Red bean paste (traditional Chinese: 豆沙/紅豆沙; simplified Chinese: 豆沙/红豆沙; Japanese: あんこ or 小豆餡; Korean: 팥소) or red bean jam,[1] also called adzuki bean paste or anko (a Japanese word),[2] 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.[3][4] 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.
In Japanese, a number of names are used to refer to red bean paste; these include an (餡), anko (餡子) and ogura (小倉). Strictly speaking, the term an can refer to almost any sweet, edible, mashed paste, although without qualifiers red beans are assumed, while azukian (小豆餡) refers specifically to the paste made with red beans. Other common forms of an include shiroan (白餡, "white bean paste"), made from navy or other white beans, green beans and kurian (栗餡), made from chestnuts.
Similarly, the Chinese term dòushā (豆沙; 'bean paste'), applies to red bean paste when used without qualifiers, although hóngdòushā (紅豆沙) explicitly means "red bean paste."
In Korean, pat (팥, Vigna angularis) contrasts with kong (콩, "bean"), rather than being considered a type of it. Kong ("beans") without qualifiers usually means soybeans. As so (소) means "filling", the word patso (팥소) means "pat filling", with unsweetened dark-red paste as its prototype. Dan (단, "sweet") attached to patso makes danpat-so (단팥소), the sweetened red bean paste, which is often called danpat (단팥; "sweet pat"). Geopi (거피, "hulled, skinned, peeled, shelled, etc.")[5] attached to pat makes geopipat (거피팥), the dehulled red beans[3][4] and the white paste made of geopipat is called geopipat-so (거피팥소).
Types
Red bean paste is graded according to its consistency, sweetness, and color.
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 used as a filling for Chinese pastries.
Patso (팥소), dark-red paste made by boiling and then mashing or grinding red beans. The bean skins may or may not be removed by sifting the paste through a sieve to make the paste smoother.
Danpat (단팥) or danpat-so (단팥소), 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 (거피팥소), white paste made by boiling dehulled red beans, and then mashing or grinding them.
Tongpat (통팥), whole beans as filling, not mashed.
Uses
Chinese
Red bean paste is used in many Chinese dishes, such as:
Red bean soup (Chinese: 紅豆湯/紅豆沙; pinyin: hóng dòu tāng / hóng dòu shā): 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 (湯圓; tāng yúan): Glutinous rice balls filled with sweet fillings such as red bean paste and boiled in plain or sweetened water.
Sweet zongzi (粽子; 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 (月餅; yùe bĭng): 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.
Bāozi (豆沙包; dòu shā bāo): Steamed leavened bread filled with a variety of savoury or sweet fillings.
Jiān dui (煎堆): Fried pastry made from glutinous rice flour, sometimes filled with red bean paste.
Red bean cake (红豆糕; hóng dòu gāo): It is a type of Asian cake with a sweet red bean paste filling. It is made primarily with adzuki beans.
Oshiruko or Zenzai, adzuki bean soup, commonly served with rice cake.
Sakuramochi, a Japanese sweet consisting of sweet pink-colored rice cake (mochi) with a red bean paste (anko) center, and wrapped in a pickled cherry blossom (sakura) leaf.
Taiyaki, a fish-shaped cake stuffed with red bean paste.
Yōkan, a thick jellied dessert made of red bean paste, agar, and sugar.
^ ab(in Korean) Korean Society of Food Science and Technology (2008). "geopipat" 거피팥 [dehulled red bean]. Encyclopedia of food science and technology. Seoul: Kwangil publishing. ISBN9788986752106. Retrieved 2017-02-25 – via Naver.
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