Sweet bean paste

Sweet bean paste
Sweet bean paste
	White bean paste
Chinese	豆沙
Hanyu Pinyin	dòu shā
Jyutping	dau6 saa1
Literal meaning	bean sand
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	dòu shā
Yue: Cantonese
Jyutping	dau6 saa1

Sweet bean paste is a food ingredient used throughout East Asian cuisine, primarily as a filling for sweet desserts and pastries.

Production

The beans are usually boiled without sugar, mashed, and diluted into a slurry. The slurry is then strained through a sieve to remove the husks. The resulting liquid is then filtered and squeezed dry using cheesecloth, and then finally sweetened. Oil in the form of either vegetable oil or lard is usually added to the relatively dry paste to improve its texture and mouthfeel.^{[citation needed]}

Oiled sweet bean paste is mainly found as fillings for Chinese pastries, while un-oiled sweet bean pastes can be used to make tong sui. Japanese pastries use primarily un-oiled sweet bean pastes.^{[citation needed]}

Types

There are several types of sweet bean paste:

Oil bean paste (油豆沙) – made from azuki beans; dark brown or black in colour from the addition of sugar and animal fat or vegetable oil, and further cooking; sometimes also includes Sweet Osmanthus flavor
Mung bean paste (綠豆沙) – made from mung beans and dull reddish purple in colour
Red bean paste (紅豆沙) – made from azuki beans and dark red in colour
White bean paste (白豆沙) – made from navy beans and greyish off-white in colour^photo
Black bean potato paste (黑豆沙) – made from black soybean powder (黑豆面) and potatoes; used in Beijing cuisine and other cuisines of northern China^photo

Others

There are a number of other pastes used in Chinese cuisine, primarily as fillings for dessert items. Although not made from beans, they share similar usage and are equally popular. They are very similar in flavor and texture to sweet bean paste. These include:

Lotus seed paste
Black sesame paste

Gallery

Chinese pancake using dou sha ingredient
Filling songpyeon with mung bean paste
Sandwich in Nagoya
Making bean paste flower

References

Hsiung, Deh-Ta (2000). The Chinese Kitchen: A Book of Essential Ingredients with Over 200 Easy and Authentic Recipes. Foreword by Ken Hom. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-24699-4. ISBN 978-0-312-24699-0.[1]