Red bean paste

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Red bean paste (traditional Chinese: ??/???; simplified Chinese: ??/???; Japanese: ?/???; Korean: ??) or red bean jam, also called adzuki bean paste, is a paste made of red beans (also called "adzuki beans"), used in East Asian cuisine. The paste is prepared by boiling the beans, then mashing or grinding them. At this stage, the paste can be sweetened or left as it is. The color of the paste is usually dark red, which comes from the husk of the beans. In Korean cuisine, the adzuki beans (often the black variety) can also be husked prior to cooking, resulting in a white paste. It is also possible to remove the husk by sieving after cooking, but before sweetening, resulting in a red paste that is smoother and more homogeneous.

Video Red bean paste

Etymology

In Japanese, a number of names are used to refer to red bean paste; these include an (?), anko (??), and ogura (??). Strictly speaking, the term an can refer to almost any sweet, edible, mashed paste, with azukian (???) referring specifically to the paste made with red beans, although without qualifiers red beans are assumed. Other common forms of an include shiroan (??, "white bean paste"), made from navy or other white beans, green beans, and kurian (??), made from chestnuts.

Similarly, the Chinese term dòush? (??), applies to red bean paste when used without qualifiers, although hóngdòush? (???) explicitly means "red bean paste."

In Korean, pat (?, "V. angularis") contrasts with kong (?, "bean"), rather than being considered a type of it. Kong ("beans") without qualifiers usually means soybeans. As so (?) means "filling", the word patso (??) means "pat filling", with unsweetened dark-red paste as its prototype. Dan (?, "sweet") attached to patso makes danpat-so (???), the sweetened red bean paste, which is often called danpat (??; "sweet pat"). Geopi (??, "hulled, skinned, peeled, shelled, etc.") attached to pat makes geopipat (???), the dehulled red beans, and the white paste made of geopipat is called geopipat-so (????).

Maps Red bean paste

Types

Red bean paste is graded according to its consistency, sweetness, and color.

Chinese

In Chinese cuisine, the most common types are:

• Mashed: Adzuki beans are boiled with sugar and mashed. The paste is smooth with bits of broken beans and bean husk. Depending on the intended texture, the beans can be vigorously or lightly mashed. Some unmashed beans can also be added back into the bean paste for additional texture. This is the most common and popular type of red bean paste eaten in Chinese confections. It can also be eaten on its own or in sweet soups.
• Smooth: Adzuki beans are boiled without sugar, mashed, and diluted into a slurry. The slurry is then strained through a sieve to remove the husk, filtered, and squeezed dry using cheesecloth. Although the dry paste can be directly sweetened and used, oil, either vegetable oil or lard, is usually used to cook the dry paste and improve its texture and mouth feel. Smooth bean paste is mainly found as fillings for Chinese pastries.

Japanese

In Japanese cuisine and confectionary, the most common types are:

• Tsubuan (??), whole red beans boiled with sugar but otherwise untreated
• Tsubushian (???), where the beans are mashed after boiling
• Koshian (???), which has been passed through a sieve to remove bean skins; the most common type
• Sarashian (???), which has been dried and reconstituted with water
• Ogura-an (???), which is a mix of koshian and tsubuan.

Korean

In Korean cuisine and confectionery, the most common types are:

• Patso (??), dark-red paste made by boiling and then mashing or grounding red beans. The bean skins may or may not be removed by sifting the paste through a sieve to make the paste smoother.
• Danpat (??) or danpat-so (???), sweetened red bean paste, made by adding honey or sugar when making patso. The bean skins are often removed to make the paste smoother.
• Geopipat-so (????), white paste made by boiling dehulled red beans, and then mashing or grinding them.

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Uses

Chinese

Red bean paste is used in many Chinese dishes, such as:

• Red bean soup (???/???; pinyin: hóng dòu t?ng / hóng dòu sh?): In some recipes, red bean paste with more water added to form a tong sui, or thick, sweet soup. It is often cooked and eaten with tangyuan and lotus seeds. This is almost always a dessert.
• Tangyuan (??, pinyin: t?ng yúan): Glutinous rice balls filled with sweet fillings such as red bean paste and boiled in plain or sweetened water.
• Sweet zongzi (??; pinyin: zòng zi): Glutinous rice and red bean paste wrapped with bamboo leaves and steamed or boiled. The glutinous rice used to make zongzi is usually specially prepared and appears yellow.
• Mooncakes (??; yùe b?ng): A baked pastry consisting of thin dough surrounding a filling. The filling is traditionally made from various ingredients, including mashed lotus seeds, red bean paste, or other fillings. The texture of this filling is quite similar to straight red bean paste. It is most commonly eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival.
• B?ozi (???; pinyin: dòu sh? b?o): Steamed leavened bread filled with a variety of savoury or sweet fillings.
• Ji?n dui (??): Fried pastry made from glutinous rice flour, sometimes filled with red bean paste.
• Red bean cake (Chinese: ???; pinyin: hóng dòu g?o)
• Red bean pancake

Japanese

Red bean paste is used in many Japanese sweets.

• Anmitsu, a dessert consisting of red bean paste, small cubes of agar jelly, and pieces of fruit served with syrup.
• Anpan, a sweet bun filled with red bean paste.
• Daifuku, a confection consisting of a small round rice cake stuffed with red bean paste.
• Dango, a dumpling made from rice flour topped with red bean paste.
• Dorayaki, a confection consisting of two small pancake-like patties made from castella wrapped around a filling of red bean paste.
• Manj?, a steamed cake filled with red bean paste.
• Oshiruko or Zenzai, adzuki bean soup, commonly served with rice cake.
• Taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake stuffed with red bean paste.
• Y?kan, a thick jellied dessert made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar.

Korean

Red bean paste is used in various Korean snack foods and desserts, including:

• Baram-tteok, a type of tteok filled with white geopipat-so.
• Bungeo-ppang, a fish-shaped pastry filled with sweet danpat-so.
• Chalbori-ppang, two small and sweet pancakes wrapping around sweet danpat-so.
• Chapssal doughnut, a glutinous rice doughnut filled with sweet danpat-so.
• Gyeongdan, a rice ball cake filled with sweet danpat-so.
• Hodu-gwaja, a walnut-shaped cookie filled with sweet danpat-so.
• Hoppang, a warm fluffy pastry filled with sweet danpat-so or sweet nokdu-so (mung bean paste).
• Hwangnam-ppang, a pastry with a chrysanthemum imprinted on the top, filled with sweet danpat-so.
• Jjinppang, a warm fluffy pastry filled with unsweetened patso, usually with the skins of the red beans.
• Kkulppang, a sweet pastry covered with sweet danpat-so and covered with corn syrup.
• Patbingsu, a type of shaved ice.
• Songpyeon, a type of tteok filled with various fillings including unsweetened patso, sweetened (danpat-so), or white (geopipat-so).
• Ttongppang, a poo-shaped pastry filled with sweet danpat-so.

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In popular culture

• The cartoon hero Anpanman is an anthropomorphic anpan bun filled with adzuki bean paste.
• In Natsume S?seki's classic novel I Am a Cat, Prof. Sneeze is addicted to red bean jam, on which his wife blames both his dyspepsia and the family's unaffordable food bills.
• The 2015 Japanese movie, An (called Sweet Bean in English) focuses on a man who runs a stall selling dorayaki and an old woman who comes to work for him and teaches him how to make the best red bean paste he has ever tasted.
• Doraemon, a cartoon robot cat from the future, likes dorayaki.

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See also

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References

Source of the article : Wikipedia