Luk chup

Mung bean paste modelled into fruits and dipped in clear jelly three times for a glass shell.

Not known. This site has not classified “food colourings”, so it cannot say whether the dish is vegetarian or vegan.

Ingredients

the paste

• 250 g split mung beans
• 200 ml coconut milk
• 150 g caster sugar
• 0.25 teaspoon salt

the glaze

• 10 g agar powder
• 700 ml water
• 80 g caster sugar

to decorate

• food colourings
• cloves, for stalks

Method

1. DIPPED THREE TIMES, WITH A SET BETWEEN EACH. One coat is patchy and dull; three thin coats give the glass shell that is the whole reason this exists. Each coat must set completely before the next, about 10 minutes on a rack.
2. Soak the mung beans 3 hours, steam 25 minutes until they crush easily, then blend hot with the coconut milk until completely smooth and press through a sieve.
3. Back in a dry pan with the sugar and salt, stirred constantly over a low heat, 20 to 25 minutes.
4. COOK IT UNTIL IT PULLS AWAY FROM THE PAN IN ONE LUMP and holds a deep channel. A paste that is merely thick cannot be modelled -- it slumps, and no amount of chilling fixes it.
5. Cool completely, then knead smooth.
6. Roll into 15 g pieces and model them into small fruits. Push a short wooden skewer into each and stand them up.
7. Paint them with colouring, thinly and in layers, and let them dry fully. Wet paint bleeds into the glaze.
8. Glaze: agar whisked into cold water, brought to a boil and simmered 3 minutes with the sugar. KEEP IT WARM over a pan of hot water -- agar sets at room temperature and you have three dips to do.
9. Dip each fruit to the stalk, lift, let it drip, and stand it in a block to set. Repeat twice more.
10. Snip the skewer off and push a clove in as a stalk. They keep two days; the shell weeps after that.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Thailand · All recipes