Adzuki Bean Croquettes

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* Exported from MasterCook *

 

Adzuki Bean Croquettes

 

Recipe By :

Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00

Categories : LowFat (Less than 20%) LowFat (Less than 25%)

Spicy Vegan

WW

 

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

-------- ------------ --------------------------------

Beans:

1 cup adzuki beans

5 cups water

1 piece kombu -- (2 inch)

1 onion -- peeled and stuck with 2 cloves

1 inch ginger root -- peeled and sliced

4 cloves garlic -- whole

2 tablespoons mirin -- (or white wine/sherry)

1 tablespoon oil

2 bay leaves

Sea salt -- or tamari

Croquettes:

2 cups cooked adzuki beans -- drained (see above)

4 spring onions (scallions) -- finely chopped (greens,

too)

1 teaspoon Sichuan peppercorns -- generous teaspoon

1 pinch sea salt -- generous

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds

Oil -- for greasing

 

For the Beans: Pick over and rinse the beans. Place all of the ingredients

except for the salt/tamari in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat

to its lowest setting, cover with a lid and

simmer for 1-2 hours, or until the beans are completely tender.

 

Remove the kombu, onion, bay leaf, ginger and garlic. Taste, seasoning with salt

and/or tamari. Simmer gently for a further 2-3 minutes. Drain, holding back just

a little of the cooking liquid.

 

 

For the Croquettes:

Preheat the oven to 200 C (400 F).

 

Puree the beans, either in a food processor, blender or a food mill (I quite

like the texture a food mill gives and you get a bit of an upper body work-out

in the process). Don’t be tempted to blitz to a super smooth puree – leave

it just a little bit chunky. If the mixture looks a little dry, add a spoonful

or two of the reserved cooking liquid.

 

Tip the beans into a bowl and mix through the spring onions. Crush the Sichuan

peppercorns with the salt in a mortar and pestle then stir into the bean

mixture. Add the breadcrumbs bit by bit until the dough is stiff enough to shape

easily – you may not need them all.

 

Roll the mixture into small, slightly flattened croquettes – 5-7 cms (about

2-3 inches) is just fine. Make them smaller if you like, finger food-style. Tip

the toasted sesame seeds out onto a plate and roll the croquettes around to

coat.

 

Lightly grease a baking sheet and carefully place the croquettes on top. Brush

the tops with a little extra oil and bake in the preheated oven for 15-20

minutes. They should be golden and crisp.

 

Alternatively you can shallow fry them, but I find that baking them makes for a

much lighter and, it must be said, less messy meal.

 

Serve hot, with the following sauce.

 

Serves 4.

 

Sesame dipping sauce:

This is pungent stuff and much as I love raw garlic, I’ve toned it down just a

fraction from Mark Bittman’s original recipe. It’s very salty, very umami

and very, very addictive. Consider yourself warned. Serve it in small dishes by

the side of each plate. Leftovers (which there will be) make a great marinade.

 

1/4 cup of tamari, shoyu or soy sauce

1/4 cup of warm water

2 tablespoons of rice vinegar

1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil

1 tablespoon of pale sesame oil

2 tablespoons of sesame seeds, toasted until golden in a dry pan

1 tablespoon of sugar

1 small clove of garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon of finely grated ginger

Pinch of chilli powder

 

Mix everything together until the sugar dissolves. Will keep, refrigerated, for

a few days.

 

 

Lucy Notes: Adzuki beans are easy on the digestion and require no (or precious

little) soaking. Their inherent sweetness, coupled with a tendency to cook down

to a creamy, red-flecked mass makes cooking desserts with them a natural to the

Oriental palate. There you’ll find sweetened red bean pastes, cakes and a

creamy, dairy-free sorbet quite unlike any other. An elusive flavour it has,

difficult to put an exacting finger on. My step-sons loved it right up until the

moment they learned it consisted of only red beans, vanilla and sugar. Both were

caught with spoons in the pail later on – its light but mealy texture had them

hooked, but they needed to go away and think about it for a little while.

 

Tinned legumes are a necessity of modern life – you can squander an entire

afternoon waiting for chickpeas to reach that butter-soft stage (not to mention

the twenty four soak required prior to their immersion) - but there are some

legumes that are light years ahead in both texture and flavour when cooked from

scratch. Tinned adzuki’s tend toward mush which is fine, desirable even, for

sweet things but less pleasant in a savoury dish like this. They’ll take an

hour, sometimes up to two, to reach tender creamy perfection. If you double the

quantity, you’ll find they freeze well (this is true of all home-cooked beans)

and you get the added bonus of a mineral-rich broth reputed to cleanse the

kidneys. Two meals and a detox. Not bad, eh?

 

Dip, crunch, lick fingers. Repeat. It’s a ritual that appeals enormously. And

if the sauce into which you are dipping just happens to be a complex, salty

brew, all the better. Get the sauce made while the beans are simmering. The

beans themselves are great over rice or even a steaming bowl of quinoa. Sit

these croquettes on a bed of quickly-wokked carrot, shredded wombok (Napa

cabbage) and ginger and this meal is will evoke the exotic flavours of the

Orient. It combines a bit of Japanese flavouring, a pungent Korean sauce and a

Chinese-ish stir-fry. Oh for such harmony beyond the kitchen walls.

 

Source:

" POSTED BY LUCY at nourish-me.blogspot "

S(Formatted by Chupa Babi):

" 02.05.08 "

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

 

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 534 Calories; 12g Fat (20.8% calories

from fat); 24g Protein; 83g Carbohydrate; 11g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol;

180mg Sodium. Exchanges: 5 Grain(Starch); 1 Lean Meat; 1 1/2 Vegetable; 2 Fat.

 

 

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1337 904437 0 196 0 0

 

 

 

 

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