Mizu Yokan
Japanese candy (wagashi)
A very simple Japanese sweet. something like a gummy I suppose. The texture of the agar agar and the graininess of the red beans combine for a unique mouth feel mouth feel. If you're interested in wagashi, for sure give this a shot.
What you will need
200g koshian
3/4 cup water
2g agar agar
1 pinch salt
How to cook
1
This condiment is used in a variety of Japanese desserts. Do a double batch and store it in the freezer. It should last for a couple of months, no problem.
2
Combine agar agar and water in a sauce pot and mix over heat until it comes to a simmer. It's important to mix well as the water is heating up because agar tends to clump up.
3
Stir in the bean paste. Mix well. Break up the clumps with a whisk.
4
Remove from heat and mix in a pinch of salt.
5
The make special molds for this, but I just used this small terrine mold. It's lined with plastic wrap so that I'll be able to get the yokan out when it's set without damaging it too much.
6
Put it in the fridge. It should take about 15 minutes to set, so long as yours ends up around the same thickness as mine.
7
See, the plastic makes it easy to pop the yokan out of the mold.
8
Slice it up. My mold left some rounded edges, so I sliced those away before cutting into rectangular strips. In hindsight, I would have cut once in half perpendicular as well because these candies are better in small bites.
9
You've got your yokan. Do what you will. Share with friends, horde it all to yourself, or get weirded out and feed it to the dog. I like it, but it's probably not for everyone.
Koshian
Anko paste is a simple paste of sweetened red beans that appears in a lot of Japanese desserts. There are 3 varieties or stages referring to the texture, or basically just how much you squished the beans. Tsubuan refers to whole unmashed bean paste. Tsubushian is a lightly mashed bean paste as in the image above. Koshian is mashed and sieved bean paste with no visible bean chunks.