Red bean paste

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 250 g red beans (azuki)
• 250 g sugar
• 1 pinch of salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 12 hours; Total time approx. 12 hours 30 minutes

sweetly cooked beans Japanese style (Azukian)

This red bean paste, called azuki in Japanese, is one of the most common ingredients in traditional Japanese sweets (wagashi; European sweets are called yougashi in Japanese), but I also like to snack on it as is. An, or sometimes anko, stands for the paste – it is sometimes made from white, green, or chestnut beans. Azuki is the name given to red beans, which (not to be confused with kidney beans, although the color is very similar) are about 5 mm long and 3 mm thick, thus relatively small (azuki is written in two characters, meaning “small” and “bean”). Unfortunately, I haven’t found the beans in all Asian stores so far, so I recommend anyone looking for them to go to a store with a particularly well-stocked Japanese section. There, you can also buy the paste in a can (or processed into a candy) to try if you like it. Sweet beans are probably just not to everyone’s taste. So, enough of the preface. I just hope that at least the people who “stumbled” upon this recipe are interested in something like this 🙂 So here’s the recipe: Quickly wash the beans, soak them in water overnight for a shorter cooking time. Bring to a boil in a pot with plenty of water, discard the water, and then bring the beans back to a boil with plenty of water. Add water occasionally and skim off any foam that forms. Simmer for about one to one and a half hours, until the beans are tender (taste a bean; if it’s still firm to the bite, continue cooking). At this point, you can also press the beans through a fine sieve and discard the skins to create a smoother paste (the Japanese distinguish between “tsubuan,” where you can still see whole beans, and “koshian,” which is smooth). Then discard enough water so that the beans are just below the surface. Add sugar and salt, and cook over low heat for about 10 minutes. Then, evaporate the paste over high heat, stirring slowly with a wooden spoon. Remove from heat when you can see the bottom of the pot while stirring.