Let's Try Korean Cuisine (25): Pakchu (Rice Gruel with Red Beans)
Pakchu is a rice gruel cooking of red beans. Korean has a customs to take Pakchu in the winter solstice (Dec. 22) because they had believed it as the New Year's Day and regarded red beans as a charm to prevent evils from approaching them. Korean people love to eat it on ordinary days too. Let's try it!
Ingredients for four people
Rice -- 1 cup
Red beans -- 200g
Rice-flour dumplings -- 100g
Water -- 5cups
Salt -- a little
Sugar -- 1tsp
(1) Wash and soak red beans for a night.
(2) Wash and soak rice in water before boiling it.
(3) Add ten cups of water of red beans, cook them strong fire at high temperature until it starts boiling and then skim off the scum. Lower the fire and keep it at that for one hour. Add water little by little while straining them.
(4) Place rice in a pan, add four cups of the top clear layer 3 to it and boil it for 50 minutes with a lower fire.
(5) Add water a little to rice-flour to make small dumplings and boil them in hot water.
(6) Add 4 to the remainder of 3, add 5 and season it with a small amount of salt.
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