Before we get into the recipe for this Thai dessert, let us get a brief background of Luk Choop candy. This Thai dessert has two words in it’s name, Luk or Look means small objects and Chup or Choop means a type of coating. Look Choop was a Thai dessert that originated in the royal palaces of ancient Siam. It is said that the royal family members ate this candy which was shaped like small fruits and vegetables. Each of the luk chup candies would be skillfully moulded into interesting vegetables like chillies and fruits like banana, orange and even mangosteen. They were colorfully painted with food colors, it was important that food prepared for the royals tasted good and even looked good. As years passed by, the recipe for making look choop candies moved beyond the high walls of the palaces, you can now find this very interesting, attractive and delicious Thai dessert in many sweetmeat shops across Thailand.
Ingredients And Things Needed
Green Mung Beans 400 grams. (peeled green moong).
Coconut Milk 3 cups.
Sugar 3 Cups
Jelly Powser (Jelly) 50 Grams
Plain Water 6 Cups
Food Colors As per the colors that you want for your look choop pieces.
Toothpicks To put the look joop candies to dry
Thick firm sponge Detailed use provided in recipe
Will get 50 to 70 pieces depending on size.
Procedure
Making Look Chup Candies
Follow the process mentioned below, do not expect to become an expert in shaping the luk chup candy at the first attempt. It does take some practice to get good looking fruit and vegetable shape for your look chup candies. This is true of the painting process too, many professional Thai cooks use two layers of colors for the look choop Thai dessert candies. We would suggest that you quickly read the entire recipe before starting the making process. You can then proceed to follow the look choop recipe and move to each stage of the cooking procedure in the recipe.
Preparing The Green Moong Beans
Pour 3 to 4 cups of water in a cooking pot, without turning on the heat at this moment. Put the green mung beans in the water, remember that the green moong beans used in the luk chup recipe are those without the green skin. We will call them green mung beans even though, the skin has been peeled off when you bought them at the gocery store. Let the moong beans soak in the water for 6 to 7 hours. At this point, take off the excess water and let the peeled green mung beans remain. You will then need to steam the green mung beans until they become soft. Make sure that you have drained off all the water from the beans before starting the steaming process. Once steamed, leave the beans aside to cool down.
Blending Ingredients With The Beans
At this stage, you would have a bowl of steamed green mung beans that have cooled down after the steaming process. Keep the beans in the bowl and add the coconut milk and sugar to the bowl. Stir the ingredients until they have mixed well, the beans will still retain shape and only partially disintegrate with the mixing process. You will now need a food blended (mixer) to make a soft homogenous mass of the steamed moong beans, sugar and coconut milk. Do not get too worried if the blended mixture looks too fluid to be shaped into the luk chup fruits or vegetables. There is more to be done in the making of your delicious look choop Thai dessert candy.
Shaping The Look Choop Candies
You will now need to take off the mixture from the food blender, pour it into a fairly wide frying pan. This is a plain clean frying pan and no oil is needed to continue making the luk chup candy. Keep the pan over a slow flame and slowly heat the mixture, you can use a thick wooden spoon to stir the mixture in the pan. This process is meant to give the mixture the right consistency to allow moulding into miniature fruits and vegetables. A high flame can ruin the process and burn the bottom portion of the mixture. Using the wooden spoon to mix the contents will give you a good idea as to when the consistency of the mixture is just right. At this point, off the flame and take the pan off the burner. Allow the cooked mixture to cool, the interesting part of creating those cute look chup fruits and vegetable candies will be the next step of the luk chup recipe.
Moulding The Luk Choop Candy
Take small portions of the luk chup mixture prepared above, roll and mould the mixture into the shape of your choice. Traditionally the size of these miniature look chup candies is around 1.5 cm to 2.5cm. Once you have used your artistic skills to mould the best candy, stick a toothpick into the soft look chup candy. Gently hold the toothpick from below and use the food colors to paint the luk chup candy. This should be fun, use your imagination remember the more colorful the better. You will now need to allow the luk chup moulded pieces to dry without getting them crushed or deformed, this is where the thick foam or thick stiff sponge we mentioned above becomes useful. Your toothpick will now have a look chup fruit or vegetable at one end, poke the other end into the foam or sponge. In the next stage you will dip the dried and painted look chup candies into the gelatine.
Preparing The Gelatine
Use the proportions of water mentioned in the jelly making instructions of the gelatine or jelly powder. Heat the water and powder for 5 to 6 minutes, the gelatine is now ready for the luk chup dipping process. Make sure that the luk chup candies that you poked into the foam or sponge have dried, if this is not the case some ugly color smudging could result when you dip the look chup candy into the gelatine. Pick the dried look chup candy one by one with the attached toothpick, gently dip the candy into the gelatine and once again poke it into the sponge or foam to dry. The gelatine coating on the look choop will harden a bit when dry and give a shimmering gloss to your Thai candy.
Storing The Colorful Look Choop Candies
You can keep your luk choop candy in the refrigerator for a week or two. We would strongly suggest that you do not attempt to store your Thai look chup candies outside the refrigerator, coconut milk is a delicate ingredient and cannot withstand high temperatures. If you have children at home, spread some fun and let them distribute these delicious Thai candies to their friends at play and school. Share your luk chup candies with neighbors and friends, don’t forget to narrate the interesting origin of this delicious Thai dessert. There is a lot more interesting and useful information on this website, we do hope that you have some time to spare and look around.