Tokyo Terrace

The obsession has officially set in. The smell, taste and visual beauty of the yuzu fruit has its hold on me. After my previous cocktail Friday post featuring yuzu, I had to make just one more. I am also one of many girls who is obsessed with the TV show Sex and the City. The signature cocktail in the series, the cosmopolitan, became a hit among many women. I personally love the pretty pink color of cosmopolitans and the tangy sweetness from the cranberry juice. Tasty…

This cocktail is my Tokyo-style variation on the traditional cosmopolitan. It has the same pink color, but a few more unique ingredients, including yuzu and pink peppercorns, that make it especially suited to its name, the Tokyo Cosmo.

The flavor of a Tokyo Cosmo is subtly sweet from the addition of raspberry preserves, which helps to enhance and balance the flavor of the sour yuzu juice. The addition of the pink peppercorns adds a hint of earthy, bright flavor to the finish, leaving a clean feel in the mouth rather than being overly sugary or syrupy. The pink peppercorns also make a beautiful and elegant garnish for this feisty little cocktail.

In addition to developing a Sex and the City-worthy cocktail, a couple of really exciting things happened here at Tokyo Terrace this week. First, my blog post about Argentine Empanadas appeared on the homepage of WordPress.com. This brought an overwhelming number of great comments, many of which brought tears to my eyes (hubs calls me “leaky”). Thank you to all of you who share your reactions to my stories and recipes. It means so much to read such heartfelt, genuine comments. The second piece of exciting news is that Tokyo Terrace was mentioned in an article on CNNgo.com! Thanks to Heidi from Aromas y Sabores for mentioning my blog at just the right moment on Twitter!

I hope you also have reasons to celebrate this week! Celebrate the changing seasons, spending time with people you love, or just the coming weekend by whipping up a Tokyo Cosmo. Enjoy your weekend, my friends!

Tokyo Cosmo
makes 1 cocktail

1 tablespoon raspberry preserves
juice of 1 yuzu or 1/2 lemon
3 oz. sake (if you cannot find sake, use vodka)
1 oz. Cointreau or Grand Marnier
4 pink peppercorns, plus extra for garnish
ice

In the bottom of a cocktail shaker, mash and muddle the raspberry preserves, yuzu/lemon juice and pink peppercorns. Add the sake, Cointreau and ice. Cover the shaker and shake away until it is just too cold to hold any longer (always a perfect indicator you have shaken enough!)
Pour into a martini glass and garnish with zest from the yuzu (or lemon) and a few pink peppercorns. Konpai!

When I was in college, I met this boy. He was cute, funny, sweet and attentive. I was completely head over heels in love with him within the first 5 minutes of our first date.

“I knew like ya know about a good melon.” — When Harry Met Sally

After a short time, I knew things were serious. Spend-the-rest-of-our-lives-together serious.

Boy was I in trouble. Sometimes I wonder if someone should have hit me over the head with a shoe and told me to run in the opposite direction. Especially when this particular boy said to me, “I am going to be spending 6 months in Argentina. And I’m leaving in 2 months. Oh, and by the way, we’re going to get married and move to Japan for 3 years.” Yep, shoulda put my running shoes on at that point.

Of course I am talking about the boy who turned into the man I  married. And I am still head-over-heels in love with him. Glad I left my running shoes in the closet.

Stick with me…I’ll get to the real point of this post very soon. But just to tide you over…

I gave you that “background info” because it explains how and why I ended up making these Argentine Empanadas. When hubs (or boyfriend at the time) told me he was spending 6 months in Argentina I knew it would be difficult. I also knew I had to go visit him. Duh! So he left in February. Fast-forward to June, the day after my college graduation, and I was on a plane by myself to Argentina.

AND I happened to be sitting next to a guy from Texas who wanted to tell me all about his dog named Booger. Yeah. Like the ones from your nose.

To make a long story short, Brad and I spent 2 weeks traveling around Argentina. Most of our time was spent in Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires where we enjoyed a lot of wonderful food. Empanadas became a favorite food for both of us in Argentina and I have not had them since then. (And no, I will not tell you how long it’s been…)

Did I mention that he proposed in Argentina? What a sneaky guy...

Last weekend I decided it was time to try making my own empanadas. I was determined to figure out the sweet and savory filling found in Argentina. The combination of ingredients here may seem strange at first, but trust me when I say that the flavors meld together to create delectable flavors and texture contrasts. Brad took a few for lunch today and his reaction was, “They are as good or better than any I had in six months in Argentina. You can quote me on that one! Flaky, slightly sweet, savory/rich filling. Oh my gosh.”

So, I hope that sentiment from Brad will help give you a little push to try these out! You can double the recipe and do everything through the last step and freeze them for later use. Just wrap them in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag!  Thaw ‘em out, bake ‘em up, and they are a great last-minute party snack.

Argentine Empanadas

Makes 1 dozen empanadas

Filling:

2 T olive oil

1 lb. ground beef

1 small yellow onion, chopped

3 green onions, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1/3 cup pitted green olives, roughly chopped

1/3 cup raisins

2 boiled eggs, chopped

2 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons water

black pepper and salt to taste

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the onion, green onion, garlic, raisins and olives. Cook until the onion and garlic are soft and fragrant. Add the ground beef and brown thoroughly. Stir in the soy sauce and water. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring the mixture to prevent burning. Season with salt and pepper, transfer the filling to a large bowl and allow to cool while you make the dough. When the filling is cool, stir in the boiled egg.

Dough (adapted from Asian Dumplings cookbook):

2 cups flour, plus extra for dusting

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon sugar or honey

4 tablespoons shortening

5 tablespoons butter, chilled and diced

1 egg yolk (save the white to brush the dough before baking) mixed w/6 tablespoons water

In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, sugar (if using honey, mix the honey together w/the egg yolk and water.)

Add the shortening and butter and use your fingers to break it into tiny crumbles (very important that this is done well! If you have a food processor, use that…I don’t, so I use what God gave me!)

Add the egg/water/honey mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with a fork until the dough comes together in a mass. Ditch the fork and use your hands to gently kneed the dough into a smoothish ball. Don’t do this for too long, just long enough to create a nice ball of dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator when thoroughly chilled. On a floured surface, roll the dough out into a thick, small rectangle and cut in half. Working with one half of dough at a time, continue to roll the dough into a larger rectangle until it is about 1/8 inch thick. Using a circular cookie cutter, cut out section of dough and set aside. Do the same with the other half of dough.

Assembly:

Take each cut out circle and roll it out so it is thin, but not so thin you can see through it. Put about 2 tablespoons of filling in the center of the dough circle and seal the edges. Place the filled empanada on a lined baking sheet. Lightly whisk your reserved egg white. Before placing in the oven, brush the top of each empanada with the egg white.

Bake at 375 degrees F for about 20 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.

This morning is so cold! I can feel a draft in our apartment and my feet are not happy about it. The rest of me, however, is loving the sudden drastic change in the weather. My Minnesota-girl roots are thriving on what is reminiscent of a November morning at home.

I was talking to my mom on iChat earlier about how much I miss my old bedroom. The windows looked out over the 2 acres or so of grass in my parents backyard all the way to this massive cottonwood tree at the back corner of the property. I used to lay in bed and listen to the cold Minnesota wind gusting by my window, watching snow pile up or autumn leaves swirl gracefully through the air. I am grateful that I have those memories while living in a city like Tokyo. Sometimes, thinking about that view from my bedroom is all I can do to keep from feeling suffocated by the tall buildings and seemingly endless concrete. I’m just not a city girl. At least there is amazing food and accessible city getaways.

Another memory that creeps in occasionally is the smell that would slowly work its way under my bedroom door, across the floor, up over the food of my bed and slowly into my nostrils from my mother’s breakfasts.

Growing up in Tennessee, my mom developed a seriously amazing list of breakfast recipes that could make anyone feel like they were sitting in a country house surrounded by wide open spaces. Whether it was gravy and biscuits, pancakes, eggs and bacon (well, who am I kidding, we had bacon with most breakfasts like these) everything she made was so lovingly prepared and given to my sister, my dad and myself. I fully attribute my love to cooking, as many people do, to my mom. More importantly, it is because of my mom that I have a need and desire to share my cooking with others. It is how I express love. I think somewhere in my mind I feel like I can communicate to people best though their stomachs. Think there is any truth to that? I certainly do.

A more recent addition to my mom’s amazing morning meals is this cinnamon roll recipe. Unlike many cinnamon rolls, these are not overly heavy. Mom made them with her biscuit dough recipe and they are perfect for a winter morning alongside a steaming hot cup of coffee. I can smell the aromas and see images of my family sitting together on a Saturday or Sunday morning, sleep still in our eyes, taking in my mother’s love through her cinnamon rolls. Bliss.

I added a little twist to these cinnamon rolls because I didn’t have any powdered sugar on hand to make the frosting. I used some left over dulce de leche which proved to make a rich, decadent topping for these incredibly easy-to-make cinnamon rolls.

Mom’s Cinnamon Rolls

2 cups self-rising flour, plus extra for dusting

pinch of salt

2 T butter, plus 3 teaspoons

2 T shortening

1 cup milk or buttermilk

1/8 cup cinnamon

1/4 cup sugar

Combine flour, butter and shortening in a large bowl. Use your fingers to work the shortening and butter into the flour until it is in tiny pieces no bigger than a pea. Add the milk (or buttermilk) and stir until combined. The dough should be sticky.

Mix the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl.

When you have the dough finished, roll it out about 1/2″ thick in a long rectangle and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar mixture liberally on the dough. Roll the dough up into a log cut into about 5 or 6 sections and place in a baking pan (Note from Mom: “I like to add about 1/2 teaspoon butter on top of each roll”- use the additional 3 teaspoons for this part.)

Bake at 450° about 15 minutes.

Make glaze with powdered sugar and a little milk or apple cider and drizzle over each roll and serve. (Or, if you have any Dulce de Leche hanging around that is a fabulous topping as well!)

I made it a point this week to give you two dazzling cocktail posts! Seeing as how I try my very best to keep my promises, here is this week’s second cocktail post and recipe.

Yesterday, I posted a recipe for a “Killer” Whiskey Cocktail made with calamansi citrus. Today, I am giving you another unique citrus based cocktail using Japanese yuzu. I must confess that I was totally confused when I moved to Japan and bought what I thought was a tiny lemon. After one taste I knew I had something much more special than a lemon.

Yuzu is a sour tasting fruit and I find it quite similar to calamansi. They are about the size of a clementine (or tangerine) and the flesh and rind are yellow. These beautiful little citrus fruits are bursting with fragrance and flavor and can be used in drinks, sauces, savory and sweet dishes.

For this cocktail, I decided to pair the yuzu juice with ginger-mint simple syrup. These flavors help to round out the sourness of the citrus without covering it up too much. I especially love the garnish of ginger root and mint leaves.

For another great take on a yuzu cocktail, check out this one posted by The White on Rice Couple. Their concoctions-food and otherwise- never fail!

Japanese Yuzu and Ginger Cocktail
Makes 2 cocktails

6 oz. gin or vodka
juice of 1 yuzu fruit (if you can’t find yuzu, you may use lime instead)
2 tablespoons ginger-mint simple syrup (recipe follows)

Combine gin, yuzu juice and simple syrup in a cocktail shaker. Shake shake shake…shake shake shake…shake your booty (I mean shaker.) Pour into a glass filled with ice, garnish with thinly sliced ginger root and mint leaves.

Ginger-mint simple syrup
Makes about 1/3 cup

1/2 cup honey (or sugar)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup roughly chopped mint leaves
1 inch piece ginger, chopped

Combine all ingredients in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly for 3 minutes to dissolve honey in the water. Continue cooking over medium heat for another 5 minutes or until a syrup-like texture is achieved. Pour the syrup into a small glass bowl and allow to cool slightly before use. (I have found that when using a cocktail shaker it is helpful to use the syrup while it is still slightly warm, stirring it with the cocktail ingredients to ensure it is well combined before adding ice.)

Happy Halloween everyone!  Tokyo guys and gals are busy gearing up their costumes for parties this weekend (and some don’t even have to dress up since their daily outfits are so out there already!) and hubs’ school just had its big Halloween parade yesterday, so here’s a simple new cocktail that’s so good, it could kill…(insert scary bad-guy laugh here).

This cocktail was made with my dad and husband in mind. I guess as far as important people go they rank pretty highly on the list.  This cocktail features whiskey and a southern Asian citrus called Calamansi. With a flavor reminiscent of a more refined whiskey sour and its gentle orange color, this cocktail is perfect for any Halloween themed party.  I also didn’t go nuts with eyeballs (skinless grapes) or a licorice stick, so you could whip this up just as easily for Friday evening with your friends.

My husband confidently exclaimed that this was his favorite cocktail that I have made thus far. Keep in mind that he, like my dad (probably because of my dad), is a big fan of whiskey on its own and neither of them really are the “cocktail type.”

I used a middle-of-the-road Japanese whiskey from Suntory, but feel free to try your favorite bottle to mingle with the citrus and slight sweetness from the honey. Calamansi are a tiny green citrus with a sour orange-colored flesh. (You can read a bit more about them at one of my favorite blogs, Rasa Malaysia.)The half you see in the drink above is actually frozen- they work great as ice cubes!

Calamansi can be hard to find, but some easy substitutions are lemon, lime, orange (for that halloween color) or even a little combo of different citrus flavors. Experiment with your favorite potions…(again, insert scary guy laugh here).

A “Killer” Whiskey Cocktail

Makes 2 cocktails

6 oz whiskey

juice of 2-3 calamansi OR 1/2 a lemon, lime or orange

1 tablespoon honey

ice

Frozen citrus halves for garnish (instructions follow the cocktail recipe)

Combine the ingredients in a cocktail shaker (minus the ice) and stir to dissolve the honey. Add the ice….shake-ah shakity shake…pour….drink. Killer.

Frozen citrus halves:

Cut your choice of citrus in half or into quarters (for larger citrus you may need to go even smaller to make sure they fit in the glass you are using). Wrap the citrus in saran wrap and place in the freezer for at least 4 hours and up to 8. When ready to use, unwrap them and plop them in your drink! They also make great ice cubes to fancy up your ice water.