Anko Recipe Japanese Sweet Red Bean Paste

SWEET RED BEAN PASTE (TSUBUAN AND KOSHIAN)

Steps:

• Gather all the ingredients.
• Rinse the azuki beans and discard any broken beans.
• Transfer the drained azuki beans to a large pot. Add enough water to the pot so the beans are covered by 1-2 inches.
• Place the pot on the stove and bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat.
• Once boiling, drain the beans in a fine-mesh sieve. Return the beans to the same pot.
• Next, add more water to the pot so the beans are covered by 1-2 inches.
• Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Once boiling, put an otoshibuta (drop lid) over the beans. (The otoshibuta will prevent the beans from dancing around too much.) Turn down the heat to medium low and keep it simmering for the next 1 to 1½ hours.
• Some of the water will evaporate, so add more water to keep the beans submerged, as needed. After 1 hour, check if the beans are cooked. Pick up a bean and mash it with your fingers. When it mashes easily, it's done.

ANKO (SWEET RED BEAN PASTE)

Steps:

• Place beans in a saucepan and cover with 2 cups water; bring to a boil and cook for 5 minutes. Drain and discard water.
• Place drained beans in a clean saucepan and cover with 2 to 3 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover the saucepan, and simmer, adding more water as needed, until beans are soft and can be crushed between your fingers, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Drain beans and discard water.
• Stir beans and sugar together in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until sugar melts and beans form a loose, shiny paste, about 10 minutes. Immediately transfer the paste to a container to cool. Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

SWEET RED BEAN PASTE (ANKO)

Steps:

• Wash azuki beans gently a couple of times.
• Put azuki beans into a saucepan, fill it with water to 3-4cm / 1¼-1½" above the azuki beans and bring it to a boil.
• Cook for 15 minutes, turn the heat off and leave for 30 minutes with a lid on. Drain using a sieve.
• Return the azuki beans to the saucepan, fill the pan with water to just cover the beans. Bring it to a boil.
• Reduce the heat to medium low so that the beans are gently simmering.
• Cook for 15-20 minutes until the beans are cooked through (note 3). If the beans surface above the water level, add some water to keep the beans just below the water level (note 4). Remove the scum as it surfaces.
• Turn the heat off and leave for 30 minutes with the lid on. Drain using a sieve with a bowl beneath it so that the liquid can be collected in the bowl.
• Return the beans to the pan.
• Gently tilt the bowl of liquid and drain the liquid slowly. At the bottom of the bowl, you will see a thick layer of the azuki bean powder diluted in the liquid. Transfer this to the pan.
• Add sugar and gently mix the sugar into the azuki beans using a soft spatula.
• Heat the pan with azuki beans over medium heat. The beans should become watery as it starts boiling.
• Cook for about 10 minutes. During this time gently mix the beans occasionally by moving the spatula from one edge to the other edge and draw a wide straight line.
• Check the consistency of the paste: Draw a line at the bottom of the pan with the spatula. If you can see the bottom of the pan and the beans start closing the line after hesitating momentarily, it is the right consistency (note 5).
• Add glucose if using and a pinch of salt, then gently mix. Remove from the heat.
• Transfer the bean paste to a tray. Cover it with cling wrap removing air pockets as much as possible (note 6). When cooled down, store in the fridge up to 4 days or freeze it in a zip lock bag up to 2 months.

ANKO RECIPE - JAPANESE SWEET RED BEAN PASTE

Steps:

• Wash azuki beans. Pop in a saucepan and cover about 1cm / ½in above the beans with boiling water to allow them to soften for 30 mins.
• Next place the soaked beans and water on high heat and bring to the boil. Boil down until all the liquid has evaporated (around 15 minutes). Drain any excess water which should look a murky brown red.
• Add 2 cups of cold water and bring back to boil. Boil for another 15 minutes or until the water level goes below the beans. Stir occasionally to check no beans are sticking. Add another 2 cups of cold water and boil down again for another 15 minutes.
• Once the water dips below the beans again, it's time to add your sugar and pinch of salt and put the heat down to low-medium. This will allow the sugar to dissolve in the last of the water and be absorbed by the beans. At this stage the liquid should be dark and gently bubbling amongst the beans.
• After 10 minutes the liquid should start to thicken. Do a 'smoosh' test first and squeeze an azuki bean to see if it squishes. If your beans aren't soft enough, add another ½ - 1 cup of water and cook them for one last round (around 10 minutes).
• Now it's time to mash, mash, mash! You want a nice consistency where it has a nice balance of smooth and texture.
• Your sweet red bean paste is now ready to use on your favourite Japanese desserts like mochi and dango!