Published at 20th of November 2020 09:24:49 PM
Chapter 23.1: 23.1
Translator: SFBaka
The facilities of the kitchen I was guided to were quite extensive . They were also well-ordered .
“This is the kitchen Milady and Tarsama often use for cooking . ”
It seems like this mansion actually has several kitchens . Un, it’s certainly an enviable environment .
“The ingredients and cookware present here are the same as what we have in the main kitchen . ”
“It’s quite a splendid kitchen . Well then, what should I make? What are the staple sweets in this country? It would be dull if I made something already commonly available, so could I trouble you to teach me?”
“Certainly . This is the staple sweet we have in this country . There are different flavors available, but they are essentially the same product . ”
Jonas-san handed me a basket filled with sweets . They appear to be similar to cookies .
“Can I taste one?”
“Of course . Please go ahead . ”
I tried one, and it really was a cookie . It was mildly sweet, crunchy, and delicious .
“This is quite tasty . But, are there no other sweets available apart from these?”
“Yes . These are the only sweets we have . They are made from wheat flour and are baked . ”
So they only have cookies for sweets huh? But there’s a lot more stuff we can make .
“I see . Well then, I’ll need to check the available ingredients next . ”
I checked out an ingredient jar that resembled porcelain first . Is this sugar? Yep, it’s sugar alright . It wasn’t white, but was light-brown in color . It tasted fine . It wasn’t as sweet as the sugar I’m used to, but it would do just fine . There were also some salt, honey, a number of different herbs and wheat flour . Hm, so what should I make?
“There are also some chilled ingredients available . ”
Jonas-san opened up a large shelf . There were eggs and other ingredients, either bound by cloth or put into porcelain containers, inside . Waves of cold air were wafting out of the shelf .
“Oh! This isー!?”
“This is a magic tool used for refrigerating ingredients . Foodstuffs that go bad quicker are put inside this box in order to prolong their shelf life . ”
“This is great! To think you had something like this as well . ”
The shelf contained things like meat, dried fish, eggs, butter, milk, cheese, and various other ingredients . Great . Since there are eggs, butter and milk, I can easily make a wider variety of sweets .
I do get the desire to make cookies using these ingredients . But I’m going to whip up something different . I’ll make something simple so I won’t accidentally botch up and ruin it .
Let’s go with a standard Earth-style steamed egg pudding . I personally like baked pudding more, but I’m not familiar with using the type of oven they have in this kitchen . Since that’s the case, it would be better not to force it .
I took out all the ingredients I need . Milk, eggs, and sugar . Just these three .
Next would be a suitable mold . I looked around the kitchen and spotted a shelf containing various tableware . It also had a lot of small containers that looked perfect as pudding molds . Hey, there’s also a strainer here . It was a bit rough, but it’ll do .
I also found a large lidded pot that I can use for steaming . I looked for something I can use to hold the containers above the water while steaming and found a smaller lid from another pot . It was just the right size as well . I successfully got myself an improvised steamer set .
“How many should I make?”
“Let’s see . How about five for your group plus five more, Alan-san?”
Jonas-san also included Elna’s share as well .
“Understood . I’ll make some extra portions, just to be sure . ”
I ran over the recipe in my head while considering the number of servings . Looks like we’re good . The ingredients we have here would suffice . We also had enough containers .
“By the way, how much does this ingredient cost?”
“Ah, sugar, is it? A pot of this size would cost about five silvers . ”
That’s unexpectedly cheap . Or is it? Five silvers are enough for a two-night stay at an average inn after all .
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I checked the cookware before I started making the puddings . There were two platforms that resembled stoves in the kitchen .
“Um, are theseー?”
“These are magic tools that emit flames . This is how you use them . ”
Jonas-san pulled down the lever on the side of one of the stoves . When he did so, the stove immediately spouted flames . It seems you can use the lever to adjust the intensity of the flames .
“This is also quite amazing . I actually want one myself . ”
“I could introduce you to one of our partner stores that have them later if you wish . ”
Man . They really sell a large variety of merchandise, don’t they?
I’ll start with making the caramel sauce .
I put an amount of sugar corresponding to the recipe in my head inside a small saucepan, added some water and heated the mixture over low flames .
I left the mixture to simmer for a few minutes until the color turned light-brown . I poured some more water bit by bit to adjust the thickness of the sauce .
I then poured the finished mixture from the saucepan into another container to let it cool down . Once the mixture had cooled down properly, I poured portions of the finished caramel sauce inside the containers I was going to use as molds for the puddings .
I decided to make fifteen servings this time .
I’ll make the pudding mixture next . I put an appropriate amount of sugar and milk inside a large pot and heated the mixture using the magic stove .
I then added some eggs to the mixture after heating it for a while . I also cracked a number of eggs over a porcelain bowl and started beating them . I added some salt to adjust the flavor as well .
Let’s prepare the steamer as well . I poured water inside the large pot I found earlier, placed the small pot lid several centimeters above the water line, placed the large pot on top of the stove, and turned the flames on .
The milk has been sufficiently heated at this point . I stirred the milk mixture to make sure the sugar has properly dissolved . Afterward, I added in the egg wash into the mix .
I then had Jonas-san help with pouring the heated milk and egg mixture over the strainer . We repeated the straining process two times just to be sure .
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We poured the completed pudding mixture inside the molds slathered with caramel sauce . We managed to fill all fifteen containers with the mixture . It looks like I nailed the mixture amount . After these are steamed inside the pot, the puddings would finally be finished .
The improvised steamer is good to go as well . It seems it wasn’t possible to fit all fifteen molds inside the pot, so we steamed them in two batches . We put in half of the containers inside the pot and steamed them over low flames . It should be enough to steam them for ten minutes or so .
After ten minutes, we removed the containers from the pot . They were quite hot, so we had to be careful in taking them out . I poured some more water inside the improvised steamer, and once the water came to a boil, we steamed the second batch as well .
Let’s give the pudding a taste test . I put one container inside a pot half-filled with chilled water in order to cool it down . I’ll put the rest inside the refrigerating magic tool later once they’ve cooled down enough .
We took out the second batch from the steamer after ten minutes . We let them cool down as well .
“We’re finally done . We just need to put these inside the refrigerating magic tool to chill them . ”
“So they are done . It was quite a remarkable cooking method, I must say . I haven’t heard or seen such a method until today . ”
“These sweets are called puddings . Do you want to give it a taste, Jonas-san?”
“I would love to! I have no idea what the flavor would taste like at all, so it’s quite exciting . ”
I took out the pudding mold from the chilled water .
“You’ll need to take out the pudding from the container like so . ”
I used my fingers to scrape part of the the pudding mixture that was sticking on the rim of the mold .
“Take out a plate, flip the container over and lightly shake it on top of the plate until the pudding comes out . There we go . ”
“Oh! So this is pudding!”
It does look great, at least . The dark-brown caramel sauce dripped down the cream-colored pudding .
I cut the pudding into two portions and put one half on another plate . I offered one half to Jonas-san for him to taste .
Mm, delicious . It wasn’t chilled enough yet, but the creamy taste of the pudding matched well with the bittersweet flavor of the caramel sauce . The recipe actually includes an ingredient from Earth called vanilla, but things from Earth are considered luxury goods and are pretty hard to acquire . Once it’s chilled to a certain degree, I bet it’ll turn even tastier .
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I turned around to check with Jonas-san, only to find him petrified on the spot with bulging eyes .
“Alan-san! What exactly is this!? I have yet to taste sweets as delicious as this . How wonderful! Simply magnificent!”
Even if you ask me that, I can only say that it’s pudding y’know . But I’m glad that he actually likes it .
“It’ll taste even more delicious once it’s chilled . Will the madam like it?”
“She will certainly enjoy it! I can already picture the blissful faces of Milady and Tarsama!”
“It would be great if that’s the case . When should we serve these? They need to be chilled a bit more, so I don’t think they’ll make it for lunch . ”
It’ll be midday soon .
“Ah, and I’m planning to find an inn we can stay at for the evening later, so we’ll be leaving the manor in the afternoon . ”
“Is that so? Understood . I’ll need to confirm with Master, but he’s currently out on business at the moment . He should be returning soon though . Would you like to take this chance to go around town in the meantime?”
“I understand . ”
I returned to our room after we put in the rest of the pudding in the magic fridge . Beck and Thor were also back inside the room .
“Listen to this, Alan-san! They finished assessing the value of our goods, and they’ve actually quoted a price double that of the last time we came here!”
“I see . That’s great, huh . It looks like they really beat down the prices in your previous visits . ”
“Well, that’s part of it, but according to Katolle-san, the cotton we brought was of very high quality, so it’ll fetch quite a bit once sold . ”
“Is that so? I’m happy for you guys . ”
“Yeah! This is also thanks to Alan-san . This wouldn’t have happened if we didn’t have Alan-san with us after all . ”
“It’s not like I did something all that significant, guys . Well, you can say we were really lucky for getting acquainted with such great people . You better make sure to treasure this opportunity . ”
“”Yeah!””