Kidney Bean Rolls
A traditional dessert featured in the Manchu Han Imperial Feast, made by peeling white kidney beans into a paste and rolling it with sweet red bean filling.
Ingredients
White kidney beans (cracked, peeled, soaked in boiling water overnight, then peeled)
500 g
Red bean paste
250 g
Alkali (baking soda)
a pinch
Instructions
1
Making the bean paste
Use a small mill to crack the white kidney beans and remove the skins. Place them in a basin and soak in boiling water overnight so any remaining skins float up, then rinse the skins off with warm water. Put the cracked bean pieces in a pot of boiling water, add a small amount of alkali, and cook until tender. Scoop out with a slotted spoon, wrap in a cloth, and steam over boiling water for 20 minutes. Then pass through a sieve, rubbing the pieces into a smooth paste. The paste passes through the sieve to form fine threads.
2
Rolling and shaping
Once the bean threads have cooled, place them on a damp cloth and knead through the cloth into a paste. Take a 50 cm square piece of damp white cloth and spread it flat along the edge of the cutting board. Roll the bean paste into a 3 cm thick strip and place it in the middle of the damp cloth. Use the flat of a knife to spread it into a rectangular sheet about 3 mm thick, 17 cm long, and 7 cm wide, then spread on an even layer of red bean paste. Starting from the two long edges of the damp cloth, roll each side toward the middle so the two rolls meet and combine into a single cylinder. Gently pinch and press through the cloth with both hands. Finally, lift the cloth so the roll slowly transfers onto the cutting board. Trim off the uneven ends, then cut into segments about 2 to 2.3 cm long. The kidney bean rolls are ready.
