Shiro Koshi-an Smooth White Sweet Bean Paste - white kidney beans

Method

• Remove any broken beans.
• Plan to soak the beans in water for 1 night in the summer and for 2 nights in the winter, until the beans lose their wrinkles and become smooth.
• Change the water twice a day.
• Put the beans in a pot, bring to a boil, and drain.
• Peel off the thin outer skins.
• The beans are all peeled.
• Put the peeled beans back in the pot with water to cover, and simmer until tender with a small lid that fits right on top of the pot contents (drop lid or otoshibuta).
• It took about 40 minutes.
• Put a sieve over a bowl filled with water, put the cooked beans and press through the sieve using the back of a ladle.
• Pass the bean paste through a fine mesh sieve again into a bowl filled with water.
• Strain the water from the bean paste using a clean cotton cloth (or cheesecloth).
• This is nama-an (unsweetened fresh bean paste).
• Weigh the nama-an (the unsweetened paste), and measure 60% of its weight in granulated sugar.
• (I had 656 g of nama-an, and 393 g of granulated sugar.)
• Put the nama-an and the granulated sugar in the pot and mix together over low heat.
• When it's well blended, add remaining granulated sugar and keep on mixing and kneading with a wooden spatula over low heat.
• It will be very hot, so be careful not to burn yourself!
• It will be creamy and loose to start, but keep on simmering and stirring until it reaches your desired consistency.
• It'll change texture in about 20 minutes.
• The photo above shows "sticky" bean paste.
• It's the right consistency for firm foundation like a mochi ball or on a dorayaki pancake.
• The photo above is a "moist" bean paste, or simmered about midway.
• It is nice and shiny, and can be used for a lot of things, such as filling mochi dumplings.
• The photo above is a 'floury' bean paste.
• It's quite stiff and potato-like in consistency.
• It's used for things like kashiwa-mochi (oak leaf-wrapped mochi cakes eaten in May) and sakura-mochi (cherry leaf-wrapped mochi cakes eaten in March to April).
• If you dry it out even further, it becomes the right consistency to use for nerikiri (a dough made with shiro-an and mochi).