[Sca-cooks] Bean Paste in Soup for the Qan

Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius adamantius1 at verizon.net
Tue Sep 30 04:43:14 PDT 2008


On Sep 30, 2008, at 12:12 AM, Lilinah wrote:

> I'm re-re-reading the introductory matter to A Soup for the Qan. The  
> authors mention that recipes for essentially Turkic pasta that  
> include bean paste reflect Chinese influence. However, i don't  
> recall them specifying what kind of bean paste and the index does  
> not list bean paste...
>
> There are so many possibilities
> -- Old World mung beans cooked and mashed
> -- Old World adzuki beans cooked and mashed
> -- some sort of fermented bean paste along the lines of Korean jiang  
> or Japanese miso
> -- some sort of fermented bean paste along the lines of modern  
> Chinese black bean sauce or others
> (i apologize, but it's been so long since i've cooked Chinese food  
> at home that i don't remember what other Chinese bean thingies are  
> available)
> -- or something completely different...


Since there's no qualification mentioned, and looking at this from a  
Chinese perspective, I'd assume the closest modern equivalent would be  
yellow bean paste, which is at the very mild end of the range of  
fermented mung or soybean products.

It's commonly used as a pastry filling today, like marzipan, but it's  
also sweetened. I'm not sure if the product referred to in ASftQ is  
freshly made, or preserved with salt and/or sugar.

Adamantius




"Most men worry about their own bellies, and other people's souls,  
when we all ought to worry about our own souls, and other people's  
bellies."
			-- Rabbi Israel Salanter




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