Chilled Red Bean Yōkan (水羊羹, Mizu Yōkan)

Mizu yōkan belongs to the heavy air of June through August, when even sweetness should feel cool. It looks like a confectioner's work, all dark red gloss and clean edges, but don't let that frighten you. This is anko, water, kanten, sugar, and salt. The first secret is not force. It is proportion.

Kanten, the seaweed gel we use for setting sweets, is firm by nature. Use too much and you have a rubber block pretending to be refined. Use too little and the yōkan slumps when you cut it. Mizu yōkan asks for a softer hand than the dense neri yōkan served with tea: enough kanten to hold a clean slice, enough water to let the bean paste taste loose and cool on the tongue.

The detail that decides it is dissolving the kanten completely before the anko goes in. Kanten must boil to set properly, but anko doesn't want rough handling after that. Boil the kanten with water until it disappears, then stir in the bean paste gently and strain if you want the finest texture. Nothing hidden here. Good koshian, a pinch of salt, and a patient chill do nearly all the work.

Serve it small, from a glass dish or cool stoneware, with a wooden pick. Three cubes are plenty. Leave it room, because a summer sweet should cool the eye before it cools the mouth.