A Recipe for Patbingsu with Misugaru
It's the summer of shaved iced desserts ✨
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The recipe box is a collection of recipes and techniques from my favorite cookbooks—everything from up-and-coming titles to tried-and-true favorites from my collection. (Though you may see some original recipes here from time to time, too 😉) You can check out TOD’s archive of past recipes here if you’re looking for some meal inspiration.
Whether it shows up as Korean bingsu, Chinese bao bing, or Indian gola, shaved ice desserts are truly a universally adored treat. The names and forms it takes certainly differ from country to country, yet it remains a testament to the countless delicious possibilities a snow-like mound of fluffy shaved ice presents—a blank canvas for different toppings, textures, colors, and flavors. Filipino halo-halo, for example, is typically loaded with sweet beans, tubers, colorful jellies, evaporated milk, and coconut gel—then served in tall, clear glasses to show off all its beautiful, complex layers. Japanese kakigori are often topped with fresh fruit (think strawberries or mango), lightly sweetened syrup, a scoop of green tea ice cream, and pieces of mochi for a satisfying element of chewiness. (In fact, one of the most memorable desserts I tucked into while in Tokyo earlier this February was Parlor Vinefru’s decadent cacao stollen kakigori). The last ais kacang I had was several years ago in Malaysia, yet I vividly recall that heap of shaved ice piled high with sweet red beans, basil seeds, red syrup, creamed corn, a scoop of coconut ice cream, and a generous sprinkling of chopped dry-roasted peanuts for crunch.
I could go on.
By total happenstance, I already shared a shaved ice dessert recipe a few weeks ago—Dale Talde’s personal twist on halo-halo, a diverse showcase of textures and flavors. I very much recommend making this recipe if you’ve got a little more time on your hands (making the jammy mango-coconut mixture and spiced lemongrass tea is so worth it, I promise; this halo-halo was a freaking hit among my friends)—but if you’d prefer a shaved ice dessert that involves less, er, “cooking” and more “assembling” (but still just as refreshing and tasty), today’s your day. Enter Junghyun Park and Jungyoon Choi’s patbingsu. Patbingsu is one of the most traditional and representative of the bingsu category; many varieties exist, including those made with seasonal fruits. Find sweetened red beans (aka adzuki beans) and misugaru (Korean multigrain powder) at your local Asian grocery store or online (Amazon links embedded in the recipe below for those that need them—I got you fam 😉). And for extra credit, if you can get your hands on some injeolmi—soybean powder-coated rice cakes—that would make for a wonderful topping here.
Have a great rest of the week, everyone! P.S. If you’re looking to make the recipe below, may I also recommend this one for ganjang and perilla oil bibimguksu that I sent out last autumn? It’s another great recipe from “The Korean Cookbook,” an incredibly satisfying and fragrant dish that takes no longer than half an hour to make.
Serves 2
5 tablespoons milk
2 ¼ pounds ice (1 kilogram) ice block
2 tablespoons condensed milk
5 tablespoons sweetened red beans (adzuki beans)
1 tablespoon misugaru
Prepare a glass bowl by placing it in the refrigerator until cold. (In Korea, this dish is served communally; however, if you’d prefer, you can chill two bowls.)
Just before serving, pour the milk into the chilled bowl(s). Shave the ice as finely as possible using an ice shaving machine (aka snow cone machine) into the bowl(s). Drizzle the condensed milk over the shaved ice, top with the sweet red beans, and sprinkle the misugaru over the beans.
Serve immediately.
Recipe adapted from “The Korean Cookbook” by Junghyun Park and Jungyoon Choi. Copyright © 2023. Used with permission of Phaidon. All rights reserved.