Korean Dinner Party – Pt.3 Patbingsu

Good afternoon online family and of course my real family. I know it’s taken a lot longer than expected for my Korean dessert but it is finally here. It’s a fairly simple recipe so I wanted to try my hand at making every ingredient from scratch. Doing so makes it a very time consuming dessert but in the end it’s worth it. For this recipe I’m opting for store bought rice cakes as it’s difficult to make them any better unless you want them in an unusual flavour.

What is Patbingsu? Patbingsu is a very popular Korean dessert that is made using fruits, shaved ice and sweetened adzuki beans.  Not only is it perfect on warm summer days but it can really fill you up given that the beans contain a large amount of protein. Now I’m sure you’re thinking “sweetened beans?! Thanks but no thanks.” I assure you it’s quite tasty!

For this recipe I’m using coconut water ice but really you can sub in any fruit juice ice. I would highly recommend watermelon ice if you are an active person. Watermelon  contains an amino acid called L-citrulline which has shown to accelerate removal of lactic acid from muscles. Not that anyone really needs an excuse to eat watermelon on a warm summer day.

Photo’s to follow shortly.

Patbingsu

1 cup Red beans (adzuki beans),

1 cup Agave Syrup (you can sub in raw sugar)

1 tsp Vanilla

1/2 tsp Salt

Coconut Water

Condensed coconut milk

Rice Cakes (Moochi)

2 Bananas

4 Kiwis

Pint of Strawberries

Directions 

Freeze coconut water in ice cube trays, making roughly one tray per person.

Fill a large pot with 4 cups of water and 1 cup of rinsed Adzuki beans. Bring to a boil and let simmer for one hour. After an hour test a bean to make sure it is soft all the way through, if so then drain beans.

Return beans to the pot along with 1 cup of agave syrup, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1 tsp of vanilla. Cook on low heat for 5 minutes or until the mixture has caramelized and sticks to the spoon.  Cool in the fridge.

Chop all fruits and rice cakes into bite size pieces.

Shave your ‘coconut cubes’ with an ice-shaver or the ice cube setting on your blender.

Now it’s time to build your Patbingsu! 

Place 1/2 cup of sweetened red beans in to a cup or bowl.

Top with a generous amount of coconut ice

Add 1/4 of your chopped fruit and 6 to 8 pieces of rice cakes

Finish with 2 tbsp of condensed coconut milk

Enjoy!