It's Chinese New Year. My family have the tradition of eating rice cakes on Chinese New Year. Although I'm not at home this year to celebrate with them, I made myself red beans with mochi.

Actually the red beans soup with mochi is from Japanese. It is called Shiruko in Japanese. I first learnt the name from one classic textbook that most people used to learn Japanese. 

It is easy to cook. All you need are red beans, sugar, and rice cakes.

**Method**
1. Soak red beans in water for at least 4 hours.
2. Put soaked red beans in a saucepan and cover with water. Boil the beans for 10min and simmer for 1 - 1.5 hours.
3. Add sugar and cook in low heat for 5 -10 min.
4. Add mochi, boil and simmer for another 2 min.
5. Done!

![WeChat Image_20180219145307_Fotor.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSxH3ixUKLRneM2ba3jrBbiCTs4aEoLykFHdokA8eSRLQ/WeChat%20Image_20180219145307_Fotor.jpg)

我们家在过年的时候都会吃年糕。今年我没在家跟大家一起庆祝新年，不过我给自己做了年糕小豆汤。

这其实是个日本点心，日语名字叫お汁粉(oshiruko)，学过标准日本语的同学们可能还有印象。上周逛日本超市正好看到年糕，就想在家做一下。

材料很简单，红豆、糖、年糕。

做法：
1. 红豆浸泡四小时以上。
2. 泡过的红豆加水煮沸，沸腾约十分钟后转小火慢炖一小时到一个半小时。
3. 按自己口味加糖，小火继续煮5-10分钟。
4. 加入年糕，煮沸后转小火煮2分钟。（我买的年糕很容易煮软，2分钟足够了。大家根据自己的年糕调节时间。）
5. 完成！



For your reference, this is the mochi I bought from Japanese supermarket. 
在日本超市买的年糕长这样。
![WeChat Image_20180219145254_Fotor.jpg](https://res.cloudinary.com/hpiynhbhq/image/upload/v1519084434/xdftqkpmog0meg3tcsdp.jpg)

Thank you for reading!
感谢阅读！