Red Bean Porridge - 팥죽

Introduction

In Korean cuisine, patjuk (팥죽) commonly eaten during the winter season. On Dongjinal, a Korean traditional holiday which fall on December 22, Korean people eat Donji patjuk, which contains saealsim (새알심) meaning bird egg, a ball made from glutinous rice flour, named such due to its resemblance to small bird's eggs, possibly quail eggs.

In old Korean tradition, patjuk is believed to have a mysterious power to drive evil spirits away. According to Korean traditional folk beliefs, the color "red" is a symbolic color of positive energy which can defeat negative energy. Cooking and eating patjuk is a ritual to prevent bad luck, epidemic disease, and comes from evil spirits. Before eating the dish, Korean people used to serve it their own house shrine, they scattered it all around the house like in the kitchen, storage house, gate, yard and so on. These customs have been handed down through Chinese mythological stories. According to Hyungchosesigi, there was a man named Gong Gong. He had a bad son, and after he died he became a god of epidemic disease. Because of his cruel temper, a lot of people were killed by epidemics. Trying to find a solution to prevent infectious disease, they recalled the fact that the son of Gong Gong hated "red bean soup" when he was alive. Thus, people made red bean soup and scattered it all around the house. And then the epidemics dissapeared. Since then, patjuk has been the food that all spirits hate.

Eating patjuk is a ritual to wish for abundant harvest. Ancient Korea was an agrarian society, and a rich harvest has always been a pivotal issue for them. Koreans eat patjuk and Donggi (winter solstice), when the days start becoming longer than nights. When they make patjuk they add small dumplings which were made of rice as the same number as their age. By fully relaxing and eating nourishing health food, they wanted to have a preparation period before starting farming in the spring.

Patjuk embodies a custom of conserving food. Koreans usually eat rice and side dish. However, in the winter time when Korean families had shortage of grains, patjuk became a complete meal itself. It could be made of simple ingredients. For example, red beans, water, small grains of rice and also it requires no need extra side dishes. Thus, when people prepare some events in winter, patjuk is an economical food for conserving grain.

Ingredient

• Non-glutinous rice 90g (1/2 cup)
• Sweet red bean 230g (1 1/2 cups)
• Scalding water 800g (4cups)
• Boiling water 12 cups
• Rice ball: 100g (1cup) glutinous rice powder, 0.5g salt. 1 1/2 tbsp water
• Salt 4g (1 tsp)

Ingredient Preparation

1. Wash the rice, soak in water for 2 hours, drain water on a strainer for 10 min. (110g).
2. Wash the read bean and remove foreign elements if exist, drain water on a strainer for 10 min.

Recipe

1. Put red bean and scalding water into the pot, heat it up for 4 min. on high heat. When it boils, continue to boil it for another 3 min. Discard the scalding water, add new boiling water into the pot, heat it up for 10  min. on high heat. Lower the heat to medium, boil it for 1 hour and 20 min. for the read bean to be deeply cooked.
2. While the cooked red bean is still hot, put it on a strainer, strain the red bean by mashing with wooden scoop. Make the red bean boiled water is about 1.6 kg (8cups). Settle down the mashed red bean for 30 min.
3. Sprinkle salt on the glutinous rice powder, knead with hot water. Shape rice ball into 1.5cm diameter (5g each, total 25 balls).
4. Put the top red bean water (880g, 4cups) and soaked rice into the pot, heat it up for 4 min. on high heat. When it boils, lower the heat to medium, boil for another 20 min. with stirring.
5. When the rice is well-sodden, add the red bean sediment. When it boils again, continue to boil for 10 more min. and add rice balls, wait for 1 min. When the rice balls float on, season with salt and bring it to a boil.

Video

Source: Wikipedia, Visit Korea, Video Aeri's Kitchen, Images: Korean Cuisine, Runaway Juno