Homemade Sweet Red (Azuki) Bean Paste, Chunky and Smooth

BY: Taste Hong Kong

Ingredients:
1 C dried red beans (aka azuki beans)
~5 C water
1/4 tsp salt
sugar or syrup to taste
(I added about 4 tbsp sugar per 1 cup of cooked beans)

Method
Rinse red beans; sort out the bad ones – those discolored or float to the water surface. Cover beans by a couple centimeters of water and soak them for several hours (no less than 2 hours or per package directions). Discard water.

With several cups of boiling water, briefly blanch the beans for about a minute. Drain and discard water.

In a heavy bottom pot, add beans, salt and water, bring them to a boil. Reduce to low heat and simmer until one tenth of the liquid remains. It shall take you about 1 1/2 hours (my cast iron do it slightly less than that). You may also want to check it out occasionally to make sure there is no spilling and the liquid does not dry out. A trick I often employ to avoid frequent checking is to add more water and to leave the cover ajar. As a result, I gain some extra bean liquor good for making a sweet soup.

For a chunky paste: Mix in sugar while there is about one ten of liquid left. Stir regularly to dissolve sugar, and simmer it to your desired consistency. Switch to medium heat if you want to speed up the process.

For a smooth paste: Drain cooked beans in a fine sieve or colander (save the liquid). With the back of a spoon or spatula, mash beans through the sieve and harvest them with a bowl or pot underneath. Return the fine paste to pot and cook it with sugar as you would for a chunky paste.

If you are not time-pressed, a slow cooker (crock pot) may even help cook the beans almost effortlessly. Just cover the beans by enough water in the cooker and boil them until tender (I covered mine with about 4 cm water and cook them for about 6 hours). Transfer the cooked beans to a pot and continue with the remaining steps.