Sweet red bean soup.

This is something I love but make rarely as it can be time consuming. It is a chinese dessert / snack made with azuki beans, lotus seeds and sugar.
You will need to soak the beans overnight and the lotus seeds will also need soaking for a couple of hours. On other ocassions that I have made it I have also added a couple of spoons of tapioca balls.
So what you need is 1 cup of dried red azuki beans (soak overnight, they will double in size) If I am being lazy I will also add the 1/2 cup of lotus seeds in with them to soak.
You then need to put them in a pot with about 5-6 cups of water and 1/3 - 1/2 cup of sugar. Start wih less sugar and add more to taste if you like later. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 1 1/2 hours.
The beans should be just beaking up and soft and should have thickend the soup. Enjoy hot or cold.