*Yawn*, happy Wednesday! I love short work weeks--the week is already half over, hurray! And I'm hving my official bday dinner tonight (yes I know, it's not even my birth MONTH anymore), yay! Anyway, let's rewind a bit--I mentioned a couple of posts back that the farmer's markets here are overflowing with strawberries, and I have been powerless to resist. Aren't they beautiful? I bought a whole bunch of them, some to eat out of hand, but some for my new project--ichigo-shu! I've actually been dying to make this since I read about it over on Blue Lotus (um, well, I read that entry sometime in the last year, I haven't been yearning to make strawberry liqueur since 2005. I'm not THAT much of a procrastinator!). Of course, this is also a test of my patience because I'm not going to be able to taste this for a couple of months.
I was on a shopping trip to Mitsuwa a couple of weeks ago and when we walked in, there was a display right by the door of shochu, glass jars for making liqueur, and bags of ume and rock sugar. The ume was shockingly priced, I have to say, and didn't look that fresh either, so I just picked up some of the shochu and some rock sugar. I'm sure I could have just used vodka instead, but, well, when in Rome! Anyway, so I spent a couple of hours washing, drying, and hulling (oh, okay, and eating) my strawberries on Sunday. They were then layered into a jar with the rock sugar, some quartered, peeled lemons, and covered with shochu. (I gather the recipe for this is not super precise, so I didn't worry too much about quantities.)
Doesn't that one strawberry look like it's going "Heeeelp, let me out!!! I'm getting drunk and sugary!!" (Am I anthropomorphizing my food too much? Okay, maybe I have a problem.) I can't wait to see what it looks like in a couple of months! For now, the jar is reposing in a dark corner of my kitchen (which is, like, every corner of my kitchen).
Ahem...for someone whose blog title is about eating cookies, I realize I don't actually post about cookies very often. So, lest I be forced to change my blog name, here are some Earl Grey tea cookies! I was a bit alarmed by the color of the dough when I was putting these together; it was very, very grey. But after baking, they look fine, and I love having the little flecks of tea. They aroma of the tea is pretty strong, but the taste of it is very light. I wonder if steeping the tea in butter would help, but then the cookies might be greasy....well, that'll be an experiment for another day!
Have a good Wednesday everyone!
8 comments:
do you have a recipe for the early grey cookie? it looks and sounds delicious. thanks!
I love this fresh berry elixir idea! Would love to share some with the beautiful earl grey cookies--now that's a midweek, mid afternoon break worth taking! great photos and you are so lucky to have mitsuwa close by--enjoy!!
Hey Eula! I used the recipe from The Kitchn. It's a pretty basic cookie! I want to experiment with it a bit, see if I can get a stronger tea flavor, but it's pretty good as is.
Bentobird, I am dying to taste it, but it's really going to test my patience! It's so pretty already, very pink :D I love Mitsuwa, even though a lot of their stuff is overpriced--I can't help it, I love browsing :)
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haha, no problem anthropomorphizing!
You can add some blueberries to it, then it will come out deep pink color.
I like both Earl Grey and cookie, so I absolutely gotta make Earl Grey cookies!
Oh, thanks for the tip! I do actually have some blueberries in the fridge, think I will add some in. It's already very pretty :D
Yes, the Earl Grey cookies are yummy!! I think I am going to make more biscotti this weekend :)
The liquor looks beautiful!
Jessica, I'm going to have to take photos of it as it steeps--it's a really gorgeous dark pink color right now :)
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