Must Eat World

Passport & Plate - Anman, a “Hell Steamed Dish” or “Jigoku Dish”

Japan | Wednesday, March 12, 2014 | 4 photos

Ingredients
Portions: 10 (10 buns)
Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour
Ingredients
Azuki (Red Bean) Paste

1 1/3 cups azuki beans
4 cups water
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Buns

1 1/3 cups flour (all white or half white half whole wheat)
3 1/2 tablespoons sugar (or other sweetener)
1 pinch of salt
3/4 teaspoon instant yeast
3/4 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/3 fluid ounces milk
3 1/3 fluid ounces water

 

How to prepare this recipe
Making the Azuki (Red Bean) Paste: 1. Put the azuki beans in a large pot and fill with water. Let them soak overnight. Rinse azuki beans. Use a big sauce pan/pot because the amount of azuki beans will double after cooking. Put washed azuki beans in the pot and pour water until 1-2 inch above azuki beans. Turn the heat on high.Bring the beans to a boil. When boiling, turn off the heat and cover with lid. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Remove the beans from the pot and drain them into a sieve.Put the beans back in the pot and add 4 cups of water.Turn the heat on high. Once boiling, turn down the heat to medium low and keep it simmering. Brings the beans to a boil. Once in a while push the azuki beans under the water with slotted spoon. Water will evaporate so you need to keep adding water to cover just above the beans. If you put too much water, the beans will move and break. If you need to leave the kitchen, make sure to turn off the heat. You will be cooking for 1+ hour. Pick one azuki bean and squeeze it with your fingers. If it is smushed easily, it is done. Turn up the heat to high and add sugar in 3 separate times. Stir constantly. When you draw a line on the bottom of the saucepan and see the surface for more than 2 seconds, add salt and turn off heat. Pour into a container to cool down.
Making the Buns: 1. Combine the flour, sugar, salt, yeast, and baking powder and mix well. Add the milk and water and mix well. Add the shortening and knead the dough until it's smooth (add a little extra flour if it gets too sticky). Let the dough rest for around 30 minutes, it will rise slightly. Divide the dough into 10 balls and flatten them. Take 1-2 spoonfulls of azuki paste, roll into a ball, and place in the center of one of the flattened dough balls. Wrap the dough around the azuki and pinch it closed on top (twist if needed). Repeat for the remaining dough balls.Let the anman sit for 15 minutes. Steam the anman for 15-20 minutes (a bamboo steamer works best).

 

The story behind this recipe
One sunny winter morning, I rolled and rolled dough until it turned into creamy looking buns, “anman”, with the fear that most children have: none. Through it all, remembering what your hands are for (in a time, where our fingers touch our iphones more than nature) . Letting go by dipping your hands into creation, in a manner, I imagine artists do; with the flour sprinkling into many places, enjoying the mess.

Then, I diligently placed the “anman” into the bamboo basket balls as my Japanese teacher taught me and who was pointing to the gloves laying in the wooden table. Talking loud with her hands since I didn’t speak her language.

I put them on, quietly listening to the heritage from years long past, while I smiled (a lot) as I do when confronted with new experiences and as I kept doing when I heard “Now, vaporized as if it was in hell”.

“Hell?” You may ask “Why would you smile when you hear the word “hell?” Wouldn’t you smile if you knew Earth itself could be use as oven? If rising and flowing breaths of hot air waiting in cylindric holes cooked your food after you dropped the bamboo basket balls in just 20 minutes? Wouldn’t you smile if with one drop, you were involved in a culinary technique repeated for more than 400 years? Well, I did and the steam was opening more than my pores because that day I got more than a beauty remedy for my skin. I became conscious of how this “Hell Steamed Dish” or “Jigoku Dish” was a chance to experience an heritage left behind by so many lives, of how cooking a recipe is a shrine to the past.

Just twenty minutes later, I digged into the anman, finding the red bean sweetness sliding in my tongue. From the Edo period to my mouth, red sweet bean paste saying “hi!” for the first time. My taste buds responding “Hi! Very ,very nice to meet you!” right back. Feeling the hotness briefly borrowed by anman in Oita, Japan; I realize that we are never bankrupt with the gifts of the past.