Sweet Red Beans (단팥)

Yes, it's still hot. Daily heat advisory from weather forecast seems like a usual thing these days. So asking you to try cooking beans for an hour or so makes me feel like asking you to find a new way to torture yourself and make yourself feel like you're in sauna if you haven't already been feeling that way.

But I hope you'd still consider making sweet red beans at home this weekend although you can easily buy canned ones in Asian grocery stores. Except for the cooking time on the stovetop, it's a very simple process and the reward is worthwhile.

Red beans, water and sugar (and a tiny bit of salt) are all you need. By the time you're done cooking this, you'll get 3 times the dried red beans you start with. Seems like a lot of red beans, right? But it has so many uses. I'm usually not a big red bean fan because it's usually too clumpy, thick and sweet for my taste. But now I make my own with adjusted sweetness and thickness, I can't keep myself away from the dishes that use sweet red beans this summer.

It looks like a lot of sugar in this recipe, but it's still not as sweet as the ones sold in cans. It's sweet enough that you can use as a topping on your patbingsu (팥빙수 - shaved ice with sweet red beans) and use for other summer dishes that I'll share in the next couple of posts. Sugar is also what keeps this homemade sweet red beans last longer, so make sure you use enough - at least 2 cups of sugar for 2 cups of dried red beans (which turns into 6+ cups of red beans after cooking).

You can keep cooking it down until there is almost no liquid, blend it to make it smooth for red bean paste, which is used as a filling for pastries and sticky rice cakes. But since it's mainly for a topping on patbingsu, I'd like to keep it a little loose with actual red beans in sight. Besides, red beans keep absorbing the liquid after being removed from heat, so by the time it's cooled enough to store, it's pretty thick. Keep in the refrigerator and take it out for use, you'll notice it's thickened more.

1) Dried red beans. Add water then boil until soft.

1) Boil red beans with water until soft.

2) When it's still soupy, remove from heat.

2) When it's soupy, remove from heat.

3) When it's cooled, liquid is absorbed.

4) Divide & store!

Sweet Red Beans (단팥)

Yields: 6~7 cups

INGREDIENTS:
1 pound Dried red beans (팥 pat), preferably organic, about 2 cups (a.k.a. adzuki/azuki beans)
14~18 cups Water
1 teaspoon Salt
2~3 cups Sugar

DIRECTIONS:
1. Rinse red beans in cold water and place them in a pot big enough to hold about 3 quarts or 12 cups. Add 2 cups of water, or just enough to keep red beans immersed in water, and bring it up to a boil over high heat. When the water comes to a rolling boil, strain and discard water. It is believed in Korea that the first boiling helps to get rid of any unpleasant flavor of red beans.

2. Rinse the pot, place the red beans in the pot along with 4 cups (1 quart) of water and 1 teaspoon of salt. Bring it up to a boil again. Skim off foam that rises to the surface along the way. When the water is reduced to the level of touching the beans, add another 4 cups of water and keep it boiling. Repeat adding water 4 cups at a time until the beans are soft. You will see the red beans bigger, some popped and their color changed to light purple. When you think it's completely cooked, taste a spoonful of it (be careful it's hot!). Don't just eat one bean, take a spoonful to make sure all of the beans are soft.

3. When the beans are cooked, stir in 2 cups of sugar and dissolve completely. Add 1~2 cups of water to immerse the beans again and simmer to reduce water.

4. When the water level comes down to just above the beans (Picture 2 above), turn off heat. Stir and rest for 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning. It should taste very sweet, a degree sweeter than your usual preference. Add more sugar as desired.

5. Cool to room temperature. By now, much of the water that came well above the beans should be absorbed by the beans and at the bean level (Picture 3 above).

6. Divide it and pack it in ziploc bags or airtight containers. I put 1 cup in each container, which makes about 3~4 portions of patbingsu topping. Leave 1 container in the refrigerator and freeze the rest. Defrost by moving the frozen one to the refrigerator 1~2 days before using. Or keep 1 container of the sweet red beans in the refrigerator at all times in the summer.

Now the reward part...