Red Bean Paste 红豆沙

Hey everyone!大家好！ The New Year （新年） is coming up, so I decided to make red bean paste, 红豆沙. I used it to make Chinese steamed buns and red bean mochi. Anyways, this red bean paste is delicious. My family loves it. I personally like the chunky texture of red bean paste. I like it smooth too, but it depends on what you want to use it for. The chunky version is thicker, so it's easier to use as a filling for something, like mochi and buns. I love eating it just by itself too. The canned ones don't taste as good, but if you like smooth 红豆沙, you might as well buy it, unless you want to do some extra straining to make it smooth.
This took a total of 26 hours to make. It's because you have to soak the beans for 24 hours. You can soak it for just a few hours, but the cooking time will be longer. Anyways, it's well worth the effort. I hope you guys enjoy this red bean paste.

Ingredients: 

• 14 oz bag of dried red beans
• 1 3/4 cup sugar
• a pinch of salt 
• water (to boil the beans)

Directions: 

1. Soak the beans in water for 24 hours. The beans will grow larger in size. You may need to add more water as time goes on. 
2. Rinse the beans and put them in a pot. Add water to cover the beans. Bring it to a boil and boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat, drain the beans and put them back in the pot. 
3. Add water so that the water is 1/2 in above the beans. Bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let it simmer, covered, for about one hour to 1  1/2 hours. The beans should be soft and easy to smush.
4. Drain the beans  and rinse the pot. Put the beans back into the pot and put it over medium low heat. Mix  in the sugar 1/4 cup at a time.Then, mix in the salt.
5. Once the red bean has become thick in texture (it may take 10 to 30 minutes), turn off the heat. Smush the beans with a potato smasher or a spatula. If you like a smoother texture, you can put it in a blender or put it through a cloth strainer. This would take a long time though. 
6. The red beans are ready.

 I hope you guys enjoy. :)