sweet-bean-bun.txt

It is fall in San Antonio, and my sweet olive trees are perfuming the air. The pleasant aroma stoked memory of buns filled with red bean, sesame and sweet olive blossoms from my childhood. Here is an attempt to relive that culinary experience. I added flax seed meal to give the traditional recipe a nutritional boost.

This recipe calls for dough and bean paste. It will make a good afternoon project for the little ones in creating edible play things. The little bit of preparation involves soaking the beans overnight (see below) the day before making the bun, and to hose down the sweet olive tree the day before the harvest (see below).

Dough: made the dough as you would normally make dough, making it at the drier side so that the dough does not stick too much during the wrapping. The ingredients I used included Costco Organic flour, Costco pink salt, Costco organic olive oil, Costco organic sugar, and yeast. To prepare the dough, either have your little ones work their stick arms, get a decent five-minute arm workout for yourself, or use a bread-maker set on "dough". Let the dough rise till it feels elastic.

Bean Paste: the ingredients included organic adzuki beans from Whole Foods, Costco flax seed meal, Costco organic sugar, Costco organic coconut oil, ground black sesame seed, and sweet olive blossoms.

Beans: soak the beans overnight in the refrigerator. Boil for about an hour until tender, keeping the water level just above the beans. I used my pressure cooker, and set on "high" for 15 minutes.
Sweet Olive Blossoms: hose down the tree beforehand to clean the branches. Collect blossoms by hand, get about two to four tablespoonful’s depending on your taste preference.
Making Paste: add coconut oil to the cooked beans, use a spatula to mash the beans, add ground black sesame seed and flax seed meal to thicken the paste, add sugar to taste, and stir in the blossoms. I do not include the amount of each ingredient, since you can decide how much of each to add. The paste is edible, so that you and your helper can taste as you go.
Making Bun: Divide the dough into smaller portions, roll out each portion, wrap in the paste, and steam for 15 minutes. Keep leftover buns in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, they make great breakfast items. If you are thinking of quick breakfast for the week, you may make a bunch and throw them in the freezer. Although frozen foods do not taste good to me even for this simple bean bun. Steam (preferred) or microwave the refrigerated or frozen buns before eating.

This recipe incorporates ingredients that provide carbohydrate, protein, and healthy oils, and fiber, so I call it "healthy"; the buns are sweet and fragrant so I call it "yummy". The black sesame seeds are known to help maintain the black color of Asian hair and slow down graying. Another potion against gray hair is rice wine with a kind of poisonous snake found in a bamboo forest. I remember my grandma drinking a tiny cup of that potion every day when she can afford. The coconut oil is great for the skin and hair. My Indian friend told me that women of her hometown smelled that sweet coconut scent. If one day I can retire anywhere, I would live by a grove of coconut trees.