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Names and definition

Anko is a Japanese word for red bean paste, and the Chinese term dòushā applies to red bean paste when used without qualifiers. The Japanese term an can refer to almost any sweet, edible, mashed paste, although without qualifiers red beans are assumed. Azukian refers specifically to the paste made with red beans.

Appearance

The paste can be sweetened or left as it is. Its color is usually dark red, which comes from the husk of the beans. In Korean cuisine, the adzuki beans can also be husked prior to cooking, resulting in a white paste.

The bean

Red bean paste is made from the adzuki bean, Vigna angularis, an annual vine widely cultivated throughout East Asia for its small bean. In East Asian cuisine, adzuki beans are most commonly sweetened before eating, and they are often boiled with sugar to produce red bean paste. Cooked adzuki beans are 66% water, 25% carbohydrates, including 7% dietary fiber, 8% protein, and contain negligible fat.

Types

Red bean paste is graded according to its consistency, sweetness, and color. In the mashed type, adzuki beans are boiled with sugar and mashed, leaving a smooth paste with bits of broken beans and bean husk. This is the most common and popular type of red bean paste eaten in Chinese confections. In the smooth type, the beans are boiled without sugar, mashed and diluted into a slurry, which is then strained through a sieve to remove the husk. In Japan, koshian is the most common type, made by passing the beans through a sieve to remove bean skins. Tsubuan is made by boiling whole red beans with sugar but otherwise leaving them untreated. In Korea, patso is a dark-red paste made by boiling and then mashing or grinding red beans, danpat-so is the sweetened version made with honey or sugar, and geopipat-so is a white paste made from dehulled beans.

Uses

Smooth bean paste is mainly used as a filling for Chinese pastries. In Chinese cuisine, red bean paste appears in foods such as tangyuan, zongzi, mooncakes, baozi and red bean ice. In Japanese confectionery, anpan is a sweet bun filled with red bean paste, and daifuku is a confection of a small round rice cake stuffed with red bean paste. Bungeo-ppang is a fish-shaped Korean pastry filled with sweet danpat-so, the Korean sweetened red bean paste.

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