Sweetened Azuki Bean (Using Thermal Cooker) 蜜红豆 (焖烧锅食谱)

第一次尝试自己煮蜜红豆原来一点也不难，以后再也不用买罐头的蜜红豆了。

自己煮蜜红豆很经济实惠，一包$2的红豆煮出来成品足足一公斤有余。分成小包装冷冻起来可以慢慢用。可以用来做蛋糕，面包，加多点水煮一煮就成了红豆汤，再加工把蜜红豆捣烂炒过就是红豆沙了。

我用焖烧锅来煮，两个小时就搞定了。自从买了焖烧锅后家里煮汤焖东西都用它来代劳，方便又省电省煤气，电子砂锅早就被打入冷宫。

Sweetened Azuki Bean (Using Thermal Cooker)

Ingredients:

500g azuki bean/ red bean
1 litre water
400g sugar

Method:

1) Wash red bean, discard bad bean (if any), add into inner pot of the thermal cooker (I am using 2.5L thermal cooker), cook with water till boiling, let it boil for 10 mins.

2) Move the inner pot to the thermal cooker. Bring it out 1 hour later to cook on stove, bring to a boil then keep in the thermal cooker again.

3) Check 1 hour later, the red bean should be soft by now. If not, keep in thermal cooker for a while longer.

4) Transfer cooked red bean to a large mixing bowl (the bottom one may become too soft or broken, keep those and add water to cook red bean soup). Add sugar while the red bean is still hot, stir gently to prevent breaking the red bean. You can also prepare another mixing bowl, pour the red bean/sugar from one bowl to another bowl, repeat till the sugar is fully dissolved.

5) If not use immediately, divide and pack in several small bags, freeze.

Note:

1) Cooking time depends on individual thermal cooker, the above is just a guide. Thermal cooker works the best when the inner pot is about 70-80% filled, so if you are using a large thermal cooker, likely you need to extend the cooking time.

2) I am using 1:2:0.8 ratio, i.e amount of water is double of the red bean weight and the sugar is 80% of the red bean weight. You can cook any amount based on this ratio. I don’t advise to reduce the sugar largely because this will reduce the shelf life of the cooked red bean.