, for example; but you also see other makers add some candied beans to it. Not my favourite.
• TT8 has a recipe that adds some 道明寺粉 to it, which gives a nice effect.

There's regular, firm 羊羹, the much softer 水羊羹 and then, for special taste, the 葛流し羊羹. The latter has a very satisfying texture!

For one 流し器:

• 5 gr 糸寒天
• 380 gr water
• 160 gr sugar
• 1 Tbsp. 水飴
• 20 gr 葛
• 25 gr water
• 100 gr こし餡

Boil 寒天 with water, add sugar, 水飴 and, once dissolved, こし餡. Bring to a boil, then strain. Mix water and 葛, and add the mixture to the somewhat cooled main mix. (Some other recipes take some main mix into the 葛 mix, and then add everything back to the MM). Cook on medium heat for 2-3' until the opaqueness has gone. Chill in water bath to 45°, stirring, then pour off. Can be fridged.

• ¼ stick 寒天
• 250 gr water
• 100 gr sugar
• 150 gr あん
• 5 gr 葛
• 40 gr water

I find this recipe just a tad too soft.

Same as for the 葛羊羹. You can use white bean paste, and then add some colour and flavour. The original recipe adds 7 gr 抹茶 (which I find too much, I'd use 5); but for tea ceremony a tea flavoured sweet doesn't make much sense. You can cut it nicely with a nylon string, though:

• Read 蓮根羹(はすねかん)
• A 淡々斎好み
• LK taught it in 2026 (I have the video in my drive)
• Because it's so white, I thought 「白的敵(しろてきてき)」might be a good 御銘.
• Garnishing with some silver foil might be very pretty. In my photo, I had used some agar drops that I had left over for my 紫陽花, which is also okay.

The base recipe is:

• 350 gr peeled lotus root. Grate, then squeeze out some moisture.
• 4 gr powdered agar
• 180 gr water
• 150 gr sugar

This makes it a bit grainy from the lotus root pieces, which I guess some people appreciate. However, I prefer this way:

• 350 gr peeled lotus root. I used frozen ones, which are very nice and white. Unthaw, then blend with just enough water to purée. Squeeze, but catch the lotus juice. Retain about 100 gr of thoroughly squeezed lotus pulp.
• 180 gr lotus juice (instead of water)
• 4 gr powdered agar (the Migros' brand is 22% agar, so 20 gr of that)
• 150 gr sugar

Cook agar for 2' in juice, then add sugar and dissolve. Add pulp, bring to a boil. Sieve into 流し器. Add some thin layer of pulp on top. (Maybe you need to let it cool down a little bit before adding it so it doesn't sink down.)

One way of serving 水羊羹 in summer is to pour it into a bamboo tube and seal it with a bamboo leaf. Becaus the vacuum should keep the jellied 羊羹 in, to eat you pierce a small hole in the back of the tube, wiggle the 羊羹 onto the leaf and eat it from there. It's a lot of fun! I had two from 亀屋良長 (classic 羊羹 and a citrus-flavoured jelly, of which I preferred the former).

There's also the sad affair of the freezable 水饅頭. Because it doesn't use 葛, it's very easy to make and tastes very simple. I'm sure there are ways to make something out of them, but both the TT and 金塚 recipes didn't do it for me:

For 4:

• 25 gr 水饅頭粉
• 85 gr sugar (TT used 40 + 35 black sugar)
• 200 gr water

Cook until translucent, then pour 70% into moulds, add inset (candied fruit for example; or 金塚's 味醂-steeped cherry tomato; or just soft 白あん) and top off. Their are slightly more interesting when half-frozen; but essentially just tasteless jelly shots.