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Red bean paste == Red bean curd?


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2020 Sep 6, 9:06pm   1,825 views  14 comments

by just_passing_through   ➕follow (1)   💰tip   ignore  

I'm hoping a resident Asian can answer this for me. I couldn't find curd and bought some Korean paste for some Chinese pork roast I'm going to make. I have some other fermented Korean and Japanese beans I will swap in instead if I'm instructed to do so...

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1   just_passing_through   2020 Sep 6, 10:16pm  

Okay, no Asians around tonight.
2   just_passing_through   2020 Sep 6, 11:10pm  

Okay this is what I bought:

https://www.fairprice.com.sg/product/congbanlv-liu-yue-xiang-soybean-paste-13044032

It ain't gonna work is it? I need to use the fermented Korean soybean I already had. Could not find it at Ralph's which is better than Stater Bros (ripped me off) or Vons down here in SD. FTW!

Okay, regular American markets but this is SoCal and half of my peers are Asian when I'm in there. I bet it would be no problemo if I was still in the SF gay area.
3   Reality   2020 Sep 7, 10:05am  

I think you have it right by being wrong twice! LOL! Neither red bean paste nor red bean curd would work with cooking meats, but what you did buy (in the plastic tub, as shown in the picture of the spoon on the box) will work for cooking meats.

Usually "Red Bean Paste" refers to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_bean_paste

As the Wikipedia entry explains, "Red Bean Paste" is usually sweet in flavor (mixed with sugar in pastry making), not for cooking with meat.

The rectangular blocks in the clay bowl in the picture above look like some kind of soybean product (a type of "Tofu"; so likely what's called "red bean-curd"; it's a soy-bean curd, not red bean) after pickling in red source (the color could be from hot pepper but more likely from some other kind of natural or artificial color dye), so most likely white inside. The pickling sauce likely can be used for cooking meats, but I doubt the blocks would retain structural integrity through cooking (and I don't think they'd thicken the soup either like starch would).

However, the picture in the link that you provided for the product you bought showed a spoonful of what looks like Chili . . . which is suitable for cooking with pork.

We are looking at three different kinds of beans/bean-products here, and you bought the right one (the one in the plastic box with the picture of spoon showing its content). You will essentially be making a type of Chili. All hot peppers originated from what is today's central and South Americas, so I don't think the Asian version of Chili would be physically too different (perhaps saltier in flavor instead of emphasizing capsaisin)

I'm only partially Asian (the rest, Russian, Jewish and Native American), but I took some culinary classes in my teens.
5   just_passing_through   2020 Sep 7, 10:41am  

Thanks Reality that's great advice! Also, I think bass's tip would work too for what I'm doing. It's basically a fermented soybean I'm looking for (red in this case) and that's what miso is.

I made this years ago although it was 'fork roast' and used some other sauces. This is what I was trying to buy on memory:

1:54:
www.youtube.com/embed/0JY3BdnVMNU&list=FLQzMpyA2EmKKONAyf3IDXFA&index=4&t=214s

You can see it's a sauce but also cubes:

2:10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JY3BdnVMNU&list=FLQzMpyA2EmKKONAyf3IDXFA&index=4&t=214s

All I was pretty sure about was that I needed to avoid the sweet one and hot one lol... It was a few weeks ago I watched this.

Got a huge hunk of pork shoulder yesterday I'm going to trim down today, marinade in this guy's recipe and pretty much follow the rest of what he does. I hope this works, I'm still not sure if what I bought is fermented. If I recall he mostly just uses the sauce and maybe pops some cubes in his mouth while he's cooking.
6   Tenpoundbass   2020 Sep 7, 11:09am  

The best Asian dish I think I ever ate, was in Malaysia, one of the Girls at the office who's job it was to show the foreign contractors the sights and sounds.
Took me hiking through a beautiful Jungle, on the way back we stopped at a road side eatery.

All the dish was, was some sliced Char Siu tossed with some thin ribbon iceberg lettuce strips, served over some Jasmine Rice

I couldn't believe how much I was enjoying something so simple. No assortment of Chinese vegetables and no thick and syrupy salty soy sauce gravy.

Just Pork iceberg lettuce and rice.

But it was some damn good steamed rice. And I would love to have their Char Siu recipe.
7   just_passing_through   2020 Sep 7, 7:38pm  

Okay, I tasted it... It's fermented I'm golden. Just cut up 5lbs of pork butt and have 1/3rd marinating in the refrigerator. Man that pork cut is cheap! $10...
8   Reality   2020 Sep 7, 8:02pm  

Those pictures look yum! You are right; it's the fermented pickling sauce (for the fermented soy curd cubes) that you are looking for, if you are trying to cook the pork in large chunks. Pickling sauces from various cuisines are quite amazing, due to the various large protein molecules dissolved in the pickling sauces. There was a time (lasting several months) when I used a jar of Claussen pickling juice to replace every single entry for salt in recipes (even injecting large chunks of meat using a syringe for marinating); the guests were amazed at the new "sophisticated" flavor.
9   just_passing_through   2020 Sep 7, 9:45pm  

Thanks for the tips Reality! Yeah, that tub is going to last. I bet it's good with eggs. I've been eating eggs almost every day lately working from home haha..
10   just_passing_through   2020 Sep 9, 7:30pm  

I do'd it..



This is mid-roast, right after a flip and before some more marinade but it looks like there are 3 'beans' there:

11   Tenpoundbass   2020 Sep 10, 11:01am  

The best Char ciu is made with pork belly, you slow bake it until the fat renders out, and disappears fully. Then when it's done, you pull the two to three layers of meat away from the collagen and sticky fat residue that is left after the process. Then you slice it in slivers, and that's the stuff you find floating around in the best Wonton soup.
12   CBOEtrader   2020 Sep 10, 11:24am  

just_adhom_preaching says
I do'd it..



This is mid-roast, right after a flip and before some more marinade but it looks like there are 3 'beans' there:



damn!!
13   just_passing_through   2020 Sep 10, 7:29pm  

Yeah, tasty too. Tonight I'm cutting it up to make fried rice.
14   just_passing_through   2020 Sep 10, 7:31pm  

Tenpoundbass says
The best Char ciu is made with pork belly


Some day, when I'm feeling ballsy I'm going to try some pork belly recipes. I'm not really well suited for it in a smallish apartment. That's something I'd probably want to make outdoors and I don't have much of a patio.

I could do it but it's just one of those: How much work do I want to put into this type situations.

By that I mean the gymnastics involved etc. I want more open space to do that sort of thing.

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