Coconut Milk Jelly - the Goan version

This recipe was pulled out from my mother's recipe archives.  The jelly is infused with the flavors of cardamon, Goa-jaggery and coconut in the true spirit of Goan sweets.
To keep the recipe vegan, Agar-Agar was used to solidify the jelly instead of gelatin.  The beauty of this jello is that it separates into 2 distinct layers on its own as it sets, to give it a most attractive appearance.

This jelly was made with someone very special in mind, my husband's cousin Jason Cordeiro who has been vegan for 15 years.  I emotionally adopted Jason when he spent a summer with us in 1998.  He was just finishing his first degree and was seriously considering switching to veterinary medicine.  With this in mind he spent the summer volunteering at my husband's practice much to the joy of myself and our children who were small at that time and adored Jason as they still do now.  Jason is now practicing Veterinary Medicine in Colorado and it goes without saying that we are very proud of our "adopted son", Dr. Jason Cordeiro , a veterinarian with great integrity and compassion.
We love you Jason

Ingredients

9 g Agar-Agar strands or 5 teaspoons Agar-Agar powder
6 cups cold water
4 pods cardamon  (crushed the pods gently)
1 inch piece of cinnamon
7 oz Goa Jaggery  or more according to taste ( palm sugar, brown sugar or granulated white sugar can be substituted)
2 cups of thick coconut milk (I used canned)
a pinch of salt

Method

Soak the Agar-Agar strands in cold water overnight

The next day drain the strands of Agar-Agar and add it to the 6 cups of water in a pot.   Add the cardamon and cinnamon.  Bring to a boil and simmer gently for about 30 minutes or until the strands have dissolved completely.  Stir occasionally.

Add the jaggery or other sugar substitute and stir till dissolved.  Taste a little at this time and add more jaggery or sugar substitute if it is not sweet enough for your taste.  Make sure that the added sugar is also completely dissolved.

Add the coconut milk and salt and stir constantly while bringing it just to a simmering point.

 Strain through a fine sieve.

Wet a mold.   I used Bundt pan.

Pour the liquid into it.

Cool to room temperature and then chill until serving time.  I removed the bubbles on the surface with a spoon before it cooled.

Remove from mold and serve.  Additionally you could use a wet muffin pan to make individual size servings if you do not have a mold.

Approximate nutritional values based on 12 servings
calories, 127.8 / total fat, 6.2 g/ total carbohydrates, 1.8 g/ protein, .5 g