Sweet red bean paste, is used in many confectioneries in China & Japan. It is usually prepared by boiling and sometimes mashing red beans and then sweetening the paste with sugar.
Ingredients for Red Bean Paste
- 250 g Red Bean
- 800 ml Water
- 100 g Demerara Raw Cane Sugar
- 2 tbsp Maltose
- 15 g Wheat Starch
- 1 tbsp Vegetables Oil
- Pinch of Sea Salt
Preparation
1. Soak red beans for 2 hours. It can be soak overnight. It is better place in refrigerator in summer. Rinse and drain.
2. Use a big saucepan/pot because the amount of red beans will double after cooking. Boil red beans in the pot with 800 ml water. Bring it to a boil and turn to low heat. Simmer until very little water left behind. Add sugar and salt and mix well. You can also simmer in the rice cooker which I cook for about 1 hour.
3. Blend the cooked red bean into puree in a blender or food processor.
4. Put the blended red bean puree back to the saucepan. Add maltose and oil. Heat over low heat and stir constantly until thick. It will thicken when it cool completely. Sift in wheat starch and stir well. Remove from heat.
5. Pour into a container to cool down. If you aren’t planning to use it all at once, you can divide it into 50 ~ 100 g packages. Wrap in plastic bag and store in Ziploc Freezer bags and can store in fridge for a week and freezer up to a month.
Mung bean is more widely known as green bean. As the name suggests, they are green in colour but when their skins are removed. Mung beans are light yellow in colour.
Mung Bean Paste Ingredients
- 300 g Split Mung Bean
- 140 g Caster Sugar
- 100 ml Oil
- 20 g Wheat Starch
Preparation
1. Soak mung beans for 2 hours. It can be soak overnight. It is better place in refrigerator in summer. Rinse and drain.
2. Use a big saucepan/pot because the amount of mung beans may double after cooking. Put washed mung beans in the pot and pour in water. Bring it to a boil and simmer for 10 mins. Skim off any scum from the water. Turn off heat and cover with lid for another 10 mins.
3. Drain through a cloth and blend in a food processor.
4. In a stainless steel pan, add mung bean paste and 1/2 of the cooking oil and sugar, stir until the sugar dissolve and combine with the paste. Add the remaining 1/2 oil, stir constantly until the bean paste is smooth and creamy. It dries up and does not stick to the sides of pan. Sift in wheat starch, stir well.
5. Pour into a container to cool down. It can keep in the refrigerator up to 4 ~ 5 days. If you aren’t planning to use it all at once, you can divide it into 50 ~ 100 g packages. Wrap in plastic bag and store in Ziploc Freezer bags and can store in fridge for a week and freezer up to a month.