Red Beans Paste for Mochi

Was at a shopping mall in the east last weekend. Noticed there was this Japan festival at the shopping mall. Daughter was happy when she saw the mochi stall. However, when she saw the price for one small mochi cost $3/pc, she changed her mind. No matter how I tried to encourage her to buy and eat, she  refused. She said it was too over priced and refused to buy. 

This inspired me to homemade mochi with homemade red beans paste. Sunday came home took out the packet of red beans, rinse and soak the beans. Left it in the fridge and forgotten about it. 

First thing first, I went into Google and search for mochi. Found this blog "justoneCookbook". Follow the instruction how the author cooked the red beans paste. I had done it other way last year when I bake for traditional mooncake. However, I forget to write down the process. Today, to prevent I forget again, I wrote it right away.😊

I have made adjustment to the recipe to suit my taste. Yes, I had reduced the sugar from the original 200g to 100g. Personally, with 50% reduction of sugar, I still find it is very sweet. Next round perhaps to use only 80g of sugar. 

So far, only beans paste. Will do the mochi skin the next few days. Do stay tuned..😊

Here it goes...beans paste ..

Ingredients :

1cup red bean(bigger one) , approx. 200g

Water

1/2 cup sugar (approx. 100g)

A pinch of salt

Method:

1. Wash red bean. Soak red in water overnight or approx. 8-12hours. I soaked mine more than 24hours in fridge as i forgotten about it.

2. Pour away the water that use for soaking bean. Put bean a pot or sauce pan. Put water till it is 2inc above the bean. Cook the bean on high heat.

3. Once it is boiling, turn off the fire. Cover the pot with lid. And let it stand for 5min (I let stand 10min)

4. Pour away the water. Fill with fresh water till it is 2inch above beans. Turn on fire on high heat and cook until bean is soft. That is when the bean is press, it is easily mashed. Note: Continue to add more water if it dry up.  The whole process take about 1.5hours.

5. Once bean is soft, turn up the heat and add sugar in 2 or 3 batches. Then add salt. Continue to cook until it is dry and when you draw a line on the beans,  you could see the bottom of the pot. Turn off fire. Cover with lid. The beans will thicken once it is cool.

 Once it is cooled, refridge if you are not using it immediately. Beans paste can be kept in freezer for a month or chiller for a week. 

Pancakes (Non Dairy and Soy Base)

8Apr2017

This morning, I made some changes in my homemade pancakes recipes. Few weeks ago, I used coconut milk to make buttermilk. Today I tried soya milk added with one big tablespoon of lemon juice. Notice soya milk curd very fast. The result of the pancakes is very soft. There are many bubbles holes in the pancakes. Therefore very soft and fluffy.  So I guess this is why daughter asked "mum, it is so nice, what did you add inside, taste so good!" 

Ingredients (yields 8pcs of 12-15cm pancakes)

1.5 cup self raising flour

1 cup of soya milk(i used soy powder added with water)

1 tbsp lemon juice

2 eggs

4 tbsp caster sugar

1/2 tsp homemade coconut condensed milk(optional)

1 tsp vanilla essence(optional)

Method

Home substitution for buttermilk:

Add lemon juice into soy milk and let it stand for about 5-10min. Soy milk curd very fast. Within about few min you could see the milk thickened. You may use white vinegar or apple cider vinegar instead of lemon

Sift flour in a large bowl. Set aside.

In another bowl, whisk eggs and sugar together for few minutes. Add the above soy milk lemon mixture. Whisk them together. Then gradually whisk the egg mixture  into the flour. Whisk until it become a smooth batter. Tranfer batter to large jug.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan. Highly recommended non-stick pan.

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into frying pan. Cook pancake until you see bubbles appear on surface and almost dry. Turn the pancake with a spatula to lightly brown other side. Cover pancakes on plate with foil to keep them warm. Continue to make more pancakes with remaining batter.

Serve pancakes topped with your desired jam and butter or margarin.

P.S.  If you are using a normal frying pan, oil the frying pan with 1 tbsp of oil. Then use a kitchen paper towel to wipe away excess oil. Note: the first piece using normal frying pan will not look so desirable. But subsequent one will be perfect.

Note: If you do not have a metric measuring cup at home, you may use any kind of cup for drinking your water or coffee etc. Just make sure you use the same cup to measure all the ingredients.

You may like the following pancakes :
1. Homemade-pancake (Dairy) for those who want to use dairy cow milk.

2. rice-omelette-pancake

3. kimchi-pancake

Do drop me a note if you have tried this recipe and like it. 😊

Happy cooking😊