Shaved ice with sweet red beans and fruit

Patbingsu is one of the most  popular summer desserts or snacks in Korea. It looks like a huge snow mountain in a bowl decorated with colorful fruits, sweet red beans and rice cake pieces and sweet creamy condensed milk. If you feel exhausted from the heat in the summer, make this. You’ll feel energetic again and your body temperature will cool down. Add your favorite toppings to your patbingsu: fruit, jelly, rice cake pieces, roasted grain powder, ice cream, sweetened condensed milk…

Make your own style of homemade patbingsu and enjoy your summer!

I used to make patbingsu for my children when they were young. On a hot summer afternoon, when they came home from school, I would wait  for them with patbingsu ingredients. Once they came home, “Patbingsu is ready! Wash your hands and come back to the table! Meanwhile I’m shaving the ice!” I was very happy when I saw their excitement.

In this video, I’m at Google in NYC to attend YouTube Creators Camp. I was supposed to make 1 video during the camp, so I thought patbingsu was a good choice because it’s seasonal, refreshing, delicious, and easy to make if I prepare the sweet red beans in advance. I prepared patbingsu for 100 people.

I made 2 buckets of sweet red bean to serve 100 people

Just before people come to taste the patbingsu, intense moment

Add shaved ice!

Here is the recipe for a much smaller portion. Enjoy the recipe!

Ingredients

Red beans (adzuki beans), sugar, vanilla, kosher salt, shaved ice, sweetened condensed milk, rice cake, strawberries, banana, and kiwi.

I bought this reasonably priced electric ice shaver on Amazon. It’s quite simple and easy to use. If you are living in USA, you can get it delivered to your home.

my ice shaver – you can buy it on Amazon

Directions for 4 servings

Make sweet red beans:

1. Rinse and strain 1 cup of red beans and place them in a thick-bottomed pot.
   1 cup of dried red beans will make a little more than 2 cups of sweet red beans. Each serving of patbingsu needs ½ cup of sweet red beans.
2. Add 4 cups of water. Cover the pot and bring to a boil over low heat for 10 minutes.
3. Lower the heat to simmer for 1 hour.
   
4. Open the lid and check if the beans are cooked well or not. The beans should be crushed easily.
   Chew a sample of the beans. If there is something hard when you chew, you need to cook longer.
5. Drain the water and add 1 cup of sugar, 1 ts vanilla, and ½ ts kosher salt. Mix well.
   *tip: the water from the beans can be used for making rice
6. Uncover and stir the sweet beans over low heat for 5 minutes.
   
7. Turn the heat off and let it cool down. Keep in the fridge.

Let’s make patbingsu!

1. Add ½ cup of sweet red beans on the bottom of a dessert bowl.
2. Add 1½ cups of shaved ice over the sweet red beans.
3. Add chopped strawberries, banana, and kiwi on top of the ice.
   
4. Pour 2 tbs of sweetened condensed milk onto red beans and place 5-7 chopped rice cakes on top.
   
5. Serve right away with a spoon.

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