Mung beans skins off |
When making our Macau Almond Cookies 澳門杏仁餅 during the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival I discovered that I could not find one vital ingredient for the cookies: mung bean flour also known as green bean flour or starch. So I thought to use some elbow grease and just make it myself.
It turns out that it is not so hard, just needing a bit of time and patience to make this nutty, roasty, aromatic Homemade Mung Green Bean Flour 自製綠豆粉.
Mung Beans with the skin on |
In order to make this flour you first of all will need to buy some dried mung beans with the skin off, or 去皮綠豆. These mung beans are also known by the alternative names of moong bean, green bean and green gram. This is easily purchased at your local Hong Kong wet market or even at any Chinese grocery store.
The mung beans 綠豆 are green coloured with the skins on (see photo above) and a nice yellow with the skins off. These skinless mung beans are also wrapped into savoury Chinese Zong Zi Rice Dumpling 粽子, where they melt into a delicious and creamy texture that nicely balances the meat and dried seafoods that are so delectably wrapped in a giant bamboo leaf.
I used to not particularly like these skinless mung beans in zong zi until I started making zong zi myself and realized how different and wonderful they taste fresh. A world of difference between fresh and sitting on a shelf for goodness knows how long
Once you have your nice mung beans you can rinse them a bit if you like. I rinsed mine and regretted it as it took forever to dry and it seemed that alot of the bean flavor was washing out in the rinse. So if your beans are clean just let it be.
Toss it all into your wok and stir, stir, stir. If you have washed your beans you will need an extra period of stir fry time to dry out the beans. It will probably steam a bit but vigorously stir fry and the beans will dry out.
Once the beans are dry the roasting can begin. Stir the beans in the dry wok until golden brown and deliciously, nuttily aromatic. It will take a while and your arm is definitely going to be tired. You'll be muttering to yourself, 'Oh why oh why didn't I just look harder to find a bag of this dang flour to buy!"
But then someone's going wander into your kitchen, nose in the air and ask you, 'What on earth is that amazing smell!?' And you will then of course answer airily, 'Oh that, that's just some homemade mung bean flour that I'm making, nothing special really.'
That's the thing here, homemade mung bean flour is amazing! Freshly roasted and ground mung bean flour is so aromatic! And compared to flour that's been sitting around in a plastic bag on a shelf for months and months, you can see how simple it is to give your Macau Almond Cookies or whatever it is you're going to make with this flour that competitive and especially yummilicious edge.
Homemade Mung Green Bean Flour
自製綠豆粉
Ingredients:
(makes 1 1/2 cup) Prep time: 3 mins Cook time: 5 mins
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 cup skinless mung bean (300g)
Directions:
Rinse mung beans if needed. Let drip dry as much as possible. Stir fry beans in a hot wok over medium to medium low heat, stirring constantly until the beans golden with hints of brown, around 5-7 mins. Be careful to not let it burn, turning the heat lower as the beans get drier.
If you have rinsed the beans there will be a longer stir fry time, the beans will steam a bit at first, just keep on with the constant stirring and the beans will get dry.
Let cool completely, then toss beans into your food processor (or coffee grinder) to grind into a fine powder. Use right away if possible. If not store in an air tight container.
Dessert Fillings at The Hong Kong Cookery:
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Hi Ellen, I was browsing thru to know how to make homemade mung bean flour, the dry steps until it being processed is fine. I wonder how to remove the skin when in dry condition?
ReplyDeleteis it to soak until it plumps out ( remove skins) , dry then roasting it? :)
much appreciate if you can guide me on this.
jaz
Hi Jaz - I think you're right on, haven't actually done it myself but remember my grandma leaving the mung beans in cool water overnight, then in the morning the skins were easy to pop off with a bit of rubbing and would float to the top of water where you could quite easily scoop it off. You can then spread out the mung beans to dry for a bit before roasting, or you can roast right away but it will take longer to roast as the beans are quite wet. Good luck with the mung beans and whatever tasty treat you're planning to make with it! ~ellen
DeleteHi ellen. Can i just roast them with the skin? Am not sure if we have skinless mung beans in my country. Isnt the skin fiber? Or throw them in the oven skin and all? Roasting means the beans are cooked right? I can mix that flour into a shake and drink it? What about phytic acid in the beans? Hope you can help me out as am looking for a good bean powder for a veggie protein shake. Hope to hear from you. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteHumm...I've never seen mung bean flour with skin, for chinese cooking it's always with skin off. For other recipes like green bean dessert the skin is left on and is yummy. I would guess that for the flour if the skin is left on it would affect the weight, texture of the mung bean flour. However if you want to use it for a veggie shake maybe that doesn't matter. In that case I would toast lightly and then grind it all to fine powder. Let us know how it turns out for you. ~ellen
DeleteDon't bother soaking the green mung beans overnight. Just get the skinless version. I tried to remove the skin of the soaked mung beans myself: it took me hours to complete. What a complete waste of time. I have since bought the skinless mung beans for future use.
ReplyDeleteThanks huptohsor and second that. It looks like a lot more trouble than it's worth. If it helps skinless mung beans are also sold under the names yellow mung beans, split mung beans, yellow split mung beans and mung dal (the indian name). ~ellen
DeleteI only had mung beans with skin and I can also attest that it took me a while the skin doesn't really float and not all mung beans had its skin off by the end. However as my first and probably last experience doing it from skinned mung beans - I actually liked the process, I'm pretty sure this is how things were before everything was processed and made easy for us. It reminded me that every thing doesn't need to be perfect, convenient, and fast. I soaked overnight, peeled for maybe an hour of 45 minutes. I'll be drying them and continue the process tomorrow. Thanks for this recipe!
DeleteWow Jess, you are a food warrior! And I totally agree with your thoughts about how things used to be done before we had machines for everything, it's a reminder how far we are from the basics and how much we have forgotten how to do even the simplest things sometimes! ~ellen
DeleteThanks a million for your recipe of mung bean flour. It's impossible to find them on shelf at where I live. I will give it a go
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome, glad to be of help! ~ellen
DeleteCan this mung bean flour be used to make liangfen? the recipe calls for mung bean starch. thank you so much!
ReplyDeleteHi chridtina - No, I'm afraid not. This recipe makes mung bean flour, mung bean starch is different, it has all fibres removed and only the starch left. I think you can buy mung bean starch at asian grocery stores. ~ellen
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