Do you have a 3/4 cup of kidney beans, some glutonious rice flour, honey and sesame seeds? Well, you are in luck because I have a recipe for you!
Whenever my family has a few odd ingredients that we need to use up, they call me in. I have a knack for thinking outside the box to make something yummy.
This time I had a small amount of kidney beans that needed to be used up. I recently tried red bean mochi, and I remembered my sister mentioned you can make red bean paste with kidney beans.
This is a Japanese based yummy dessert made with American ingredients (and preparation). I found a recipe for instant pot red kidney bean paste and found you can substitute the usual cane sugar for honey.
Ingredients:
Red Bean Paste
- 3/4 cup of kidney beans
- 3/4 to 1 cup of honey depending on taste
Sticky Rice Bun
- 1 cup of glutonious rice flour
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup of just boiled water
- 4 tablespoons of sesame seeds
- Some oil for frying
Supplies Needed:
- Cast iron pan
- Instant pot
- Food Processor
Directions:
Soak the kidney beans over night. Add the beans to the instant pot with an inch of water and cook them for 25 minutes. Allow to natural release for 15 minutes and then release the rest of the steam if any.
While it is cooking, combine 1 cup of glutonious rice flour and a 1/2 cup of just boiled water. Stir with chopsticks or a fork. Chopsticks will work better because this is going to be SUPER sticky!
Once it starts to form little clumps, keep stirring and try to get to the sticky wet dough in the middle of the clumps by smashing the dough on the sides of the bowl. If you have worked in all the flour you can, add 1/4 cup more water and repeat until it forms a ball that doesn’t stick super well to the bowl.
Cover with a wet towel for 15 minutes.
Now that your kidney beans are cooked, drain the water and rinse them. Add them back to the instant pot and push the saute button. Start with 3/4 cup of honey and stir, smashing a few of the beans as you go.
Once most of the beans are at least smashed in half, taste it and decide if you want to add another 1/4 cup of honey or not.
Transfer to a food processor and blend until smooth. Put in an airtight container and leave in fridge until cool. Super important to allow it to cool before cooking with it otherwise your stick buns will fall apart as you are forming them.
Now put a piece of wax paper on your cutting board and add a dusting of rice flour. You will need more rice flour as you are working the dough. Knead the dough for 10 minutes, adding more rice flour until it doesn’t stick to your fingers very much. Roll it into a loaf and cut into 8 pieces.
Once your red bean paste is cooled, form each piece of door into a round circle with your hand. Add about one tablespoon of red bean paste and close the dough around the paste.
Get a plate and add two tablespoons of sesame seeds. Gently smash the round into a disk and lightly press the disk on the sesame seeds on both sides. Repeat until you have eight stick buns.
Get out your cast iron pan (or non-stick pan) and add a light drizzle of oil of your choice. Add several sticky buns to the pan and wait till they are semi-translucent on the sides and golden brown.
Enjoy warm for a gooey treat or wait for them to cool a bit if you like chewy treats!
