How to make grey beans

Gray beans are a common sweet snack in the northwest Lanzhou area. It is a porridge made with local ash, peas, white sugar and red dates. It is popular among locals and is suitable for all ages. Its method of preparation is also relatively simple. Because alkali is added, the beans can be made softer, taste sweet and a little hard, and have certain health-care effects. It is a good snack.

How to make grey beans

The raw materials are hemp peas (flower beans), red dates, edible alkali, and white sugar. Preparation method 1. Wash and pick the beans, and soak them in clean water. (About 12 hours) This is done to allow the beans to soften and expand. The first picture shows the beans just after soaking, and the second picture shows the beans after soaking overnight, which have more than doubled in size;

2. Drain the soaked beans; 3. Soak the red dates in warm water, wash and set aside.

4. Put the drained beans (it’s ok if you don’t drain them) into a wok and stir-fry over medium heat, stirring constantly to avoid sticking to the pan. After the bean aroma comes out, turn off the heat and put it in the rice cooker. You can also choose a pressure cooker or a casserole. Pressure cookers save time. The aroma of cooking in a casserole. I use an electric rice cooker. Just like cooking normal porridge; 5. When adding water for the first time, the amount of water should be large, about twice the amount of beans. Turn on the rice cooking function, and the color will change after the pot boils. At this time, add edible alkali, as shown in the picture above. After boiling dry, add cold water and then edible alkali in the same amount as above. After the water is boiled dry for the third time, add cold water again and then add edible alkali once more, in the same amount as above. In other words, the amount of edible alkali used is 3 as shown in the above figure. After adding water for the third time, the beans will basically be soft. If they are not soft, you can crush them with a spoon. After adding water, put in red dates and simmer slowly. This process is very long. It took me a full 4 hours to achieve that soft feeling. When drinking gray beans, just add some white sugar.

If we understand the food story literally, "灰" refers to Penghui. An edible alkali extracted from a plant that is unique to the Lanzhou area. Beans are peas. Pea soup with alkali added.

Alkali is added to make the beans soft and give the soup an indescribable fragrance, which is neither sweet nor bitter, but a taste in between the two. It enters the mouth along with the soft bean paste and the fragrance of dates. The beans are not completely turned into bean paste, as that would be too boring. It will have a slightly harder chewing feeling, and the sweet bean fragrance comes from this.

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