Hi everyone, Chinese new year is coming! So I decided to make something red… red bean… red bean soup!
This recipe only needs a few ingredients and they are 1. red bean (azuki beans), 2. water, 3. rock sugar, 4. salt.
1. Soak 1 cup of red beans overnight and rinse.
2. Boil 1 1/2L of water.
3. Add the red beans to the boiling water and bring the water back to a simmer.
4. Simmer uncovered for 30 minutes
5. Add 3/4ths cup of red bean paste and add cold water at the 30 minute mark to bring the water back up to the 1.5L of liquid. Bring the soup back to a simmer and cook uncovered.
6. When the ‘water’ (water that hasn’t mixed in with the red bean) has evaporated, continue to step 7.
In the picture below, when you scoop from the bottom up, there should only be a thin layer of clear liquid (water).
7. Dissolve 2 1-inch cubes of rock sugar into the soup.
8. Add 2 tablespoons of sea salt.
9. Serve hot/warm/cold 
The soup came out pretty good. Next time, I will definitely add dried tangerine peel to add extra flavor like you see in most restaurants that serve this at the end of the meal.
Really quickly, to make red bean paste (like I did), soak 1 cup of red beans overnight and boil in 6 cups of water for approximately an hour. Strain the beans. Push the beans through a fine-mesh strainer to remove the skins; you can do this directly above a pan with 1 tablespoon of veg. oil set over medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon of salt. Stir with a metal spoon until the moisture evaporates and you are left with red bean paste. This yields approximately 3/4ths cup of red bean paste.
