Pictorial: Red Bean Dessert Soup

[hzrt8w]

Recipe: Red Bean Dessert Soup (红豆沙)

I just made some Cantonese style Red Bean Dessert Soup tonight. This dessert soup is often served as a compliment of the house after your meal in Cantonese style restaurants. It is very easy to make at home, with quality being just as good as the restaurant mades. I want to write down this recipe while my memory is still fresh for those who are interested. Sorry, no pictures.

Servings: 8 to 12 persons

Ingredients

- Red beans, 1/2 bag, about 8 oz

- Peen Tong (Brown sugarcane sugar in slabs), 4 pieces

- Chan Pei (Dried tangerine peels), about 7 to 8 pieces

- Ginger slices, about 10 very thin slices

- Coconut milk (canned), about 1/2 a can, about 7 to 8 fluid oz

- Tapioca, about 1/2 cup, use the smaller size you can find, about 1/8 inch in dia

Instructions

- Soak the red beans in a mixing bowl in water overnight. The beans will expand to twice their original size. Wash and drain.

- Soak the dried tangerine peels in warm water for about 30 minutes before use. Prepare fresh ginger slices.

- Use a medium size pot, fill to 1/2 full with water (about 10 to 12 cups). Bring the water to boil. Add red beans, soaked tangerine peels and ginger slices. Boil for about 5 minutes. Cover the pot. Reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 2 hours. Stir occassionally.

- Add tapioca and 1/2 can of coconut milk into the pot. Continue to simmer for another hour. Stir occassionally.

- After a total of 3 hours of simmering, the dessert soup is ready. Serve in small bowls. You may take out the mandarin peels and ginger before serving for better presentation. Or just leave them in.

Notes: There are many variations to this recipe. What listed above are the basics. You may use rock sugar or white sugar in place of sugarcane sugar slabs. Tapioca requires less cooking time than red beans. That's why this is a 2-step process. Do not overcook the tapioca or else it will dissolve into the soup and the soup will become a thick starchy paste.

Editing note: "Mandarin" should have been "Tangerine".

Edited October 6, 2005 by hzrt8w (log)

[Tepee]

Ooooh...tong sui! My variation doesn't have the ginger slices...never had them before in red bean soup. I'll try that the next time. Do you make your own chan pei? I do. During chinese new year, we save some peels...I'm quite adept at peeling a whole mandarin orange in one piece, er hem. Scrape out all the pith and dry them, then keep them in the freezer. Keeps forever.

Coming back.....I do steps 1 to 3 like you do. And now, let me bring you back to the beauty of having a thermal pot.....I don't have to simmer the tong sui. I just put it in the pot, leave it alone and it'll nicely cook to a soft stage in 3 hours.

When you talk about tapioca, is it something like sago pearls? Because that's what I use. Small sago pearls. And the coconut milk is freshly squeezed, first press. Bring it just to a boil, add a pinch of salt. The coconut milk is served separately, added according to personal preference.

Have you tried putting cut-up gan sui joong inside the soup? Adds to the smoothness too.

Yet other variations are adding gingko nuts or lotus seeds to the hoong dau sah.

p/s You know what this thread made me do? I went crazy at the Ramadan Food Bazaar in my neighborhood when I sent my girls to tuition and violin classes. Will post later in the Elsewhere in Asia forum...camera's charging.

Edited October 6, 2005 by Tepee (log)

[Dejah]

During chinese new year, we save some peels...I'm quite adept at peeling a whole mandarin orange in one piece, er hem. Scrape out all the pith and dry them, then keep them in the freezer. Keeps forever.

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Do you mean...put the whole thing in your mouth, roll the orange around with your tongue and teeth, spit the complete peel out, then eat the meat! Ahem...who's got the bigger...

I like to dry my own orange peel too. The pith is scraped, then left on a platter to air dry. Not only do I get a nice citrus smell while it is drying, I think this method may keep the aroma better than freezing. Tho'...I've never tried freezing orange peel. Maybe I'll try that this Xmas. Remind me, Tepee!

To my red bean soup, I add raw peanuts (soaked for 3 hours) along with the red beans and lotus nuts. At birthday parties, I have seen small glutinous rice dumplings also.

Gan sui joong? Really? I'll have to tell Po-Po that. She loves both the soup and gansui joong. Now she can have both at the same time!

Does thinking about Xmas make you visulize poor Dejah with all the snow? Well, we had our first snow blizzard yesterday! So early...so much...Hopefully it will all melt by this afternoon. My Mexican students were in a state of shock. They asked me, "Will there be sun again? or not until spring?!"

Don't know how I'll be able to find that Thanksgiving turkey for "Turkey Chop Suey"in this snow !

[Tepee]

Do you mean...put the whole thing in your mouth, roll the orange around with your tongue and teeth, spit the complete peel out, then eat the meat! Ahem...who's got the bigger...    

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My dear dai gah cheh, I'm sure I'm not as talented as you...

The peels....I dry them first in the sun, then only I freeze them.

Nuts are nice. Personally, I haven't added them like that before, but I've had soup with roasted peanuts in them.

SNOW! What my girls would give to experience snow. I've only stepped on snow in high places (Mt Titlis and Mt Cook)...never during winter. What fun...I think.

[Ben Hong]

Sue-On, you guys got snow already??? We had a string of sunny days in the high 70s. Our leaves are only about 30% turned.

[hzrt8w]

When you talk about tapioca, is it something like sago pearls? Because that's what I use. Small sago pearls.

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Yes. Tapioca is also called sogo pearls.

Recently they are better known as "boba balls". Same thing. Just super-sized.

[SobaAddict70]

The simplest version I've had was just red beans, rock sugar, maybe a slice of ginger and water.

Never had one with coconut milk. Must try this.

[hzrt8w]

I like to dry my own orange peel too......

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Dejah: Do you really use orange peels to make chan pei? I thought the taste of orange peels are not suitable to eat or something. I have only seen dried tangerine peels.

[Seitch]

Have you tried putting cut-up gan sui joong inside the soup? Adds to the smoothness too.

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Yeah, my grandma sometimes adds that. She tends to cube up leftover gan sui joong and dries them. When she makes red bean soup she'll add a handful.

[Dejah]

I like to dry my own orange peel too......

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Dejah: Do you really use orange peels to make chan pei? I thought the taste of orange peels are not suitable to eat or something. I have only seen dried tangerine peels.

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hrzt: Not navel oranges. I should have made it clear. These are the Chinese oranges that we get at Xmas? or ...They are easy to peel, look like Japanese oranges except bigger. Toisanese is "GAM"?

Also, I used to scrape the pith, dry them, rehydrate, cut into thin strips, then simmer them in a little water with licorice root and salty plums. These were then left out to dry and stored in glass jars. One of our favourite snacks!

[hzrt8w]

hrzt: Not navel oranges. I should have made it clear. These are the Chinese oranges that we get at Xmas? or ...They are easy to peel, look like Japanese oranges except bigger. Toisanese is "GAM"?

←

In the US, "GAM", or Gum in Cantonese - same sound as gum as in "gold", is tangerine (or tangerine orange).

There is another smaller citrus fruit called Gut in Cantonese. Also popular around Chinese New Year. It's mandarin (or mandarin orange).

Both tangerine and mandarin can be used to dry their peels for chan pei.

[Yuki]

I am more of a green bean dessert person but I also love red bean dessert because of the tangerine peel, lotus seed, and some kind of white bulb(they are crunchy). I was making red bean dessert a while ago and the red bean simply won't soften after many hours of boiling(I've already soaked it overnight before cooking). Wonder if red bean quality is declining now, I remember being able to get large and flavorful red bean easily when I was young.....

[hzrt8w]

I was making red bean dessert a while ago and the red bean simply won't soften after many hours of boiling(I've already soaked it overnight before cooking). Wonder if red bean quality is declining now, I remember being able to get large and flavorful red bean easily when I was young.....

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I think it may depend on the brand. I remember trying a few brands (their red beans are hugh compared to others)... the red beans remained kind of hard like you described. Since then I had found one brand that I liked and I stick to it.

I think as a general rule: the smaller the dry red bean, the better. Don't pick the ones that are big. (They may be even a different specie of beans, I am not sure.)

Taiwanese red beans are not as good as the ones from Mainland China.

[jo-mel]

I've never been a Chinese cold soup lover. And I never realized that coconut milk was in it. I will rethink my bias the next time it is offered.

Dejah -- when I heard of that snow storm in Montana and No Dakots yesterday, I thought to myself ----- Hmmmmmmm, that storm must have come down from Canada. Hmmmmmmmm, that part of Canada is Dejah Country!!!! Hmmmmm I wonder if she will be able to did her way to the computer! Glad it is not lasting. Too much, too soon!

I use Clementines for my orange peel. They are not all alike, but some of them have such nice thin skin that there is almost no pith on the underside of the skin. They dry on a radiator, then go into a jar. I never thought of freezing them. Would it make any difference?

[hzrt8w]

I've never been a Chinese cold soup lover.  And I never realized that coconut milk was in it. I will rethink my bias the next time it is offered.

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Coconut milk is not used in the traditional red bean soup recipes.

I remember when I was a kid, none of the red bean dessert soup in Hong Kong used coconut milk. Most of them were the basic: red bean, rock sugar, dry tangerine peels.

Both tapioca and coconut milk (Malaysian/Singaporean influence) are in the moder version of red bean dessert soup. Maybe this is a copy of buburchacha minus the yam and taro. Be they add another dimension (in texture and smell too besides taste) to the dessert soup. I love them.

[Tepee]

I am more of a green bean dessert person but I also love red bean dessert because of the tangerine peel, lotus seed, and some kind of white bulb(they are crunchy). I was making red bean dessert a while ago and the red bean simply won't soften after many hours of boiling(I've already soaked it overnight before cooking). Wonder if red bean quality is declining now, I remember being able to get large and flavorful red bean easily when I was young.....

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Green Bean soup - I like it too, but it's too cooling for the female species...*cough* if you know what I mean....

White bulb - lily bulb...bak hup (cantonese), bai he (mandarin)...good for the lungs.

Red bean won't soften? - make sure your beans are fresh. Beans which have been left on the shelves for a long time gets so hard that it won't soften no matter how long you boil it. Get red beans from Tin Chon (Tianjin); they are the best.

[Yuki]

I am more of a green bean dessert person but I also love red bean dessert because of the tangerine peel, lotus seed, and some kind of white bulb(they are crunchy). I was making red bean dessert a while ago and the red bean simply won't soften after many hours of boiling(I've already soaked it overnight before cooking). Wonder if red bean quality is declining now, I remember being able to get large and flavorful red bean easily when I was young.....

←

Green Bean soup - I like it too, but it's too cooling for the female species...*cough* if you know what I mean....

White bulb - lily bulb...bak hup (cantonese), bai he (mandarin)...good for the lungs.

Red bean won't soften? - make sure your beans are fresh. Beans which have been left on the shelves for a long time gets so hard that it won't soften no matter how long you boil it. Get red beans from Tin Chon (Tianjin); they are the best.

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I know that the red beans are the best from Tianjin but it is getter harder to find them now. I was talking to a small ice-cream/popsicles shop owner in Macau and she told me that the Japanese brought up a lot of the Tianjin red beans. I have also heard that the Japanese brought up all the nice Tianjin chestnu too..... hopefully there is still some left for me.

Green bean soup is very good espcially with the addition of the stinky grass, I need to go to the herbal shop and get some stinky grass for green bean popsicle. My favourite Chinese sweet soups are coconut taro with tapioca, sweet potato with ginger, green bean, black sesame, walnut, and papaya with snow ear..... actually I like all of them when they are well made.

Edited October 7, 2005 by Yuki (log)

[Yuki]

Sorry: double post

Edited October 7, 2005 by Yuki (log)

[Dejah]

I found I had more problems with azuki? beans. They tend to stay firmer. I like the beans soft.

I have had red bean soup with coconut milk, but I prefer it without. Love the flavour but not the "richness"?

Bak hup! ooooo one of my favourite things to eat! Can't cook them too long tho'. I soak them, then add them after the beans, nuts are soft.

We just had fresh bak hup soup for supper. I saved some of the inner cores this summer and planted them in my flower bed. The plants are about a foot tall...well...they were before the snow.

Next summer, I should have fresh lily bulbs within easy reach! Right now, we buy them from the Chinese grocery store...2 1/2 hours away.

[Dejah]

hrzt: Not navel oranges. I should have made it clear. These are the Chinese oranges that we get at Xmas? or ...They are easy to peel, look like Japanese oranges except bigger. Toisanese is "GAM"?

←

In the US, "GAM", or Gum in Cantonese - same sound as gum as in "gold", is tangerine (or tangerine orange).

There is another smaller citrus fruit called Gut in Cantonese. Also popular around Chinese New Year. It's mandarin (or mandarin orange).

Both tangerine and mandarin can be used to dry their peels for chan pei.

←

I just save the GUM/GAM and not the GUT JIE. I still have a whole 2 gallon glass jar full of old chun pei from my restaurant days. This is kept in a cool dark corner. The aroma is wonderful whenever I open the jar for a piece. Chun pei is my favourite part of the red bean soup, along with the bak hup, lotus seed, peanuts, dumplings, rock sugar...etc..etc...

[Pan]

I've never been a Chinese cold soup lover.[...]

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I can understand that. Cold soups tend to be subtle and not obviously impressive. But to me, the point of them is that they are soothing.

TP, maybe you can post here on what happens when you eat too much green bean soup or too much of something else that's humorally cooling. I'm still hoping that we can get more of a discussion going on the humoral system as it relates to food and drink.

[Tepee]

I've never been a Chinese cold soup lover.  And I never realized that coconut milk was in it. I will rethink my bias the next time it is offered.

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The red bean soup is served more often hot than cold.

You can also make a thicker, sweeter version and turn it into ice lollies. Yum!

[Dejah]

I've never been a Chinese cold soup lover.  And I never realized that coconut milk was in it. I will rethink my bias the next time it is offered.

←

The red bean soup is served more often hot than cold.

You can also make a thicker, sweeter version and turn it into ice lollies. Yum!

←

I prefer my red bean soup hot...love the lollies! Must make some...

[hzrt8w]

Red Bean Dessert Soup (红豆沙)

This Cantonese style Red Bean Dessert Soup is often served as a compliment of the house after your meal in Cantonese style restaurants. It is very easy to make at home, with quality being just as good as the restaurant mades.

Picture of the finished dish:

Serving Suggestion: 8 to 12

Preparations:

Main ingredients: (From bottom right, clockwise)

- Red beans, 1/2 bag, about 7 - 8 oz

- Coconut milk (canned), about 1/2 a can, about 7 to 8 fluid oz

- Chan Pei (Dried tangerine peels), about 4 to 5 pieces

- Ginger slices, about 10 very thin slices

- Peen Tong (Brown sugarcane sugar in slabs), use 4 pieces

- Tapioca pearl (sago), about 1/2 cup, use the smaller size you can find, about 1/8 inch in diameter

Soak the red beans in a mixing bowl in water overnight. The beans will expand to twice their original size. Wash and drain.

Soak the dried tangerine peels in water for about 30 minutes before cooking. Prepare fresh ginger slices.

Cooking Instructions:

Use a medium size pot, fill to 1/2 full with water (about 10 to 12 cups). Bring the water to boil. Add red beans, soaked tangerine peels and ginger slices. Boil for about 5 minutes. Cover the pot. Reduce heat to simmer. Simmer for 2 hours. Stir occassionally.

Add tapioca and 1/2 can of coconut milk into the pot. Continue to simmer for another hour. Stir occassionally.

After a total of 3 hours of simmering, the dessert soup is ready. Serve in small bowls. You may take out the mandarin peels and ginger before serving for better presentation. Or just leave them in.

Picture of the finished dessert soup.

Notes: There are many variations to this recipe. What listed above are the basics. You may use rock sugar or white sugar in place of sugarcane sugar slabs. Tapioca requires less cooking time than red beans. That's why this is a 2-step process. Do not overcook the tapioca or else it will dissolve into the soup and the soup will become a thick starchy paste.

Edited January 7, 2006 by hzrt8w (log)

[Dejah]

I guess I must make the deluxe version as I add lotus nuts, peanuts, and small glutinous rice yuen to the red beans, chun pei, ginger and rock sugar. I love this stuff, hot or cold!