Red Bean Paste (An)
Ingredients
220 g/7 oz/1 cup adzuki beans
250 g/8 oz/1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
Directions
Place beans in a pan with water to cover. Bring to boil. Turn off heat and soak for 1 hour. Drain, cover with fresh water then simmer for 30 minutes or until beans are soft and most of the water has evaporated. Add sugar and stir with a wooden spoon to roughly mash the beans (tsubushi-an). If a smooth paste is required, push cooked beans through sieve, add sugar and cook, stirring, until sugar is dissolved and the paste is thick.
The last stage of cooking, after adding sugar, may be done in a microwave oven without having to stir. Mix sugar into puréed beans and cook on full power for 5 minutes or until mixture no longer looks wet (check it after 3 minutes). Allow to rest for a couple of minutes before mixing. Use as required to flavour sweet soup or jellies. This paste will keep about a week refrigerated.
Chinese red bean paste uses a little less sugar and has 1/3 cup of peanut oil or lard incorporated after sugar is added and mixture has thickened.
Recipe excerpted from Encyclopedia of Asian Food by Charmaine Solomon (Periplus Editions, 1998)
