Red bean paste

Red bean paste (traditional Chinese: 豆沙/紅豆沙; simplified Chinese: 豆沙/红豆沙; Japanese: あんこ or 小豆餡; Korean: 팥소) or red bean jam, also called adzuki bean paste or anko (a Japanese word), is a paste made of red beans (also called "adzuki beans"), used in East Asian cuisine. The paste is prepared by boiling the beans, then mashing or grinding them. At this stage, the paste can be sweetened or left as it is. The color of the paste is usually dark red, which comes from the husk of the beans. In Korean cuisine, the adzuki beans (often the black variety) can also be husked prior to cooking, resulting in a white paste. It is also possible to remove the husk by sieving after cooking, but before sweetening, resulting in a red paste that is smoother and more homogeneous.

In Japanese, a number of names are used to refer to red bean paste; these include an (餡), anko (餡子) and ogura (小倉). Strictly speaking, the term an can refer to almost any sweet, edible, mashed paste, although without qualifiers red beans are assumed, while azukian (小豆餡) refers specifically to the paste made with red beans. Other common forms of an include shiroan (白餡; "white bean paste"), made from navy or other white beans, green beans and kurian (栗餡), made from chestnuts.

Similarly, the Chinese term dòushā (豆沙; 'bean paste'), applies to red bean paste when used without qualifiers, although hóngdòushā (紅豆沙) explicitly means "red bean paste."

In Korean, pat (팥, Vigna angularis) contrasts with kong (콩, "bean"), rather than being considered a type of it. Kong ("beans") without qualifiers usually means soybeans. As so (소) means "filling", the word patso (팥소) means "pat filling", with unsweetened dark-red paste as its prototype. Dan (단, "sweet") attached to patso makes danpat-so (단팥소), the sweetened red bean paste, which is often called danpat (단팥; "sweet pat"). Geopi (거피, "hulled, skinned, peeled, shelled, etc.") attached to pat makes geopipat (거피팥), the dehulled red beans and the white paste made of geopipat is called geopipat-so (거피팥소).

Red bean paste is graded according to its consistency, sweetness, and color.

In Chinese cuisine, the most common types are:

In Japanese cuisine and confectionery, the most common types are:

In Korean cuisine and confectionery, the most common types are: