I was going to make Ohagi, but...?

Question

I was going to make ohagi, but i think that i might have gotten a certain wrong ingredient...can i use canned red bean paste? i think it's called azuki?....

Answer 1

Azuki beans are small red and when cooked with roxk sugar, mashed and then strained to make a red bean paste, a good substitute is any Asian/Chinese red bean paste (they are soya), some are less sweet and a bit grittier, but unless you have time to go out and find a Japanese store that has the paste or beans and cook them down and go through the process of making it from scratch, use what you purchased, I have not had Ohagi since I worked in Japan back in the 1980's for Canadian Hotel company in Tokyo.