Korean Red Bean Porridge (Pat Jook)

Jook (rice porridge) was always eaten in Korea to stretch grains for the poor and to soothe sick, young, or elderly bellies. It's still enjoyed as a snack, as breakfast or another light meal, or as comfort food for the sick. Pat Jook is smooth and mild with a subtle sweetness, but can also be eaten without sugar in place of regular white rice.

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 3 hours

To Pre-soak beans: 2 hours

Total Time: 5 hours, 5 minutes

Yield: 6 servings

Ingredients:

1 cup sweet red beans, soaked for 2 hours
3/4 cup rice, soaked for 30 minutes
2 tsp salt
8 cups water
sugar (to taste)
sweet rice balls (optional)
Preparation:

In a pot, parboil beans for a few minutes.
Discard water.
Add 8 cups of water and boil until beans are completely soft (2-3 hours).
Save about 2 cups of liquid and drain the rest of the beans into a strainer.
Add salt to beans and mash the beans in the strainer set on top of a bowl.
Pour new water over beans and continue mashing, until you have about 7 cups of liquid.
Discard skins in strainer.
Add reserved boiled liquid to mashed bean liquid.
Let the liquid stand undisturbed until bean solids settle.
Add rice and most of bean liquid (without bean solids) to a pot.
Bring to a boil and immediately reduce to simmer.
Cook about 8 minutes, or until rice is tender.
Add bean solids to jook in spoonfuls, stirring often so that it does not burn.
If you want to serve with sweet rice balls, you can cut up store-bought sweet rice cakes (injulmi) into small cubes and add them to the jook when it's almost done.
Serve hot bowls of jook with sugar so that diners can adjust it to their own sweetness level (or salt for a savory porridge).