Japanese · Dessert
Mizu Yokan
- Intermediate
- 25 min
- roughly 2 of 4 for cost
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
Leads with real fire that builds and stays, richness that coats and comforts.
Ingredients
- 400 ml water
- 4 g agar powder (kanten)
- 45 g caster sugar
- 1 g fine salt
- 300 g koshian, ready-sweetened smooth red bean paste
Equipment
Sheet pan
The skills inside
Allergen screen
None found among the 14 screened.
Screened for: gluten, dairy, egg, nuts, peanuts, fish, shellfish, molluscs, soy, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin, alcohol. Not screened: sulphites.
Screened by keyword from the ingredient list, not reviewed by a person; check every label for what the list cannot show.
Method
- Whisk the agar into the cold water in a saucepan and leave it to swell for 10 minutes, then bring it to a full rolling boil and hold it there for 2 minutes, stirring: agar will not dissolve below boiling, and any grain left undissolved shows later as a weeping, gritty gel. 10 min
- Stir in the sugar and salt, then whisk in the bean paste a spoonful at a time so it disperses instead of forming lumps that never break up. The paste is already sweetened, which is why only 45 g of sugar goes in.
- Simmer 3 minutes to 4 minutes, until a drop on a cold saucer skins over and holds a thumbprint within a minute. 3 min
- Sit the pan in a bowl of iced water and stir slowly until the mixture thickens to the body of double cream; this is what keeps the bean solids in suspension rather than letting them sink and leave a clear layer on top.
- Pour into a wetted 15 cm tray, pop any surface bubbles, and chill 2 hours until firm. Cut into blocks with a wet knife. 120 min
How to tell it is going right
This dish has no standard of its own yet. It is judged on the technique it exercises: checked at the pan, while there is still something to be done about it.
Salted water & the float test 188 recipes
- The water was salted before anything went in, and tasting it confirms it: seasoned on the tongue, with the salt dissolved rather than sitting on the pot floor.
- There is enough water, hot enough, that the pot returns to its boil quickly after the food goes in and never stops moving.
- Where the dish uses the float as its signal, the signal is obeyed: the pieces rise and they come out then, not several minutes later once something else was finished.
- Nothing is stuck to the bottom of the pot or welded to itself, and the water has not thickened into a cloudy sludge.
- Drained on a bite rather than on the clock: resistance at the centre, with no chalky raw core.
Where it goes wrong The pot was too small and the water unsalted, so it never recovered its boil: the food sat in slack water, went gummy at the surface, and comes out bland in a way that no sauce afterwards can fix.
At the Table
- The Pour
- Sauternes
- Also Right
- Demi-sec Champagne
- From the Taps
- Belgian tripel
- Zero-Proof
- Jasmine tea
The sweetness rule is absolute: the pour must be sweeter than the plate, and acid keeps it from cloying.
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