I have missed writing this column, so I’m bringing it back! I can not pretend that I have abandoned my lazy ways, or that I’ve stopped cutting corners when cooking. My kitchen may be much bigger than what I had in Brooklyn, but this only means that I can spread out my laziness over more counterspace.

Today, I bring to you a lovely lazyass recipe given to me by my sweet friend Moet, in LA. It consists of natto, an egg, and some scallions. That’s it! It doesn’t get any better than this, my friends, as these three ingredients are some of my favorite foods, hands down. It is a dream to be able to combine them into one simple, lazyass dish.

INGREDIENTS
1 pack of natto
1 tbsp oil
1 egg
1 spring onion (optional)

QUICK RECIPE

1. Chop scallions.

2. Mix natto in a bowl.

3. Crack an egg into the bowl and mix with natto.

4. Heat oil in frying pan.

5. Add natto/egg mixture to the frying pan

6. Meanwhile, thaw your frozen, pre-steamed package of rice in the microwave.

7. Carefully flip your natto omelette in the frying pan.

8. Put rice in bowl. Place the omelette over the rice.

9. Eat standing up in your spacious California kitchen, with chopsticks and various condiment crack.

From prep to completion, this dish takes about 10 minutes. LAZY!

+++

PHOTOS

Mix natto, chop scallions

Add egg to natto 

Scramble egg with natto really well.

Add scallions

Heat oil

Add natto mixture into hot pan

Try your best to flip the omelette. This part is very difficult as the natto/egg mixture easily breaks apart.

Cry when you fail

Thaw your frozen pre-steamed rice in the microwave. This is lazyass, remember? Don’t bother steaming a new pot of rice for this. 

Place your janky-looking omelette over the rice

Eat with some other rice condiment crack, like kimchi, and Yoko’s nametake (I actually made this last night! Mine is too salty though)

Slice avocado cause you’re in California and nothing else matters. Meshiagare (go ahead and eat)

To add to this lazyass meal, I made an equally lazyass miso soup with wilting vegetables I found in the fridge.

Boil water (homemade dashi? Psssh, not in this lazyass kitchen). Add sliced daikon, bok choy, scallions and broccoli (or anything you want). Add miso and sprinkle in some ajinomoto (MSG baby).

All this must be consumed while standing in your kitchen. Long live Lazyass Cookin’!

*This is a part of an ongoing exclusive series on Umamimart, Radiation + Japan. Please check out these other posts and videos for more:

Testing of Food in Japan, By Yoko Kumano

Interview with Washio, Bar Owner (Tokyo), By Yoko Kumano

Testing Report and Thoughts, By Howie Correa

Interview with Satoshi Imai, Rice Farmer (Niigata), By Yoko Kumano

The other morning I woke up with the worst hangover I’ve had in two years. I remember drinking shochu the night before like I was drinking water. I clearly ended up mixing up the two halfway through the night because they both looked the same, yet the shochu tasted better. The upside is that I am only a little drowsy and I don’t have a pounding headache like a red wine hangover. My “clear” mind allowed me to make one of my two favorite hangover foods–zousui (the other one being soba).

Zousui is Japanese porridge. Mothers make it for their sick children and hungover adults make it for themselves. I fall into the latter category.

Making zousui is a simple affair especially if you have some cooked rice sitting in the fridge. It requires only a handful of ingredients that you can improvise with and you can even throw in random vegetables that are rolling around at the bottom of your produce fridge drawer.

My hangover is still lingering as I write this, but after eating two full bowls of zousui, I feel like I am on the mend.

ZOUSUI aka HANGOVER PORRIDGE

INGREDIENTS
2 stalks of green onions, sliced into thin rounds
A handful of shiitake or eringi mushrooms chopped thin (you can pretty much use any kine of mushroom)
1-2 eggs cracked into a bowl and lightly beaten
1/4 cup dried wakame
3 cups dashi
3 cups cooked rice
2 tbsp soy sauce

METHOD

1. In a medium to large pot, heat dashi on high.

2. Chop ingredients.

3. Once the dashi has come to a rolling boil, throw in half of the chopped green onions, mushrooms and other veggies if you have them (i.e. chopped carrots or asparagus can work). Add the dried wakame into the pot as well. If there doesn’t seem to be enough liquid, you can add a dash of water or dashi.

4. After the veggies are cooked and the wakame has expanded, add the rice and stir well. Close the lid and cook on medium or medium-low for 10 minutes. Be careful that the rice doesn’t burn (a Le Crueset pot is ideal for this as it tends not to burn the rice). If it’s on the cusp of burning, add more water or dashi or turn down the heat.

5. Once the rice is well saturated and pudding like in consistency add the soy sauce and stir. Turn the heat off.

6. Drape the egg over the porridge and close the lid. Leave for 5 minutes. The egg should cook from the residual heat.

7. Open the lid after five minutes and it should look like this:

Give it another good stir. It’s ready!

8. Garnish with the green onions you set aside earlier.

Now, have a carafe full of water at your table at all times.

Go to any sushi restaurant in Japan and notice that “ikura” or salmon roe, is either written in katakana or hiragana. I was curious as to why it was often written in katakana–the alphabet designated to loanwords. I asked the master at Sushi Danran about this curiosity. He told me that “ikura” イクラ comes from the Russian language. The Russian word for “caviar” is “ikra” hence, “ikura” in Japanese. Salmon roe is prevalent in Russia–so much so that they have salmon roe flavored Lay’s! Hit me up.

Last week, my fish monger had some beautiful sacs of salmon roe in his display. I snatched up 1/4 lb at $13.99/lb.

It comes in a membrane sac that holds together all the eggs. This sac must be removed, and the eggs marinated to resemble the ikura that is served in your sushi.

Ikura Shoyu Marinade

INGREDIENTS
1/4 lb. fresh salmon roe (sujiko)
3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp sake

METHOD

1. Place sujiko in warm water and break the eggs away from the sac. The eggs are delicate so be careful when separating them from the membrane sack.

2. Once they are broken apart, rinse them through a colander with cold water.

3. Combine soy sauce and sake in a small saucepan and bring the mixture to a boil. Wait until the mixture cools down.

4. Place the ikura in a air-tight food storage container. Pour the liquid mixture over it.

5. Seal the lid on the container and place it in the refrigerator. Wait for a half day before eating.

Приятного аппетита! (Prijatnovo appetita)

Discarded eggs from the chicken coop at an organic farm on Long Island, NY. They were too damaged to sell, so they were either thrown away or given to employees.

At some point very soon you’ll feel like you’ve filled your noggin with too much nog from all the holiday parties throughout the month. Before you reach the point where the three letter word ‘egg’ begins to conjure four letter word thoughts, I’d like to share with you a few recipes for delicious egg-based relatives of the classic Egg Nog that are just as appropriate during this time of year, but involve less than a tenth of the labor. You won’t need a blender and you won’t have to separate and beat egg whites until your arm falls off. All you’ll need is your trusty shaker and strainer to make these drinks. What’s more, you won’t have to throw a party and invite guests to have an excuse to make them, because the recipes are for individual portions. This should certainly please you holiday hermits and Scrooges out there.

Folks I’m talking about the Flip, a category of egg-based mixed drinks that were hugely popular at one point in American history, the 19th century to be exact. You see, before there was the Flipmode Squad, there was a squad of talented American bartenders (led by the preeminent Jerry Thomas) who mixed Flips to the delight of their patrons. So popular in fact were these eggy elixirs that they appear to have been the original Breakfast of Champions; long before coffee ruled the day’s early hours, Americans preferred to kickstart their day with an egg-based tipple or few. It’s no wonder the turn of the century temperance movement gained enough steam to initiate Prohibition.

Initially Flips were made simply of sugar, ale, and rum, and heated by taking a hot iron from the fire and inserting it in the cup until it frothed. Eventually with the help of the aforementioned Godfather of Mixology, Jerry Thomas, egg found its way in the drink along with ice, and a cocktail shaker replaced the hot poker–with the shaken egg being of course the critical froth-producing element in the drink.

I view the Flip as essentially a downsized Egg Nog. I say that not so much as a statement of official mixological taxonomy, but rather as a practical observation of a few differences between the two drinks. The primary difference has less to do with the ingredients as it does with the preparation of those ingredients. With the exception of cream, most Flips require the same cast of characters as an Egg Nog: egg, sugar, spirit, nutmeg.

However whereas Egg Nog recipes usually require the multiple steps of separating the whites and yolks, beating the yolks with the sugar before adding the spirit and cream, then beating the whites until stiff before finally folding in the whites with the yolk mixture, the Flip is a relatively hassle-free affair because it requires none of that. Simply combine all the ingredients with ice in a shaker and shake away. That’s it. Although it can get a little (or a lot) more fancier from there, at its core it retains that simplicity of process.

Bourbon Ginger Flip (pictured at top)
1 1/2 oz Bourbon
1/2 oz Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur
1/2 oz rum cream liqueur (basically a rum version of Baileys)
1 tsp caster sugar (or simple syrup)
1 egg (can’t beat farm fresh eggs with their rich yellow yolks if you can get ‘em)
nutmeg and powdered ginger to top

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: cocktail or flip glass

Dissolve the sugar with the liquor in a cocktail shaker. Crack the egg in there and dry shake (meaning without ice) for about 20-30 seconds. Add ice and shake vigorously again until shaker is nice and frosty. Strain into your glass and top with a bit of powdered ginger (go easy) and grated nutmeg.

You don’t have to dry shake if you don’t want to, but I like it because it produces a slightly richer froth. You can also double strain if you like, in order to catch any stray ice pieces from ending in the final product, and I do it based on my mood at the moment. Again it’s not critical unless you’re looking for the cleanest looking final product.

For the rum cream I used Crisma brand, which is made in Barbados and nearly impossible to find outside the island. However Cruzan makes a decent product as well.

Rum Apricot Flip (above)
1 1/2 oz aged rum
3/4 oz apricot brandy (Rothman & Winter is great if you can get it)
1 tsp caster sugar (or simple syrup)
1 egg
nutmeg to top

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: cocktail or flip glass

As with the first recipe, dissolve sugar in the spirits before adding the egg and either dry shake or not, per your preference. Strain into your glass and top with a bit of grated nutmeg.

Jupiter’s Flip*
1 oz absinthe
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
1/2 oz fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp caster sugar (or simple syrup)
1 egg
Peychaud’s bitters

Tools: shaker, strainer, toothpick
Glass: cocktail or flip glass

You know the drill by now, except this time after you strain into your glass, place a few drops of Peychaud’s bitters on the top of the drink; then take a toothpick or equivalent tool and lightly whisk around the bitters to simulate Jupiter’s Great Red Spot.

*This drink is the result of years of extensive collaborative research with NASA’s special Intergalactic Moon-Based Initiative for Booze Exploration (I.M.B.I.B.E.), and is best served in zero-gravity conditions. Moon boots and space suits not required.

As you can easily see from the above recipes, making a Flip does not involve nearly the same exhaustive procedures as making Egg Nog. The greater effort level in making Egg Nog is probably what makes it more sensible to serve to a large group, which conversely makes the Flip so suitable for solo or small-group imbibing.

Flips are also fantastic for you procrastinators out there. Whereas good Egg Nogs often require a few hours of advanced refrigeration to enable the flavors and spices to mingle and become well-acquainted, the ingredients in a Flip on the other hand only get the equivalent of a speed date before they have to get down to business.

Hopefully these recipes provide a glimpse into the myriad of different directions you can take a Flip, so you can take a breather from the gluey store-bought Egg Nogs you’re probably used to being served at every holiday party this season. However if you’re interested in actually making a good traditional Egg Nog you can check out this really tasty recipe here.

Hang in there soldier, you’re almost at the finish line! As for me, I think I’m going to have the Breakfast of Champions–the throwback kind.

Got a cocktail question? Hit me on twitter @paystyle, email me at payman(at)lifesacocktail(dot)com, or simply drop me a comment below!

Paystyle was born in Tehran and grew up in Los Angeles (aka Tehrangeles) before moving to Brooklyn with his wife and co-pilot Vanessa Bahmani who provides the stunning photography of Pay’s concoctions. Return every Wednesday for his weekly Happy Hour column.

Previous:
Gin & June Part 1, London Dry & Plymouth Gins
Gin & June Part 2, Genever
Gin & June Part 3, Old Tom Gin

For the fourth and final installment of Gin & June, I’ve decided that sloe is the way to goe. I am, of course, referring to sloe gin.

Of all the gins discussed this month, sloe gin is the odd man out. This is because sloe gin is really a flavored liqueur that has gin as its base spirit. Traditionally sloe gin is made by infusing gin with sloe berries, which are the plum-like tart and astringent fruits of the blackthorn plant. The result is an intensely sweet, deep burgundy colored liqueur that tastes like tart plums. Sloe gin made in the traditional manner often has a light almond essence as well, which is a result of the flavor from the stone of the fruit extracted by the alcohol it had been sitting in.

Most modern commercial iterations of sloe gin are not worth the price of their bottle caps, as they are often colored and flavored artificially and use cheap grain neutral spirits like vodka as the base. Thankfully for the first time in decades we can toss aside those acrid commercial imitations and get the real traditional stuff, now that Plymouth Sloe Gin has finally become available in the U.S. as of last year, albeit in limited supplies.

Since it is a liqueur, sloe gin has a lower alcohol content than other gins, usually ranging between 30-60 proof. Thus sloe gin is not a gin in the traditional sense. Nonetheless it works wonders when used as a flavoring component to complement other base spirits in cocktails.

That brings us to this week’s cocktails featuring sloe gin. The first cocktail is the Ruby Fizz, which is variation of the classic Sloe Gin Fizz.

Ruby Fizz (pictured above, right)
2 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
1 oz fresh lemon juice
½ oz berry syrup
1 egg white (don’t be squeamish, just use fresh eggs)
chilled club soda to top

Tools: shaker, strainer

Glass: highball

Fill a highball glass with ice. Place everything except club soda in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously until your hand freezeth over. Strain into your glass and top with club soda.

You could go without the egg white if you’re really opposed to it, but I think the egg white creates such a nice rich frothy top that when combined with the berry flavor and the tartness of the sloe gin, tastes and feels like a snow cone for adults. And if you like yours stiffer and less sweet, simply replace up to half of the sloe gin with Plymouth Gin or another gin of your preference.

The next cocktail is a variation of the classic Rum Sour, which I call the Anejo Sour.

Anejo Sour (pictured above, left)
1 3/4 oz anejo rum (I used Don Q Grand Anejo)
3/4 oz Plymouth Sloe Gin
½ oz honey syrup (equal parts honey and water)
½ oz fresh lime juice
1 dash Peychaud’s bitters
chilled club soda to top

Tools: shaker, strainer

Glass: chilled sour glass

Place everything except club soda in a shaker with ice and shake vigorously until outside of shaker is ice cold and frosty. Strain into your glass and top with club soda.

The Anejo Sour departs from a traditional Rum Sour in a number of ways, though it still remains within the traditional boundaries of the sour style of drinks. Most obviously is the addition of sloe gin, and using anejo rum instead of a light rum. You don’t have to use an expensive anejo rum, but I particularly enjoy the taste of the Don Q Anejo combined with the sloe gin.

I also felt that a dash of Peychaud’s rounded out the drink in a way that I otherwise missed without it. And although sours do not traditionally call for the addition of soda or seltzer, I think a splash of soda in a sour so immediately upgrades the drink from pedestrian to peerless that it should be a compulsory addition.

That wraps up Happy Hour’s Gin & June series, which I hope was edutaitional (not a typo). I’ve not yet decided what will be in store for next week. Perhaps I’ll do a summer cocktail of some sort–that is, if summer decides to show up in NYC this year. Cheers!

*Paystyle was born in Tehran and grew up in Los Angeles (aka Tehrangeles) before moving to Brooklyn with his wife and co-pilot Vanessa Bahmani who provides the stunning photography of Pay’s cocktail concoctions. Return every Wednesday for his weekly Happy Hour column.

I gave the Clover Club Cocktail the slight edge for its combination of simplicity, pleasance on the palate, and intriguing history (a common trifecta among classic cocktails). Also, it is one of those rare cocktails whose flavor profile fits so well with modern tastes that it seems like an invention from this very decade. And although it is a drink whose hey-day has come and gone, the recent revival of cocktail culture may signal its rejoiceful return.

Written references to the Clover Club Cocktail date as far back as 1911, though the drink’s inception could certainly reach back even further. The cocktail originated at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia, where members of the legendary Clover Club gathered to discuss whatever it is that captains of industry discussed at the time; and the Clover Club Cocktail was their apparent beverage of choice. I won’t delve into the cocktail’s full history here, but I urge you all to read Paul Clarke’s fascinating piece on the drink’s rise and fall from popularity.

The Clover Club Cocktail has spawned many a variation over the years, and even the original recipe itself has undergone numerous adjustments in order to suit society’s ever-evolving palate. For example, depending upon one’s historical text of favor, the recipe either calls for grenadine or raspberry syrup as primary sweetening agent.

My favored bible of imbibing (imbible?) happens to be The Savoy Cocktail Book, originally published in 1930 by the Savoy Hotel of London, and contains recipes compiled by the legendary Harry Craddock. Below is the recipe for the Clover Club Cocktail exactly as it appeared in Savoy. In addition, I will show you how to make a couple of variations: the Royal Clover Club and the Bitter Clover Leaf–the former being a classic in its own right and the latter being a creation of mine made specially for this month’s Mixology Monday theme, “Superior Twists.”

Clover Club Cocktail (from The Savoy Cocktail Book)
Juice of 1/2 lemon or lime
1/3 grenadine (1 part)
2/3 dry gin (2 parts)
1 egg white

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: cocktail or coupe

Place all ingredients in cocktail shaker along with ice. Shake well and strain into glass. Another common recipe with measurements that are more conducive to modern measuring tools can be found on cocktaildb.

Two quick notes on the use of raw eggs in cocktails: 1) There’s nothing to worry about as long as you use fresh eggs from a reliable source. I used fresh organic brown eggs. 2) When using egg whites in cocktail recipes, I prefer to do a dry shake (shake egg white by itself) first for 30 seconds to 1 minute in order to really froth the white, before adding the remaining ingredients and shaking again.

The Royal Clover Club is a variation of the Clover Club Cocktail that is a classic itself, and is also found among the original recipes published in the Savoy. The only difference is that the recipe calls for an egg yolk instead of an egg white. Of course this produces a slightly different flavor as well, subtly reminiscent of an orange creamsicle. Below is the recipe for a Royal Clover Club.

Royal Clover Club
1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz lemon juice
1/2 oz grenadine
1 egg yolk
Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: coupe

Place all ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice and shake vigorously for 15 seconds. Strain in chilled glass and enjoy.

And now on to this month’s MxMo, hosted by The Wild Drink Blog. The theme for this month is “Superior Twists,” which urges us to put a twist on a classic cocktail. Accordingly, I offer to you the Bitter Clover Leaf, which puts a much needed twist on an uninspired variation of the Clover Club Cocktail called the Clover Leaf–a twist on a twist, or double twist, if you will. The Clover Leaf is a prime candidate for revamping because it was essentially a Clover Club Cocktail with a mint sprig added for garnish, and nothing more. My twist on the Clover Leaf goes further by switching a mixed berry simple syrup for the grenadine and adding dry vermouth and mint bitters for greater depth.

Bitter Clover Leaf
1 1/2 oz gin
1/2 oz dry vermouth
1/2 oz fresh lime juice
1 oz berry simple syrup
1 egg white
2 dashes Fee Brothers Mint Bitters
1 mint leaf for garnish

Tools: shaker, strainer
Glass: coupe

Place egg white in shaker and dry shake for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add ice and remaining ingredients and shake again for another 10-15 seconds. Strain in chilled glass and garnish with mint leaf.

There you have it. The best cocktails you’ve probably never heard of, until now. Cheers!

Check out the rest of the “Superior Twists” from this month’s MxMo here.

Come back every Wednesday for Paystyle’s weekly Happy Hour column.

Photography by Vanessa Bahmani.

This doesn’t really have anything to do with anything. I also liked this book because they made up a club called “Pig City.”

These are called “Kamome no tamago” or seagulls’ eggs. What a cute but sort of disgusting idea! White choco around cake around bean paste. Non smelly.