Look Choop Read online

  Table Of Contents

  Introduction

  Things you will need

  Equipment

  Look choop paste

  Coating

  Instructions

  Bonus

  Scent water and scent candle in Thai desserts making process

  How to make scent water

  How to use scent water in Thai dessert

  How to make scent candle

  How to use scent candle in Thai dessert

  Conclusion

  Look Choop : Thai Mung Bean Marzipan,Thai Miniature Fruits Dessert

  Introduction

  Thai desserts are popular because of their fantastic sweetness and specific Thai style aromatic scents from coconut milk and local flowers combined in the dessert perfectly you will love to taste them. "Look Choop" is a Thai dessert of cute miniature fruits made from mung beans which is outstanding from the other desserts because of its colorful tiny shaped fruits you will fall in love with them at the first sight and the first bite.

  "Look Choop" is a Thai word, means dipped fruit. Each of Look Choop is made in a mini size fruits or vegetables such as mangoes, mangosteens, bananas, orange, watermelons, carrots, corn or even cute mini animals and painted with many colors to make them look realistic but only in miniature. The word "Look" means fruit and "choop" means dipping. We called it after the method of making it by dipping it in agar dip or liquid gelatin to make it looks glossy like the real fruit. You can call this dessert "Thai mung bean marzipan" because this dessert was influenced by marzipan recipe of Portugal since the ancient Ayutthaya kingdom of Siam (Thailand) (around 1351 - 1767) back then when Portugal came to trade with Siam, they had brought the marzipan recipe to Siam and it became very popular among the ancient Siamese royal palaces and widespreaded throughout the kingdom and become one of the most famous Thai desserts until now.

  What makes Look Choop special and unique from another desserts is the cute colorful mini realistic objects shapes, make them look so cute and

  interesting and can draw the attention from everybody easily when they see them.

  In the present day, Look Choop has more various figures and colors, some are fruits shapes, vegetables, cute animals, cartoon characters or any other figures you can think about, but still has the same delicious sweet flavor like the original recipe, that makes the method of making look choop a real charming creative art.Let’s make Look Choop. It’s fun and easy and you can find all the ingredients in any grocery.

  Things you will need

  Equipment A blender

  A steamer

  A sauce pan

  A spatula

  Toothpicks or cocktail picks

  Paint brushes (each brush for each color)

  Liquid food colors, red, green, yellow, brown etc. (or you can make them from the powder colors by mixing 1 teaspoon powder color with 1/2 cup of water or depending on your preference shade )

  Paint palette

  10 inches square or round styrofoam board or sponge board Glass bowls

  Clean water

  Small leaves or kaffir lime leaves (cut them to mini size leaves to make look choop fruits’ leaves and stems)

  20 drops Jasmine flavor (optional)

  Look choop paste

  3 cups skinned mung beans (soaked overnight then steamed and mashed) 1 cup coconut milk

  1 cup sugar

  2 cups water (some Thai people use scent flowers water)

  Coating 5 tablespoons agar powder or gelatin powder

  1/2 cup sugar

  2 cups water

  Instructions

  1.Soak the mung beans, combine skinned mung beans and clean water together, make sure the water cover all the beans completely. Soak about 8-12 hours (for Thai style normally soak it overnight, so the beans are ready to be used in the next morning).

  2. After soaking, strain out the water. Rinse the beans thoroughly with clean water to get rid off the soaking water from last night, strain well.

  3. Put the beans in the steamer and steam for 45 minutes or until soft. Place into a bowl and let sit to cool down.

  There is another version that instead of soaking it overnight, just put the mung beans and water in a cook pot and boil it until well cooked and soft then follow the whole process. However, the steamed mung beans provide softer and smoother texture than boiled mung beans but not much different. By the way, boiling saves time too.

  4. While waiting for the beans to cool down, make sugar syrup by combine 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water together in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over low heat until the sugar dissolved completely. Pour in a glass bowl and set aside.

  5. When the beans cool down, put in a blender. Add coconut milk and sugar syrup. Add jasmine flavor (optional). Blend the mixture until well mixed.

  In the ancient time, Thai people simply mash the mixture together patiently until it evenly soft and smooth like play-dough consistency, so you can mold it in any shape.You can do that though if you don’t want to use the blender.

  6. Pour the mixture into the saucepan, place on the heat over low to medium heat. Add 1 cup water and stir with spatula in circular motion to make the paste. When the paste mixed thoroughly keep stirring until it start to harden, continue stirring until thicker and firmer and if you feel it stiff enough to form a stable shape of fruit, stop stirring. Place into a bowl. Let sit to cool. After cool down, it will get a little bit harder then you can mold it easily.

  7. Start to make a fruit by pulling a small chunk around 2 cm. – 3 cm. Circumference out of the paste. This size makes 30– 50 miniature fruits. Molded and shaped your fruit. When you finish making a fruit, stick it with a toothpick and stick the toothpick into a styrofoam board or sponge board. Repeat this step one by one until you have enough fruits. Leave them to dry for a few minutes but not too dry because they will start to crack.

  8. Paint your fruits and leave to dry for 10 minutes.

  9. While waiting for the colors to dry, make gelatin dip for coating. Add 5 tablespoons gelatin powder or agar powder with 1/2 cup sugar and 2 cup water in a saucepan. Place on the stove, use low heat, stir well until all ingredients totally dissolved. Pour in a glass bowl, set aside to cool.

  10. When the gelatin cool down. Dip the mini fruits into the gelatin then stick them into the sponge and leave to dry for 5 minutes. Repeat dipping for 2 more times (you need 2 or 3 layers coating for the perfect glossy fruit skin)

  11. After the Look Choops have dried, pull the toothpicks out. Make your cute little fruits their tiny leaves by stick the leaves on the top of the fruits.

  In traditional Thai style, They fragrance-fume Look Choops for the final step to make the dessert smell delicious.

  1. Arrange Look Choop fruits in a dish and serve.

  Bonus

  Scent water and scent candle in Thai desserts making process

  As we know, traditional Thai dessert making processes are neat and artistic. When it comes to Thai desserts, the important things we can't resist is the specific aromatic scent in the desserts. The scent of gentle smoky mixed with mild Thai flowers. This is Thai knowledge which had been learning from time to time from ancestors to descendants.

  The smoky and flowery scents come from scent candle and scent flower water adding in the dessert (in this book we used jasmine flavor instead of jasmine scented water). Scent flower water is for making sugar syrup and scent candle is used to fragrance-fume the dessert when it finished, they usually used this method in the descent time. Now in the modern time, we have various kinds of flavors and scents we can find in the stores but we still love to make these things out of natural products.

  How to make scent water Every scent flower can be used in scent water such as, jasmine, rose, ylang-ylang etc. but jasmine is the most popular. This is the tradit
ional Thai style method of making scent flower water.

  1. Boil 2 cups water until reaches the boiling point. Remove from the heat. Pour into a glass container or a glass bowl and leave it to cool completely. 2. Pick 7-10 flower buds. For jasmine, usually pick in the evening from 6 PM.- 7 PM. This is because jasmine flowers will bloom and provide the strongest scent in the night time, so it is the best time to pick them in the evening and leave in the water overnight to collect the scent. Pick the biggest and whitest buds 7-10 buds, use only buds, stems are not included.

  3. Gently wash the jasmines to get rid off dirt. 4. Arrange the jasmines in the water bowl, cover the bowl tightly and let sit for overnight (8-12 hours). In this process, the scent of the flowers released at night will combined to the water.

  5. In the next morning (around 5AM. - 6 AM.), pick all the jasmines out of the water and then you have jasmine scent water to make Thai dessert.

  How to use scent water in Thai dessert

  You can use it to make sugar syrup or mix it in flour as you desire.

  How to make scent candle

  After the dessert is finished, Thai people usually fragrance-fume it with scent candle to get it stronger pleasant smell. Scent candle made of beeswax mixed with spices and flower powders, the candle wick made of organic cotton. We use its fragrance smoke to coat the dessert. It provides warm aromatic smell.

  How to use scent candle in Thai dessert 1. Place the dessert into a glass bowl, leave some space in the middle of the bowl to put the scent candle.

  2. Light the candle and put it in the space in the bowl. Once the flame get a little into the wax and form some nice smell, Extinguish the candle.

  3. After put out the flame, it will leave candle smoke, cover the bowl immediately to keep the smoke inside the bowl. Leave it for one night and you will get a sweet smell Thai dessert.

  Conclusion You can make look choop in any occasion, especially a party. Imagine to have those look choop fruits on your party table, that would be awesome. Give mini look choops as gifts to your friends and neighbors and they will love them. It’s also amazing for your family holiday activity all your family can do it together and little children will love to make this dessert. Use your imagination and creativity then enjoy it with your family in a happy time.

 

 

  Malee Thai, Look Choop

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