Sweet bean paste is a food ingredient used in several Asian cuisines. Within Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...

, it is primarily used as a filling for sweet desserts and Chinese pastry.

Production

The bean

Bean

Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genera of the family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed....

s are usually boiled without sugar, mashed, and diluted into a slurry

Slurry

A slurry is, in general, a thick suspension of solids in a liquid.-Examples of slurries:Examples of slurries include:* Lahars* A mixture of water and cement to form concrete* A mixture of water, gelling agent, and oxidizers used as an explosive...

. The slurry is then strained through a sieve to remove the bean skins. The resulting sandy liquid is then filtered and squeezed dry using cheesecloth, and then finally sweetened. Oil in the form of either vegetable oil or lard

Lard

Lard is pig fat in both its rendered and unrendered forms. Lard was commonly used in many cuisines as a cooking fat or shortening, or as a spread similar to butter. Its use in contemporary cuisine has diminished because of health concerns posed by its saturated-fat content and its often negative...

 is usually added to the relatively dry paste to improve its texture and mouthfeel

Mouthfeel

Mouthfeel is a product's physical and chemical interaction in the mouth, an aspect of food rheology. It is a concept used in many areas related to the testing and evaluating of foodstuffs, such as wine-tasting and rheology. It is evaluated from initial perception on the palate, to first bite,...

.

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

Tong Sui

Tong sui, also known as tim tong, is a collective term for any sweet, warm soup or custard served as a dessert at the end of a meal in Cantonese cuisine. Tong sui are a Cantonese specialty and are rarely found in other regional cuisines of China...

. Japanese sweet

Wagashi

is a traditional Japanese confectionery which is often served with tea, especially the types made of mochi, azuki bean paste, and fruits.Wagashi is typically made from natural ingredients...

s pastries use primarily un-oiled sweet bean pastes.

The beans used are called "sweet beans" by many natives in Asia. As the beans are not actually sweet, but rather have been sweetened with sugar, they are in fact "sweetened beans".

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
  Sweet Osmanthus
  Osmanthus fragrans is a species of Osmanthus native to Asia, from the Himalaya east through southern China and to Taiwan and to southern Japan...
  
   flavor
• Mung bean paste (綠豆沙) - made from mung beans and dull reddish purple in colour^photo
• Red bean paste
  Red bean paste
  Red bean paste or Azuki bean paste is a sweet, dark red bean paste originating from China. It is used in Chinese cuisine, Japanese confectionery, and Korean cuisine. It is prepared by boiling and mashing azuki beans and then sweetening the paste with sugar or honey...
  
   (紅豆沙) - made from azuki bean
  Azuki bean
  The is an annual vine, Vigna angularis, widely grown throughout East Asia and the Himalayas for its small bean. The cultivars most familiar in north-east Asia have a uniform red color, but white, black, gray and variously mottled varieties are also known. Scientists presume Vigna angularis var...
  
  s and dark red in colour^photo
• White bean paste (白豆沙) - made from navy bean
  Common bean
  Phaseolus vulgaris, the common bean, is an herbaceous annual plant domesticated independently in ancient Mesoamerica and the Andes, and now grown worldwide for its edible bean, popular both dry and as a green bean. The leaf is occasionally used as a leaf vegetable, and the straw is used for fodder...
  
  s 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
  Beijing cuisine
  Beijing cuisine is a cooking style in Beijing, China. It is also known as Mandarin cuisine.-Background:Since Beijing has been the Chinese capital city for centuries, its cuisine has been influenced by culinary traditions from all over China, but the cuisine that has exerted the greatest influence...
  
   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 as popular. They are very similar in flavor and texture to sweet bean paste. These include:

• Lotus seed paste
  Lotus seed paste
  Lotus seed paste is a Chinese dessert ingredient made from dried lotus seeds. It is traditionally considered as a luxurious ingredient.-Production:...
  
  
• Black sesame
  Sesame
  Sesame is a flowering plant in the genus Sesamum. Numerous wild relatives occur in Africa and a smaller number in India. It is widely naturalized in tropical regions around the world and is cultivated for its edible seeds, which grow in pods....
  
  paste