Azuki bean

Azuki Bean

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Azuki bean

The azuki bean (???, also spelled adzuki or aduki) is an annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates flowers and dies in one year. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed....
vine widely grown throughout East Asia

East Asia

East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either Geography or cultural terms. Geography and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km?, or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia as Central Asia....
and the Himalayas

Himalayas

The Himalaya Range or Himalayas for short , meaning "abode of snow" ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau....
for its small (approximately 5 mm) bean

Bean

Bean is a common name for large plant seeds of several genus of the Family Fabaceae used for human food or animal feed.The whole young pods of bean plants, if picked before the pods ripen and dry, can be tender enough to eat whole, whether cooked or raw....
. The cultivar

Cultivar

A cultivar is a cultivated plant that has been selected and given a unique name because of its decorative or useful characteristics; it is usually distinct from similar plants and when Plant propagation it retains those characteristics....
s most familiar in north-east Asia have a uniform red color, but white, black, gray and variously mottled varieties are also known. Scientists presume Vigna angularis var. nipponensis is the progenitor. Genetic evidence indicates that the azuki bean was first domesticated in the Himalayas.

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Encyclopedia

The azuki bean (???, also spelled adzuki or aduki) is an annual

Annual plant

East Asia

Himalayas

Bean

Cultivar

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
and Korea

Korea

Korea is a geographic area composed of two sovereign countries, a civilization, and a former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia....
before 1000 BC. It was later taken to Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, where it is now the second most popular legume after the soybean

Soybean

The soybean or soya bean is a species of legume native to East Asia. The plant is classed as an oilseed rather than a Pulse . It is an annual plant that has been used in China for 5,000 years as a food and a component of drugs....
.

Names

The name azuki is a transliteration of the native Japanese

Japanese language

IPA: [n?iho?go] is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is related to the Ryukyuan languages....
name. Japanese also has a Chinese loanword

Loanword

A loanword is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept whereby it is the Meaning or idiom that is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself....
, Shozu, which means "small bean" (its counterpart "large bean" (??; Daizu) being the soybean

Soybean

Kanji

are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese language logogram along with hiragana , katakana , Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet....
but pronounce it as azuki '.

In China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, the corresponding name is still used in botanical or agricultural parlance. However in everyday Chinese
Chinese language

Chinese or the Sinitic language is a language family consisting of language mutually unintelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan languages of languages....
, the more common terms are hongdou (??; hóngdòu) and chidou (??; chìdòu), both meaning "red bean", because almost all Chinese cultivars are uniformly red. In English-language discussions of Chinese topics, the term "red bean" is often used (especially in reference to red bean paste
Red bean paste

Red bean paste or Azuki bean paste is a sweet, dark red bean paste originating from China. It is used in Chinese cuisine, wagashi, and Korean cuisine....
), but in other contexts this usage can cause confusion with other beans that are also red
Red bean

Red bean can mean:* Azuki bean , most common in East Asia* Ricebean * Any of various red varieties of the common bean , including the kidney bean, Honduran red bean, and Salvadoran red bean...
. The Korean name is pat (hangul
Hangul

Hangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logogram Sino-Korean vocabulary hanja system. It was created in the mid-fifteenth century, and is now the official writing system of both North Korea and South Korea, being co-official in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China....
: ), and in Vietnamese it is called d?u d?.

Uses
In East Asian cuisine
Asian cuisine

Asian cuisine styles can be broken down into several regional styles that have roots in the peoples and cultures of those regions. The major types can be roughly defined as East Asian with its origins in Imperial era of Chinese history and now encompassing modern Japan and the Korean peninsula; Southeast Asian which encompasses th...
the azuki bean is commonly eaten sweetened. In particular, it is often boiled with sugar, resulting in red bean paste (an), a very common ingredient in all of these cuisines; it is also common to add flavoring to the bean paste, such as chestnut.

Red bean paste is used in many Chinese foods

Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine originated from the various regions of China and has become widespread in many other parts of the world ? from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa....
, such as tangyuan

Tangyuan

Tangyu?n is a Chinese cuisine made from glutinous rice flour. Glutinous rice flour is mixed with a small amount of water to form balls and is then cooked and served in boiling water....
, zongzi

Zongzi

Zong, or zongzi is a Cuisine of China, made of glutinous rice stuffed with different fillings and wrapped in bamboo leaves. They are cooked by steaming or boiling....
, mooncake

Mooncake

Mooncakes are Chinese pastry traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The festival is for lunar worship and moon watching; moon cakes are regarded as an indispensable delicacy on this occasion....
s, baozi

Baozi

A baozi or simply known as bao, bau, nunu, pow is a type of steaming, filled bun or bread-like item in various Chinese cuisines, as there is much variation as to the fillings and the preparations....
, and red bean ice

Red bean ice

Red bean ice is a drink commonly found in Hong Kong. It is usually served in restaurants like cha chaan teng. The standard ingredients include azuki beans, light rock sugar syrup, and milk....
. It is also used as a filling for Japan

Japan

Anmitsu

is a Japan dessert that has been popular for many decades.It is made of small cubes of agar jelly, a white translucent jelly made from red algae or seaweed....
, taiyaki

Taiyaki

is a Japanese fish-shaped cake. The most common filling is red bean paste that is made from sweetened azuki beans. Other common fillings may be custard, chocolate, or cheese....
(Korean: bungeoppang

Bungeoppang

Bungeoppang is the Korean name of a Japanese fish-shaped pastry Taiyaki.Bungeoppangs are made using a special appliance that performs like a waffle iron....
), and daifuku

Daifuku

', or ' , is a wagashi consisting of a small round Mochi stuffed with sweet filling, most commonly red bean paste, sweetened red bean paste made from azuki beans....
. A more liquid version, using azuki beans boiled with sugar, lotus seeds, and orange peel, produces a sweet dish called red bean soup

Oshiruko

Red bean soup refers to a number of traditional Asian soups, all made with azuki beans....
. Azuki beans are also commonly eaten sprouted

Sprouted bread

Sprouted bread is a form of bread made from whole grains that have been allowed to sprout, that is, to germinate. It is often eaten uncooked, or slightly heated, by proponents of Raw foodism......
, or boiled in a hot, tea

Tea

Tea refers to the agricultural products of the leaves, leaf buds, and internodes of the Camellia sinensis plant, prepared and cured by various methods....
-like drink. Some Asian cultures enjoy red bean paste as a filling or topping for various kinds of waffles, pastries, baked buns or biscuits.

In Japan, rice with azuki beans (??; sekihan
Sekihan

Red Bean Rice is a Japanese traditional dish. It is sticky rice steamed with azuki beans, which give a reddish color to the rice, hence its name....
) is traditionally cooked for auspicious occasions. Azuki beans are also used to produce amanatto

Amanatto

is a Japanese cuisine traditional confectionery that is made of azuki beans or other beans, covered with refined sugar after simmering with sugar syrup and drying....
, and as a popular flavour of ice cream

Ice cream

Ice cream or ice-cream is a frozen dessert usually made from dairy products, such as milk and cream, combined with fruits or other ingredients....
.

Azuki beans, along with butter and sugar, form the basis of the popular Somali

Cuisine of Somalia

The Cuisine of Somalia varies from region to region and consists of an exotic mixture of native Somalia, Ethiopian, Yemeni, Iran, Turkish cuisine, Indian and Italy influences....
supper dish cambuulo.

Azuki bean

Names

Uses

See also

External links