白漉し餡（しろこしあん）
Shiro Koshi-An / Strained White Sweet Bean Paste

...also called 白餡（しろあん） (Shiro-An). This is one of the base ingredients for Japanese sweets. You can make it only with white beans, sugar and water. It may be a little tough for you to make, but about 2 lb. of it can be made at a time and a part of the paste can be freezed for the next cooking. Here is a recipe of Shiro Koshi-An for two kinds of white beans at standard grocery stores in Champaign-Urbana. (Cooking Time: about 2 or 3 hours except time of soaking beans)

Directions

In the case of Lima Bean

1. Wash white beans and put them in a large bowl with plenty more water. Soak them for the time of the direction mentioned in the package of the beans (6 - 8 hours).
2. Strip the thick peels from the beans by your hands.
3. Pour the beans and the soaking water into a large pot and boil at high heating range. After boiling up, add 250 - 300 mL of water and continue heating at high range.
4. When boiling up again, strain the water from the beans by a basket, and immediately soak the beans in cold water for about 5 minutes. This procedure is called 渋切り（しぶきり） (Shibukiri).
5. Return the beans into the pot and add plenty more water and boil at low heating range for a while.
6. When the beans become tender to crumble easily, turn the heating off.
7. Put a sieve with fine mesh on a large bowl and strain the boiled beans.
8. Add water into the large bowl and mix with the bean paste well by a ladle. Wait until the paste settle down and shed the top layer out from the bowl. Repeat this process three or four times until the top layer becomes clear.
9. Put a large cotton cloth on a basket and pour the bean paste. Strain off the water well from the bean paste by sqeezing. The mass in the cloth is 白生餡（しろなまあん） (Shiro Nama-An / white RAW bean paste).
10. Make syrup. Put water and sugar into a large pot with round bottom. Boil and mix them until the sugar dissolves into the water.
11. Add a half of the Shiro Nama-An into the pot and mix slowly.
12. When it boils up, add the rest of the Shiro Nama-An into the pot and continue mixing slowly. If the paste becomes spattering or reaches to burn, reduce the heating range to middle.
13. Scoop and drop a mass of the paste into the pot. If the mass makes some tips on the top, the softness is the best. Turn the heating off and scoop the paste onto a large tray bit by bit. Cool down and use for cooking or freeze for keeping.

In the case of Navy beans

1. Wash white beans and put them in a large bowl with plenty more water. Soak them for the time of the direction mentioned in the package of the beans (6 - 8 hours).
2. Pour the beans and the soaking water into a large pot and boil at high heating range. After boiling up, add 250 - 300 mL of water and continue heating at high range.
3. When boiling up again, make the heating range middle and keep heating for a while. Sometimes remove foam on the water which causes bitter taste, and check shape of the beans which become expanded during boiling.
4. When the beans become soft but their skins do not flaw, strain the water from the beans by a basket, and immediately soak the beans in cold water for about 5 minutes. (Shibukiri)
5. Return the beans into the pot and add plenty more water and boil in low heating range for a while.
6. When the beans become tender to crush very easily by a spatula, turn the heating off.
7. Crush and strain the Navy beans through a sieve with coarse mesh to remove the peels. Watering onto the sieve is helpful to strain the beans.
8. The following steps are the same directions from #7 in the case of Lima Bean.

Notes & Arrangements

• In the case of Shiro Koshi-An, unlike in the recipe of Azuki-An, Please keep the water plenty more during boiling. Otherwise, the beans may be colored to brown.
• You can control the taste of Shiro Koshi-An from plain to thick, by soaking time of Shibukiri in the direction #4.
• In the direction #5, You can do the low heating in a oven instead of the electric stove. The temparature for cooking stew may be suitable for this process. In the case of my oven, the heating condition is at 250 F-degrees (about 120 C-degrees) for about 1 hour.
• In the direction #7 for Lima Bean, You can substitute a food processor to make the smooth bean paste.
• It is a tough work to strain the bean paste or to boil and mix the bean paste with the sugar water. So, it is more convenient to do it with some people alternately.
• Removing peels of Lima beans is not tough but needs long time to complete. So, it can be finished faster with some helpers.
• The taste of Lima beans shows characteristic of bean. On the other hand that of Navy beans has plain and fine taste. Please choose them as you like. I usually use Lima for 饅頭（まんじゅう） (Manju) or 大福餅（だいふくもち） (Daifuku Mochi), and Navy for 煉り切り（ねりきり） (Nerikiri) or 金団（きんとん） (Kinton).