The soup i chose is a sweet red bean soup. The reason why i chose this soup because its something from my culture and in Chinese we call it Tong sui which is called sweet water in english. There is no story but i know there are alot of variety for red bean soup example for japanese version of red bean soup they add chestnut.
Chinese Coconut Red Bean Soup with Tapioca Pearls
Ingredients
10 cups water, divided
1/4 cup tapioca pearls
2 cups small red beans (or Japanese azuki beans), soaked overnight, rinsed, and drained
Rock sugar, to taste (depending on your preferred level of sweetness)
In a small saucepan, bring 2 cups of water to a boil. Add tapioca pearls and simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes. Cover with a lid and remove from heat. The tapioca pearls should plump up and turn translucent in about 10 minutes (if not, let it reboil for 5 minutes and keep it covered again for 10 minutes). Drain the liquid through a sieve and rinse with cold water until water runs clear. Set aside.
In a large pot, bring the beans and 8 cups of water to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low and let simmer, covered, stirring occasionally. Make sure there is enough water covering the beans at all time; add more boiling water if necessary. Cook for about 1.5 hours, or until the beans are tender and the liquid reduces to a thick consistency.
Stir in rock sugar and allow to dissolve completely. Stir in tapioca pearls and coconut milk before serving. Serve hot or chilled.
The sweet red bean soup is sweet and had a light purple colour. It also smells like a mix of coconut and sweet paste. What makes this soup unique is that is can be both serve cold and hot depending on the season. What i learn about this dish is that soup doesn't always have to be savory and can be served as a dessert. This dish was enjoyable especially in the winter because its nice and warm and it's not too sweet.
I let my younger brother try it he enjoyed it because it had a nice texture in the soup and has a nice coconut sweetness.
What was challenging about this dish is allowing the red beans to soak long enough because if i cook them to early it would still have a crunchy texture which is something i am not looking for in the is soup. Another challenge i had with this soup is cooking the tapioca pearls because i can't over cook them because if i do they would turn to mush and if i under cook them they would still have a crunch to them, The dish was a success and what i would do differently is i would add shredded coconut into the soup or i can is a different type of bean.
What i took away from this experience is getting the ability to make a dessert soup. What i learn is that china is not the only country to serve dessert soup it is also served in Japan, Korea, and other part of Asia and I also learn how to make tapioca. How i can apply this to my future culinary endeavors is by creating other Asian dishes are aren't widely serve in Canada and modifying them so it can serve peoples taste buds.
