Oshiruko

A sweet bean soup with the sugar added only after the beans are soft, and grilled mochi in it.

Vegan.

Ingredients

• 250 g dried azuki beans
• 1.5 litres water
• 150 g caster sugar
• 0.5 teaspoon salt
• 6 pieces mochi

Method

1. SUGAR ONLY AFTER THE BEANS ARE SOFT. Sugar in the water firms the skins and azuki will then never soften, however long they boil. Soft first, sweet second -- the same rule as the Thai mung bean page and the same reason.
2. DISCARD THE FIRST BOIL. Cover the beans with water, bring to a boil, boil 5 minutes and pour it all away. That water is bitter and astringent, and keeping it is why some bean soups taste harsh.
3. No soaking needed if you do this; azuki cook from dry.
4. Fresh water on, simmer 50 to 70 minutes, topping up so the beans stay covered. Skim the foam in the first 15 minutes.
5. They are ready when a bean crushes with no resistance between finger and thumb. Not merely tender -- crushable.
6. NOW the sugar, in two halves ten minutes apart. All at once it shocks the beans and they wrinkle.
7. SALT AT THE VERY END, and it is not optional. Half a teaspoon in a sweet soup is what stops it tasting flatly sugary, and without it the whole bowl is dull.
8. Simmer 15 minutes more. It should be loose and pourable -- it thickens considerably as it cools.
9. GRILL THE MOCHI SEPARATELY until it puffs and browns, as on the zoni page, and put it in the bowl at the last moment. Boiled in the soup it dissolves and turns the whole thing to paste.
10. Pour the hot soup over the mochi and serve at once.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Japan · All recipes