Monday, March 24, 2008

Sweetened Red Bean Paste - Koshi An (Fine)


Sweetened Red Bean Paste from China. A couple of years ago at our library they were doing a little study on China or Japan, geared towards young kids. They read some books, did a craft and sampled some treats. One treat was "ice-cream" that had red bean paste in it. So when we saw a package of red bean paste we decided to try it. Dd insisted on having it served next to some vanilla ice-cream :)

The ingredients are very simple - red beans, sugar and water.

The package reads "Shirakiku "Koshi An" is made of high quality red beans which are boiled and sweetened according to our original recipe. Please enjoy with pancakes, anmitsu, zenzai etc.

Here is a website that shows how to make some yourself - includes a video with musical accompaniment.

Dd - "Tastes like beans - sweetened beans."
Ds - "Strange - I can't stand it!"
Moi - Very sweet and smooth but with some grittiness...I couldn't really tell that it was beans I was eating. A small amount mixed in with something else would be alright - but it was sickeningly sweet.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would imagine that, even tho' sweetened, beans are more nutritional than adding caramel to the ice cream ! Keep exploring !

Anonymous said...

Hello, after lunch i was surfin around,,,,, this is funny,
cause, i just had em!

http://radiantpark.blogspot.com/

have a great day.
Radiant Park