Homemade Red Bean Paste - 蜜紅豆餡

This is truly a two birds in one stone recipe,
Even though my title states "red bean paste," but I actually use the beans and turned them into red bean "soup" and red bean "paste."

You're probably familiar with red bean soup already, but what is the paste for?
Well, I usually make them ahead of time and store in small batches in the freezer,
The bean paste can be roll into all kinds of bread dough, even mochi, to make a sweet treat,
It's up to you to figure out what to do with this filling, it's time to get creative!

Homemade red bean paste (soup pictures and recipe in the end) -

 Ingredients?

4 cups of red beans
Some brown sugar
Some honey
Some sea salt
Some filtered water

*Please refer to below section for the exact amount of ingredients

How?

To make a good red bean dish, we need to start with picking out the best beans to use,
Pour 4 cups of red beans into a pot, pick out imperfect beans -

Soak in filtered water for 2 to 4 hours.

Drain out the water -

Pour in new filtered water again till fully covered the beans,
Bring to a boil then discard the water again.

We're kind of repeating the steps here,
Add more filtered water till it covers all the beans,
Bring to a boil then let it simmer.

From here, I scoop out half of the beans and most of the liquid for the soup,
The other half remains in the pot for the paste,
Let's talk about the bean paste first.

In the same pot, add a little bit of filtered water at a time and keep the mixture simmering,
Repeat the steps till the beans are fully cooked, which means they can be easily smashed with a spoon,
This is similar to making a risotto, tender and constant care is the key,
When the paste is ready, the whole mixture should be on the moist side, but definitely not wet.

Use a wooden spoon and stir in 1 cup of brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of honey, 1/4 teaspoon of salt,
Remember to stir and smash at the same time,
However, you don't have to smash till silky smooth, sometimes some chunky bits of beans can actually add more texture to the bite.
You can adjust the sweetness level by using more or less brown sugar,
But do remember, the bean paste should be on the sweet side since we mostly gonna end up using them as a filling.

As for the other half of the beans I scooped out earlier,
Poured it more water into the second pot,
Bring the mixture to a boil then turn to medium low heat to keep it simmer for about 45 minutes.

Add the seasonings in the end,
I used 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of honey,
Don't forget a pinch of sea salt, it helps to brighten up the flavor and the aroma from the beans,
The amount of sweet ingredients I used yields to a semi-sweet soup,
You can add more sugar if sweeter soup is desired,
Here's my mom's simple red bean soup recipe, might give you more ideas on the preperation part.

I also scooped some finished red bean paste back to the soup,
That way, I get whole red beans from the soup, and moist red bean aroma from the paste,
See, two birds in one stone again.

Call me greedy.

Cindy's Rating: 7