Luk Chup
By Ali Domrongchai
Luk chup (also commonly called Thai marzipan or look choop) is a Thai dessert that is made from a mung bean paste and molded into little fruits and vegetables. Its technique is derived from Portuguese marzipan (learned from early Portuguese intervention back in the 1600s) but because almonds weren’t historically grown in Thailand, the base of the recipe was replaced with mung beans.
Items used:
- Wooden skewers
- A foam block, cardboard box, or flat vegetable like a giant sweet potato (to stick the sticks into)
- Food coloring of choice (droplets preferred; gel doesn’t ways blend into water well)
- Small cups
- Herbs, sticks, and other optional decor pieces
Ingredients (8)
Ingredients (8)
Main
For the shiny agar agar shell
Instructions
Make the mung bean paste
Rinse the mung beans (¾ cup) well and place into a sauce pan with water (3 cups) and pandan leaf (1 leaf).
Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat and then reduce to medium-low and stir until the water is mostly absorbed and the mung beans look more like a porridge, about 10 minutes.
Add the coconut milk (¾ cup), sugar (½ cup), and salt (½ tsp) and continue stirring for another 5 minutes to let the sugar dissolve.
Remove from heat and let sit for a minute. Remove the pandan leaf and pour the mixture into a blender and puree until velvety smooth.
On a clean non-stick (important!) saucepan, pour the mixture and cook the mixture over medium-low heat stirring constantly with a rubber spatula, until it begins to look like a paste. The moment it no longer sticks to the spatula, keep stirring (and now folding) to make the dough more pliable and dough-like. This step is a lot of waiting and stirring and will take about 20 to 25 minutes.
Remove from heat and cover with plastic wrap or foil and let sit for about 20 minutes to cool.
Shaping and dying the dough
Take tablespoon-sized pieces of dough and roll it into your hands to smooth it out and even out its texture.
when making fresh luk chup, you shouldn’t need to add drops of water to hydrate it, but if you’re seeing cracks dip your finger into a cup of water and dab and smooth until it’s uniform in texture
Mold the pieces into various shapes and stick the bottom—dull—end on a skewer and sharp side into a block.
Continue with the rest of your pieces and when you are ready to dye, prepare a few small cups and drop 6 to 8 droplets of food coloringfood colorant and dip your luk chup pieces into the colored water to dye them. Dip your luk chup two to three times until you get your desired color and set aside to dry.
While the luk chup color is drying, in a small saucepan bring agar agar (1 Tbsp) and water (1 ½ cups) to a boil.
Reduce heat and cook for another two minutes, and then let set for a minute.
Pour into heat-safe cups, and let cool for about two minutes before use.
Once the luk chup pieces are dried, dip them one at a time into the agar agar (1 Tbsp) mixture and place back onto your block.
Let the pieces sit for at least two minutes and then go back in with a second coat.
Let set entirely for at least five minutes and then with a paring knife or scissors, cut the agar agar seam between the stick and luk chup and pinch the pieces off.
Eat and enjoy!
Notes
Notes
Storage
Luk Chup should be eaten within a day or two after it is made. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. If you have leftover dough, you can wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and sit in the fridge for up to 48 hours (if you do this, you’ll have to wet it slightly to work with when shaping).
Dough
You can test the dough consistency by rolling a piece into a ball and poking a skewer halfway through and then sticking the skewer into foam or a cardboard box to hold. If it stays without sliding through the stick, you’re good to start shaping. If not, add it back to the saucepan and cook for another few minutes to draw out more moisture.
Coloring
If you want to play around with multi-colored luk chup, you can directly dye pieces of dough and place them on top of each other. Seal them with the agar agar.
This recipe is part of the Mixtures digital cookbook, and is only available once you've purchased the cookbook.
Purchase ($6.00)
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A Southern-raised, Brooklyn-based food writer and recipe developer, Ali grew up around her family's Thai restaurant that sparked her initial love for food. She’s passionate about researching and uplifting Thai culinary traditions, from teaching luk chup workshops to popping up with pandan lemongrass mochi cake and other treats at restaurants around New York City.