Cooking Experiments! Azuki Paste

Azuki paste, commonly known simply as sweet red bean paste, is a staple in many Asian sweets, especially the Japanese daifuku, ice cream, and anpan. Since azuki paste is nigh impossible to find around here (and I have to travel into the cities to find an Asian grocer who stocks it) I decided to make my own. You can easily buy small red beans here in bags, so that's what I did. 

The recipe I followed (mostly) is this one: click me!

First you need to soak the beans. Dry beans are super hard and take FOREVER and a day to cook up, so I recommend three hours at least and one full night at best. Since I was a little pressed for time, I only soaked mine for three hours. 

I wrote the recipe down so I wouldn't forget what to do! Now I can take this with me to campus and have it on hand if I want to make more at some time! 

Heat the sucker up!

Get those beans boiling. I let that go for about five-ten minutes before lowering the heat.

Then cover and simmer for about an hour and a half. If you didn't soak your beans long enough, this part will take even longer! 

Once most of the water simmers away, this is what it looks like. Cooked beans. 

Then its time to add your sugar. I put in one cup, to make it sweet enough, since I'm using this for anpan later. 

Stir gently and simmer to desired consistency. It WILL thicken once it cools though, so don't worry if it still looks a bit runny.

The finished product! It has a glossy sheen to it, that's normal. But it's really think and chunky, exactly how I wanted it! Yay!

Job well done, Kayla. Well done!