Sweet simmered black soybeans
Black soybeans slowly cooked in sugar syrup with a little soy sauce, glossy, soft and sweet. A classic part of the Japanese New Year meal.
Sweet simmered black soybeans, kuromame in Japanese, are black soybeans soaked and then cooked for hours in a syrup of sugar, water and a little soy sauce. When done well they are a deep glossy black with smooth, unwrinkled skins, soft inside yet still holding their shape. They taste distinctly sweet with a mild, slightly nutty bean flavour and are eaten cold or at room temperature in small amounts, as a side dish, on desserts or with tea. Ready-made ones are sold in Asian grocery shops and by mail order in pouches, tins or tubs, especially around the turn of the year. Dried black soybeans for cooking your own can be found in Asian shops and sometimes in organic food shops.
Substitute:
There is no true substitute; if you cannot find ready-made ones, you can soak dried black soybeans overnight and simmer them slowly in sugar syrup with a little soy sauce yourself, which takes time but gives the same result. Ordinary black turtle beans from Latin American cooking are a different species, smaller and mealier, and they cloud the syrup, so the gloss and the texture are lost.