Vrij(e)dag Friday! - "Corrected" Coffee Jelly

In a country where tiramisu, javanais, frangipane, chocolate mousse and fruit bavarois are so much de rigueur to appease the sweet-toothed Flemings (and Walloons), these get boring easily, especially when you're a (non-EU) grad student managing the already-tight purse strings of your monthly stipend.  And, as a grad student, you need your dose of the Big Three to function through the day/evening at the lab bench:

1. Caffeine
2. Sugar (or carbohydrates)
3. Alcohol (!) - this is quite tongue-in-cheek, but very applicable for hectic Fridays

I've been missing coffee jelly--a Japanese dessert--ever since I relocated here in Belgium.  And I missed it so much that I tried making a batch when some friends came over for a weekend supper using instant coffee, sugar and whatever gelatin I had on hand. Yes, it was caffeinated and sweet, but the gelatin just did not cut it...it came out more like coffee pudding than jelly.

Then a few days later, I spotted a few packets of seaweed agar powder in a dusty shelf of an Asian grocer.

And when I opened my dish cabinet / liquor box, I saw a bottle of absinthe down to its last quarter (the anata has been using a tablespoon of absinthe for caffe correto before class-time).

Natuurlijk, I just couldn't resist making this:

Ingredients (good for 2 servings) 

3 tsp strong freeze-dried coffee granules
2 tsp absinthe (or any anise-flavored liqueur)
Sugar (to taste), possibly 2-3 Tbsp
500 mL still, filtered water
~ 4 g of seaweed agar powder 

In a clean non-reactive pot, heat the water until you can see wisps of steam coming up from the surface. Stir in the agar powder until it dissolves (i.e., no visible grains of agar in the water).  Then add the coffee, sugar, then the absinthe. DO NOT BOIL. 

Immediately remove from heat and ladle into cups or bowls.  Once set, place the filled cups in the refrigerator.  Before serving, add a dollop of whipped cream and/or chocolate syrup.

The beauty of this recipe is that you can modify it as you see fit. Not a coffee fan? Try using tea.  For extra oomph, you could opt to use different liqueurs to add that flavored punch.  Pun unintended.

And this country being the land of chocolates, I had to layer some chocolate syrup on top and add a cocoa-dusted cacao bean (Ecuadorean, from Miss L) on top.