Rubies in Coconut Milk (Tub-Tim Grob)

This is a Thai dessert that my boyfriend likes. Tub-tim literally means ruby, and tub-tim grob means crunchy ruby.

He tried this before in Malaysia, and every time we are in a Thai restaurant here in UK, he will surely asks if they serve this. Personally, I haven't tasted this dessert before, and was just depending on him to tell me how close I am to the real thing. He said what I have made this time is pretty close....so it wasn't too bad a try, was it? I quite like this dessert, so I will definitely try the real thing next time!



Rubies in Coconut Milk
Ingredients:
1 can of water chestnut, you can use fresh ones if possible
A few drops of red food colouring
Some tapioca flour
1 can of sea coconut
1 can of coconut milk

Methods:
1. Cubed the water chestnuts into small pieces, about 6-8 cuts per water chestnuts. Use fresh water chestnuts if you like, but the ones in the can are already peeled and ready to use.
2. Dry the water chestnuts. Put the pieces in a bowl and put in a few drops of red food colouring. You can use beet juice from boiled beets if you prefer to use natural food colouring.
3. Add in tapioca flour and coat well. Scoop the water chestnuts into a strainer to get rid of excess flour. Sprinkle some water on the water chestnut and put coat them with flour again. If you want bigger rubies, repeat this a few times.
4. Boil a pan of water. Drop in the rubies one at a time into the water to avoid them sticking together. Cooked rubies will float on the water. Scoop them up in a strainer and cool them in ice water.
5. To serve, put some sea coconut and rubies in a cup. Add some sea coconut syrup into the cup, the amount depending on the sweetness you like. Top it up with coconut milk. Add a teaspoonful of rubies on top just before serving. You can add in some ice too.

Note:
You can make your own syrup if you choose not to put in the sea coconut. Make the syrup by boiling some water with sugar and pandan leaves.