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Patjuk, Red Bean Porridge

Patjuk, Red Bean Porridge

Serves 4 90 min total, 20 min hands on Korean 🌅 Breakfast $0.65 per serving No added salt

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Patjuk is a thick Korean porridge of red beans, eaten through the winter and traditionally at the solstice, when a bowl of it is said to see out the cold. It is a meal, not a sweet: the adzuki are simmered down until they collapse, short-grain rice thickens the pot, and the sweetening is restrained, a note rather than the point. Rock sugar is the usual choice, but a little blended date does the same work and keeps the fiber. Boiling and draining the beans once at the start is a small step that takes the raw edge off. It reheats into an even thicker, more comforting bowl the next day.

Ingredients

Method

  1. Cover the adzuki beans with water in a pot, bring to a boil, and cook 5 minutes. Drain and discard this first water. Adzuki carry a raw, faintly bitter edge, and dumping the first boil is the traditional way to wash it out.
  2. Return the beans to the pot with the ginger coins and 6 cups (1420 ml) fresh water. Simmer, partly covered, for about 50 minutes, until the beans are so soft they crush with no resistance.
  3. Fish out the ginger, then mash the beans right in the pot, or blend half and return it. Push a little more than half to a puree and leave the rest whole, which gives patjuk its signature body: creamy, with beans still to find.
  4. Stir in the short-grain brown rice and simmer another 30 minutes, adding hot water as needed, until the rice is fully soft and the porridge is thick enough to mound on a spoon. The sticky short-grain rice is what thickens it, so do not swap in a long grain.
  5. Blend the dates with 3 tablespoons (45 ml) hot water into a smooth paste and stir it through at the end. Korean patjuk is only lightly sweet, closer to savory than a dessert, so add the date paste gradually and stop while it still tastes of bean. Serve hot.

Nutrition

Estimated per serving: 240 calories, 10 g protein, 9 g fiber, 10 mg sodium. Computed from USDA FoodData Central reference values for the main ingredients. This is an approximation, not a laboratory measurement. How these are computed.

Cost per serving is estimated from US national-average retail prices for cheap staple forms, using BLS dried-bean prices and USDA produce prices. Prices vary by store and season, so treat it as a guide, not a receipt. How this is computed.

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