Ugly But Comforting

This is one of my favorite comfort foods; whenever my spirit dips or my body feels in need of soulful, homely, reassuring sustenance, this comes to mind. As with a lot of comfort foods, this is not a pretty dish. In fact, when it first comes out of the pot – at least the way it is cooked in my kitchen – it is probably downright ugly.

Usually, red bean dessert soup is served either as a fairly watery sweet soup (Chinese/Cantonese style), or with a thicker consistency and topped with coconut cream (Peranakan style). My own preferred way is to cook the red beans down to a thick, almost mash-like consistency – with some of the beans tender to the point of being slightly mushy and the rest of the beans still whole and with some bite…

The beans are then topped with some cold, lightly sweetened soy milk (Sobe being my preferred brand)…

Mixed…

And enjoyed.

I know this way of serving and eating red bean sweet soup may sound a little weird, and some of you… okay, maybe many of you are wrinkling your nose in horror at this, but truly, don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. This tastes pretty good; the whole family loves it like this. It tastes somewhat like the coconut cream version (don’t ask me how or why, but for some strange reason, it does), only lighter and healthier.

While red bean sweet soup is usually served piping hot, I like mine refreshingly cold, with beans that have been chilled in the fridge.

Another reason I like cooking the red beans to this consistency is that I find it to be a great topper for ice cream, especially green tea (Haagen Daz’s is good!) ice cream. Or, paired with grass jelly (chin chow; liang fen) or chendol (worm-shaped, soft, slightly chewy, pandan-flavored dough strips made from green bean flour), and spooned over vanilla ice cream. The beans are of course also great for making ice kacang (our popular South East Asian shaved ice dessert) with. Oh, there is also something from my childhood which I absolutely adored: red bean ice popsicles – my mum used to freeze either thick, sweetened red bean soup or soy milk enriched red bean soup into delicious, cool popsicles for a healthy afternoon sweet treat for my brother and I. That is something I haven’t done in a long time; and worth a re-visit soon I think.

There are also various permutations that I play around with, as the mood strikes. Sometimes I will add some dried Mandarin peel for an added aromatic fillip. If I happen to have some on hand, I would pop in some chopped up plain alkali water glutinous rice dumpling (kee chang; jian shui zhong), and let this cook down with the beans until completely dissolved into the soup. This really helps to give the beans a silken smooth texture. Occasionally, I would add some cooked sago to the beans before serving.

This is one food dish that takes up hardly any time or effort, and requires no supervision at all; it happily bubbles and gurgles away whilst you’re having your beauty sleep. The beans are plonked into the crock pot (slow-cooker) just before bedtime and left to do their thing through the night; and you then awake in the morning to freshly made red bean soup.

Hong Dou Tang Shui (Red Bean Sweet Soup)

2 bowlfuls dried red beans *
8 bowlfuls water **
white rock sugar to taste
¾ to 1 small plain alkali water glutinous rice dumpling, diced *** (optional)

[Sorry, I have no specific quantities for the ingredients; I always cook the beans by the guesstimation (agak-agak) method. And there really are no hard and fast rules; personal tastes dictate.]

* For a different textural experience, Japanese azuki beans may be used instead of the local variety. The amount of water and cooking time may have to be adjusted.

** Add more water depending on how you intend to serve the beans, or if a more watery consistency is desired.

*** Fresh, thawed or dried dumplings can be used, to equal results.

• Wash the beans under running water and drain well.

• Bring a pot of water to a boil. Once it reaches a rolling boil, add the beans. When the water returns to a boil, remove from the flame, drain the beans and rinse under running water. Drain.

• Repeat the process again with a pot of fresh water. [This helps to remove the traces of bitterness that are usually found in red beans. It is only necessary to do this with red beans; if making green bean sweet soup, this step can be skipped – green beans don’t seem to give the same bitter overtone.]

• Pop the drained beans into the crock pot, together with the 8 bowls of water and the diced glutinous rice dumpling (if using). Set the slow-cooker to “auto” and leave it for the night.

• The next morning, give the bean mixture a stir, drop in some rock sugar and cover (keeping the crock pot on “auto” mode). When the sugar has dissolved, give the beans another stir and serve. [It is important that the rock sugar goes in only after the beans are cooked and have softened to the tenderness that you want; once the sugar goes in, the beans will not tenderize any further, no matter how long you cook them for! This principle is true of almost all sweet soups (tang shui; tong shui) recipes: the rock sugar goes in last.]

If using sago: cook the sago separately in a pot of boiling water until the pearls turn clear. [It is best to add the raw sago to water that is at a rolling boil, rather than to bring the sago to a boil in a pot of cold water. This prevents them from disintegrating as they are being cooked.] Drain well, and add to the red bean mixture right at the end, after the rock sugar has dissolved. [I prefer to cook the sago separately from the beans, to prevent both the sago and the bean mixture from turning cloudy and gummy – they each seem to have this effect on the other. This way, the sago pearls will have a beautiful transparency, and the red bean soup will keep its silken smooth texture.]

If using dried Mandarin peel: add one medium piece (the fragrance can be too overpowering in excessive quantities) together with the raw beans right at the beginning. Remove the peel and stir to meld the flavors just before serving.

Copyright © 2004 Renee Kho. All Rights Reserved.
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