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Happy Chinese New Year!!! Â It’s the Year of the Goat.
A chilled smooth, silky coconut pudding with sweetened red beans is one of my favorite desserts.  Served in most dim sum restaurants, it’s a popular dessert.  You might forget what you ate, but never this dessert.  Without a heavy texture, it’s scrumptious, smooth, and super additive.  The oomph definitely comes from the coconut milk.
After having this for the first time in a very popular dim sum place in SF, I was delighted.  It instantly became one of my favorite desserts, and I had an incessant urge to eat it again. I remember, many times, I’ve made hubs drive 45 minutes just so I can eat this dessert.  I can say this dessert is at its best over there.  After a bit of research, I foudn that many recipes call for cornstarch, but some don’t.  You could use half of the cornstarch and half of the agar agar.  I found this recipe was the closest I’ve come to the real thing.  This might not be the authentic, but it sure is good.
Hope you get to try it out sometime. Â Have a beautiful week! Thanks so much for stopping by. Happy Chinese New Year!
- ⅓ cup Chinese red beans
- 2-3 cups water
- 4 tbsp sugar(for the red beans)
- pinch of salt
- 450 ml 2% milk
- 450 ml thick coconut milk
- ¼ cup white sugar(for the pudding)
- 25 gms coconut agar-agar or plain agar- agar/or 10 gm plain gelatin
- Wash the red beans in hot water and soak overnight or at least for 6 hours.
- Cook the red beans in a pot with 2-3 cups of water for about 15-20 minutes. Turn off the heat and let sit. It should not get too mushy. Drain the water, add 4 tbsp of sugar, pinch of salt and cook again for another 5 minutes and cool.
- In a heavy bottomed pan, add the milk, sugar and agar agar powder. Mix very well and simmer. The mixture will slowly thicken. Make sure to keep whisking so that the bottom doesn't scorch. After about 5 minutes, add the coconut milk. Mix well, cook for about 5 minutes, until the agar agar dissolves completely and the mixture thickens, again continuously stirring.
- Take a rectangular pan or any pan of your choice. I used a 9 inch by 4 inch. Spray a non stick spray. Add ¼ cup of the cooked beans. Add ½ cup of the coconut milk mix on top of the beans and let set in the freezer for 5 minutes. Then pour the rest of the mixture on top. Leave it on the counter top to get to room temperature. Then cover and leave it inside the refrigerator covered for up to 3-4 hours. When you un mold it, slowly run a sharp knife along the sides and it will slide out easily. SERVE cold.
You can use 10 gm cornstarch and 10 gm agar agar if you'd like. There's a lot of different flavors of agar agar. Make sure it is plain or coconut flavored.
Interesting
I’ve never tried this before but it looks beautiful and sounds so interesting. I’m saving this to try someday. Thank you for sharing and stopping by my blog. Hope you are doing well too!
I am beginning to like red bean lately but I’ve never had it in this kind of creamy dessert. Wow! I can imagine how good this will taste. Love the photo of the red beans..stunning!
It looks very beautiful and I bet it’s as tasty as it looks.
This looks beautiful! I love red bean desserts! This looks perfect for Chinese New Year 🙂
Gorgeous dessert!
Gorgeous dessert! Want to try this 🙂
Thank goodness for your incessant urge to have this dessert again, Ash! I have never tried a red bean pudding before, but I love everything coconut and pudding! I must try this knowing you have made your hubs drive 45 minutes to enjoy it. Thanks for sharing, my friend! xo
Oh Asha – this sounds totally delightful! There’s a little store near me that carries a wide variety of treats with red bean paste and red beans are so intoxicating when they are sweetened – so I understand your love of this well! Thanks so much for sharing this recipe!
I’ve had this dish (or something pretty similar) in restaurants, but never tried making it at home. It looks pretty easy, and sounds so tasty. I need to do this! Thanks.
I never had this dessert before. Next time I will try it. Loved all the pictures on this post, especially the last one with flower strawberry 🙂
Happy Chinese New Year, Ash! This coconut dessert already stole my heart. It looks so gooooood! Wishing you happiness and great fortune. xx
I don’t think I’ve ever seen adzuki beans be that fancy before–just gorgeous!
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant AND clever. Such a genius way to use red beans in a dessert. BRAVO!
I have never had a red bean dessert but it sure looks beautiful and delicious! Love the pictures!
Amazing pudding! So clever! i love it!
I would have never thought of red beans in a dessert, but they sound amazing in that creamy, coconut pudding! 🙂
I love coconut and adzuki beans in a dessert! This looks delicious, Ash 🙂
Wowza! Happy Chinese New Year! I’m Chinese by heritage and I didn’t even prepare anything remotely Asian this week! LOL! Can I have a slice (or two) of this please? Hehehe.
Happy Chinese New Year! This looks so delish 🙂 I have never heard of this recipe before but can’t wait to try it
Looks like an ice-cream loaf… very unique.. never seen anything like this before. Beans in dessert is an interesting twist. Love your instagrams clicks… it’s been a while. 🙂
I’ve never tried this but it’s beautiful in that photo!
You know when there is coconut I am all over it!!
What a wonderful post/recipe, Asha! I want to eat everything you present here.
I know the coconut pudding very well – my husband particularly loves it and that fragrance of coconut in the chilled, smooth form is amazing in your mouth. : ) We’re not lucky enough to often see the kind with red beans though. I would love that doubly since I’m a huge fan of red bean and remember drinking plenty of red bean ices growing up. I also used to visit a tofu/noodle type shop in Brooklyn growing up. It sold things from tofu to noodles to these red bean cakes that I was addicted to. Just picture what you have here but in all red bean flavor/form. I would go there regularly for it and I miss it so much! I’m so happy to see this here. Thanks for sharing your recipe.
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I love anything with red beans…ANYTHING! This sounds absolutely fabulous…definitely a must make!