Make uses of the stock bean inside the pantry, this time, I introduce a recipe inspired from the Vietnamese three colors sweet soup. This recipe contains black bean, skinless mung bean paste, and the all-time yum agar.
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It’s very easy to cook, just cost a little time of planning and soaking the bean beforehand. I usually just soak the bean the night before and then cook them the next morning then transfer to the fridge after cooling down. Once I got off work, all of them would be cold enough to serve without the needs of extra shaved ice.
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Both beans are great to cook with pandan flavor, which usually keep a few leaves on hand, but you can substitute by vanilla extract too. Then instead of the traditional creamy coconut cream, I decided to throw in some agar for a change.
So have fun, and enjoy the sweet soup!
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Three colors sweet soup with black bean and coconut agar
Ingredients
- 14 oz black bean
- 8 oz skinless mung green bean
- 10 grams Agar Agar powder
- 600 ml coconut milk
- 400 ml water
- 2 1/2 cup sugar
- Pandan or Vanilla extract
- salt
Instructions
Black Bean
- Wash and rinse black bean twice to remove all dirt and stray.
- Soak black bean with water and 1 tsp of salt for a couple hours or over night.
- Strain all the water, and transfer to a pot.
- On high heat, keep stirring all the bean for about 10 minutes.
- Add Water about an inch higher than the bean top level.
- Bring water to boil then lower heat to simmer
- Cover and heat until desired softness (about an hour for regular pot and 15 minutes for pressure cooker)
- Be careful of heat when removing the lid. After desired softness is reached, strain to separate the solid (bean) from the black liquid (soup).
- Add 1 cup of sugar and a couple drop of pandan / vanilla extract to the bean, stir to mix, and let sit for about 20 minutes.
- Heat the bean/sugar mixture on low heat while stirring to prevent burnt for 15 minutes.
- Add back the black soup, stir to mix and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Let cool at room temperature, then cover and store in fridge until serve.
Mung Bean
- Soak mung bean for about an hour.
- Steam mung bean until mildly soft (30 minutes)
- Throw the steamed mung bean, 1/2 cup sugar and 200 ml coconut milk into your blender/food processor and puree.
- Now dry the puree mixture by using a large pan or wok on low heat. Keep stirring and folding using your spatula to prevent burnt on the bottom.
- The longer on heat, the dryer your mung bean will be. Keep heating for about 20 minute until all mung bean become a dough like consistency and shape able.
- Remove from heat, let cool.
- Seal/wrap with food wrap and keep in fridge until serve. (Carefully wrap/ cover to prevent firm/ too dry texture)
Coconut Agar
- Soak Agar in 400 ml coconut milk and 400ml water for 15 minutes.
- Add 1 cup of sugar, let dissolve.
- Bring the agar-sugar mixture to boil while stirring to prevent overflow 2-3 minutes
- Remove from heat and pour into molds
- Once cool at room temperature, place agar w/ mold into fridge to set for at least 1 hour before serving
Serve
- In serving cup, add 3-4 Tbsp of black bean sweet soup
- Then add a couple swoop of the cut agar cube
- Top of with 1-2 Tbsp of mung bean paste.
- Add ice if desired or as is. Sweet soup is ready to serve.
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