Ch 127 -- Boiled Pork and Pickled Soft-boiled Egg
Well, what shall I make now? I asked myself as my contracted monsters went off for yet another nap after gobbling down their lunch of Wyvern steaks over rice.
Let’s see, I had bought black bread in Doran’s shops, quite a lot of it. That ant stew or soup that would go with the bread to make it more palatable. Stew? I could make the beef stew I made once before. It had turned out to be quite popular, in fact so popular that there was none left after a single al, I recalled. However, I patted the stove beside familiarly, I could cook a lot more at one ti now. I ordered up two more half-sized stockpots from the Net Super along with butter, a can of demi-glace sauce and a bottle of red wine to fill in the items missing from my beef stew recipe. Right, let’s get started, peel, peel, chop, chop, slice, slice...
"Boil until the vegetables beco soft then add the can of demi-glace sauce and ketchup, a bit more boiling and they’ll be ready." I said to remind myself as I shredded lots more cabbage and rinsed it thoroughly in clean water. When I was a student I used to earn so money doing part-ti work in the college dorm’s kitchens helping out with the cooking and cleaning. Despite that experience I’m not actually that good at things like preparing cabbage but it’s OK if there are occasional thick slices, it’s... artisanal, I told myself. Artisanal, yup. Now what did I need to do now? Ah yes, add the demi-glace sauce and the ketchup and stir it into the vegetables then lower the heat and let it simr. Having done that I shredded more cabbage until...
"Fu~, is this it?" I had nearly run out of cabbages to slice up. I looked at the giant pile of shredded cabbage and shrugged, I hadn’t really ant to make so much but it was easy repetitive work and the extra wouldn’t go to waste. I had plans for the remaining cabbages so I put down my knife and stored the shredded cabbage away in my Item Box. After that I peeked into the pots on the stove where the beef stew was simring. I stirred the stew so more, listening to the sounds of it bubbling away in the pots. Yosh, that was going well.
What will I make next...? I’d like to make hamburger steak but I just used up all the ground minced at and it would take a lot of ti and effort to make more right now. Ah, rembering working in the dorm kitchens brought to mind another part-ti job I had as a student, working in a ran restaurant. I could make boiled pork, an essential ingredient for ran but it was tasty enough served over rice like gyuudon beef bowl. I shouldn’t take much ti to prepare it and after that it I can just let it simr away like the beef stew. Thinking about ran that suggested soft-boiled eggs as another option, hmmm. Making boiled pork ant ordering another half-sized stockpot from the Net Super but I added cooking string, leeks, garlic and ginger and eggs to the list.
First of all I tied up pieces of of Orc at in tight bundles with the cooking string. It didn’t have to look pretty and it’s a hassle to do it properly, the way the pros in ran restaurants do. The key thing is to keep the pieces of pork bundled up and prevent them from falling apart when they’re being boiled so I just wound the string around and around the lumps of at until they looked about the right shape. I oiled up a frying pan and set it to a high heat before searing the Orc at bundles to seal the outsides. Now for the boiling.
I put water, soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar in the new half-size stockpot and got it started boiling while I added the white root parts of so leeks and the remaining onions and carrots, crushed garlic and sliced ginger. Once it was boiling properly I added the bundles of seared Orc at and let it cook thoroughly.
While that was all happening I made a lot of soft-boiled eggs. A tip, if you make a small hole in the bottom of the shell before boiling the eggs it makes them easier to peel afterwards. I used to use a safety pin to do this before I got one of those gadgets to do it properly when it was on sale at a 100 yen store. Hmmm, I had a look in the Net Super and yes, there it was so I ordered one. It wasn’t 100 yen, of course (plus sales tax) but at three copper coins it was still pretty cheap.
Drill a hole in the shells with the gadget, boil the eggs for about 6 minutes letting them roll around gently so that the yolks get fixed in the middle, soak them in cold water and peel off the shells. After that I turned the heat off under the boiled pork pot. I’d let it cool down and leave it overnight to marinate in the stock before it was ready to take out and store. What could I make now? The stew was still in progress, I had to wait for the boiled pork to cool down, the eggs were done. The burners were all in use but the oven? Hmmm, maybe roast beef?
I carved a generous piece of Bloody Horn Bull at, dressed it in olive oil and then coated it with grated garlic, salt and coarse pepper before putting it in the pre-heated oven on the top shelf on a cooking sheet. I was starting to get an idea how the oven perford but I kept a close eye on the cooking at and when it turned a proper brown colour I took it out, wrapped it in aluminium foil and let it cook through with the residual heat as I had with the Giant Deer steaks I had cooked yesterday. I had lots of raw garlic to hand so I didn’t use the herb salt this ti though. After my patience ran out I unwrapped the roast and cut a slice of the at. It looked well-cooked, brown and crisp on the outside but a vivid pink in the middle, oozing juices. Now to taste it...
Munch. Umu, it’s delicious. My attempt to take another bite was interrupted by-
"Have you cooked dinner?" Fer, initially.
"I’m hungry, you know-" Dora-chan, sequentially.
"Food, food-" Sui, finally.
Uh huh, these three guys definitely won’t miss a chance to interrupt just when I’m about to eat. Well, this roast beef wasn’t ant to be for dinner, but I haven’t made dinner yet and this roast won’t be enough for the Gluttonous Three, never mind myself... roast beef sandwiches, perhaps they’d do the job? I’ve got to save so of this roast beef for myself at all costs. Protect the at! And I’ve got all that shredded cabbage, ummm, yosh.
"Please wait a mont." I ordered, taking a peek into the pot of boiled pork before I took it off the stove and put it down out of the way. It was looking really good and slling even better. I’d leave it overnight to grow cold and let the flavour of the broth completely soak through the cooked at to make it really yummy. I’d do the sa later with the soft-boiled eggs, putting them in a saucepan to marinate in a mixture of soy sauce and mirin overnight too.
Once I’d dealt with the boiled pork I started on the roast beef sandwiches. I bought bread and butter and Japanese-style onion dressing from the Net Super. I heated the bread in the oven, spread butter on the slices and topped them with shredded cabbage before adding slices of juicy roast beef and coating them with onion dressing and another slice of buttered bread. I might have used a steak sauce instead of the onion but the shredded cabbage really called for a more acidic dressing taste-wise. I made a pile of sandwiches and put them out on dishes.
"It’s ready-" I said redundantly as I was pushed rudely aside and the sound of chomping jaws filled the courtyard.
"This at is delicious." Fer said as he stopped for breath. "But what’s with all this other stuff?"
Fer, if I only ate at I would die, I told him telepathically. Just eat your greens like a good little puppy. I kept that last thought to myself. I still had so roast beef left over and I was ready to defend it to the last. Protect the beef!
"I don’t get you, big guy." Dora-chan said, a satisfied expression on his face as he finished off yet another sandwich. "It’s not just the at, the rest of it, the veggies inside and the sauce, the bread too makes it tastier to eat." I agreed but I was surprised that Dora-chan thought the sa way. He was quite discriminating in his tastes.
"Sour sauce and vegetables and at together, mmmm tasty~" Sui-chan was a gourt in her own way, I supposed.
Fer and Sui had "Seconds!" several tis but sohow I only consud two sandwiches. The roast beef was very satisfying. And I had so left over, I thought to myself smugly. The roast beef had been successfully protected, tucked away safe in my Item Box. I put the saucepan of marinating soft-boiled eggs and the half-sized stockpot of boiled pork back in my Item Box too. I’d take them back out once I returned to my room and let them stay out overnight. The Item Box was a great convenience, keeping hot food hot but anything I cooked that needed ti to achieve results, like marinating eggs had to be done outside the Item Box where ti ran as normal. Finally I turned off the Black Magic Cooking Stove and put it away in the Item Box too.
"Okay, I’m going back to my room." I announced as Dora-chan’s eyelids flickered sleepily. A full belly of roast beef will do that to you, I thought to myself smugly. "Oh, and tomorrow I’m going to the Adventurers Guild at noon."
"Nuuu, what for?" Fer inquired, his own eyelids drooping heavily.
"What for? To get that Earth Dragon at, what else?" I replied. Fer’s eyes snapped open. "Elland-san said it would be ready after three days." I reminded him.
"Oooooh," Fer started to drool, "three days, you’re right... we can finally eat Dragon..." Fer fixed with a glare. "We’ll be eating Dragon tomorrow night, understand?"
"Yeah yeah." Dragon at, I wonder what it tastes like. Fer seed very keen on it and we had eaten so very tasty at together, could it really be as good as he claid?
Once I was back in the room I put the stockpot of boiled pork on the desk to cool down and parked the saucepan of marinating soft-boiled eggs beside it, then I put Sui’s bag on the bed.
"Sui, I have a small favour to ask you, is it OK just now?" I said. Sui looked out from her bag.
"Whaaat izzit, aruji-" Sui-chan sounded a bit sleepy. Sorry for interrupting your post-dinner siesta, Sui.
"Anyways, can you make a sword like this one for , the sa way you made that knife?" I took out the short sword I had purchased so long ago (and never used) from my Item Box. Sui-chan looked closely at the sword.
"Gotcha-." She trembled a bit. Was sothing wrong? "It may take a bit longer to make than the knife, is that OK?"
"Of course It’s OK. Well then, please do it." I handed several lumps of Mithril ore to Sui and sat down to wait. It hadn’t hurt her when she had made the knife earlier, making a sword shouldn’t hurt her this ti but I worried just the sa. I didn’t interrupt her though and after an hour or so had passed----
"Aruji-, I made it." Sui extruded a gleaming sword. I quickly Appraised it.
[ Mithril short sword ]
A high-quality Mithril short sword.
Oh wow, that’s truly amazing. Just what I’d expect from Sui. "Thank you so much, Sui." I said sincerely. As a reward I bought her strawberry shortcake, pudding a la mode and cream puffs from the Net Super.
"Sui, this is a thank you for working so hard, help yourself." I pushed the dish with the desserts towards her.
"Can I eat-?" she asked hesitantly. She knew she shouldn’t snack between als. Sui-chan was a good girl.
"It’s okay this ti, eat up." I winked at her. "But don’t let Fer and Dora-chan that I gave you this."
"Well, secret~" Sui said conspiratorially, ingesting the strawberry shortcake. "Mmmm, sweet and delicious~" After all Sui likes sweet things and she deserved a treat for her hard work making the sword for so it was fine.
Thanks to Sui we would be able to make weapons in an ergency, even in a dungeon if necessary. I examined the Mithril sword carefully. Boy it looked sharp, just like the knife Sui had made earlier. Very sharp. I resisted the temptation to run the tip of my finger along the edge to test it by touch. Not a good idea.
In fact I had been thinking about asking Sui-chan to make one or two Mithril kitchen knives but this kind of sharpness was, well, TOO sharp. I was scared really, after all every now and then my hand slips or I make a mistake when I’m cutting and preparing food and if I was using sothing this sharp I’d run out of fingers pretty quickly. The kitchen knives I can buy from the Net Super will be enough for , I decided. Weapons though, that was different. I’d want sothing as sharp as possible in that case to protect myself. With this Mithril short sword, the way it felt in my hand, even soone like whose motto is Safety First could use it successfully. All I’d have to do is hit sothing with it and it would cut through. Skin, scales, armour, bone, shields, even other swords, I felt that nothing could stop it.
Thank you truly for your assistance, Sui.
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