Pulse
Sweet red beans
팥
Also called azuki, adzuki, pat, red bean paste, danpat
Azuki beans, pat, cooked sweet for patbingsu, rice cakes and buns. You meet them as whole sweet beans or as a coarse paste (danpat). They are a dessert pulse, not a chilli-bean pot.
Origin
East Asia. Japanese anko, Korean pat and Chinese red-bean pastes are regional sweets from the same small red bean.
Flavour
Earthy and chestnut-sweet once sugared. Unsweetened boiled azuki taste like a mild brown bean. A metallic tin can hide under the sugar if you do not warm the paste.
How it is made
Beans are soaked, simmered until soft, then sweetened. For paste they are mashed or sieved; chunky danpat leaves some beans whole. Canned sweet red beans are already cooked and sugared.
How to use it
Soak dried beans, boil until they mash, then add sugar in stages and cook off excess water so the paste is glossy. A pinch of salt makes the sweetness read as chestnut rather than jam. For patbingsu, canned sweet beans are an honest shortcut — chill them. Sweeten after the beans are tender or they can stay hard. Warm paste fills rice cakes; cold paste scoops onto shaved ice.
Storage
Dried beans in the pantry. Cooked sweet beans keep several days refrigerated, or freeze in portions.
Recipes using it
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