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Amelia followed and watched, ”Do we need to constantly stir the beans or is it every so often?” She saw that the water was still cold.

Edna looked at Amelia, ”Sorry dear. When I start I tend to check the beans a lot. When you first start to cook these beans you want to be careful and not burn them but when you are first starting there is a chance that the beans will clump together to you have to make sure that does not happen. Wagashi treats are normally made to go with the tea ceremony. I sometimes make a red bean paste to go inside but I thought that we should do one kind.”

”It is alright mother Edna. I do not mind and your explanation tells me what you are doing. I want to be able to help you out as much as possible.” Amelia looked at the pot smiling and watched as the water started to bubble.

Edna stirred the pot and once the beans had expanded she smiled. ”Kuma, can you take this to the usual spot?” She stepped back leaving the spoon in the pot.

”Sure thing!” Kuma quickly comes over and moves the pot to the shorter counter. ”Here you go, ladies.”

”Thank you, Kuma. Amelia, next we will add cold water to cool it down all at once. It will change the look of the bean. Once it boils off we will be able to skim the foam off carefully but we do not want to take off too much.” Edna goes to the pump and starts to get more water and adds it to the beans.

Amelia watched and helped stir the beans as they cooled. ”This is really interesting.” she saw the foam start to form but did not start the skimming process.

Edna started to skim the beans and looked at Amelia. ”This should be enough.” She stops what she was doing and looks at the beans happily. Edna picks up a wooden stick and starts to crush the beans. After they were all mashed, she added sugar and salt. She began to gently fold it in.

Kuma lifted the pot back to the heat. ”There you go.”

Amelia watched as the mixture went from a slightly liquid state to a more solid form. ”Wow, I am amazed. This is really something that I thought I would not be able to see.”

Edna adds a little rice flour to help the mixture become even more solid. ”Next we will colour the beans and make the wagashi.”

Kuma moves the pot back to the counter and gets out of the way and goes back to prepping lunch. ”Amelia, would you like some soup with your lunch today?”

”Soup? I would like that, please. Thank you for being so considerate.” Amelia bowed and watched Edna.