Published at 20th of November 2020 09:24:27 PM
Chapter 32.1: 32.1
We returned to the inn . I called out to Verse at two in the afternoon, and he immediately came out from the kitchen .
“Hey there . Shall we go then? …Are those two young misses also coming with us?”
Cleria and Elna insisted on coming as well .
“Huh? Are you two really coming with us?”
“We didn’t have anything else to do in particular, so we decided to come along, but…”
“I see . But we’re just gonna shop around in the local market . I don’t think it’ll be that interesting . ”
“I would like to experience coming to the market at least once in my life . Elna also hasn’t experienced it, right?”
“No, I haven’t . I would like to partake as well . ”
“Is it okay, Verse?”
“I don’t really mind, but it might not be that interesting as Alan said . ”
In the end, all four of us headed for the market . It was a twenty-minute walk from the inn, I think .
“Do you have any particular cuisine in mind, Verse? I know a lot of different recipes, but I’d like to prioritize teaching you dishes you’re interested in . But we’ll have to see if we can make them properly first . That’ll depend on the availability of ingredients and seasonings . ”
“Oh! Hearing that sure makes me happy . Let’s see . I’d like to learn how to cook deep-fried food first, I think? You know; the cooking method which uses plenty of oil . I want to know all the tricks to it . Next would be how to make that egg and vinegar sauce . That was amazing . ”
“I see . Yeah, deep-fried food is pretty tasty . But, well, I think people would quickly get tired of them if you just serve fried food every day, so I’ll teach you some other recipes as well while we’re at it . And as for that sauce; I think only I would be able to pull off the method I used yesterday to make it, so I’ll teach you a different method instead . ”
“Only you can pull it off? What do you mean by that, Alan?”
“You need to stir the mixture at really fast speeds for a long period of time . ”
“Oh yeah . That mixing speed sure wasn’t ordinary . I’ll leave it to you then, Alan . ”
“I don’t really mind eating deep-fried food every day, Alan . ”
“No . I did end up eating nothing but fried food when I was in the middle of food research . But I’m sure you’ll get tired of it eventually if you copied me . ”
“Really? But I think the dishes I had yesterday were the most delicious dishes I’ve ever had in my life . ”
“Well, there are a lot more tasty dishes aside from those you know . You can look forward to them . ”
“Really? Alright, I understand!”
We continued talking along the way and arrived at the market before we knew it . It was located near the city’s gates . Lots of stalls were placed inside a large open space akin to a public square . It really did look like an authentic town market .
Lots of different kinds of vegetables and meat were lined up on the various stalls run by different individuals . This rustic feeling isn’t bad at all .
“Well then, Alan, what’ll we get first?”
“Let’s go around the place first . I want to check up on all the available goods . ”
“Of course . Over here then . ”
We went around the market with Verse in the lead . The hawkers manning the various stalls called out to potential buyers in a loud voice . It was an atmosphere unique to public town markets .
Whoah! Those are cabbages! And are those daikons I see over there? There’s also some sweet potatoes . A lot of familiar vegetables entered my sight .
If you think about it, this planet is also inhabited by folks【connected to humanity] . It was kind of expected that the local produce was somewhat similar to the ones I’m used to . All I saw were unfamiliar plants and vegetables when I first landed here and started exploring . But most of them were wild vegetables . Other human-inhabited planets might also have variations of them, I think .
Maybe they just weren’t being sold in the markets back home, so I was unfamiliar with them .
There were also fish resembling trout, freshwater prawns, and crabs being sold . I also saw some unfamiliar creatures in the mix .
After going around for a while, we stopped over on a spot a bit removed from the market’s hustle and bustle .
“How about it, Alan?”
Because of the talk we had about fried food earlier, my thinking has completely switched to ‘fried food mode’ already, and two dishes came to mind . These were tonkatsu and tempura .
I’ve managed to find cabbage after all . When I thought about having stir-fried cabbage, tonkatsu inevitably came to mind as well . When I saw the freshwater prawns, I immediately thought about tempura .
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“Two dishes popped up in my head just now, but I’m not sure which to choose from the two of them . What should I do?”
“How about cooking both dishes, Alan?” Cleria suggested .
“You sure made a good suggestion, missy! Let’s make both, Alan!”
“The dishes are a bit different in cooking style though . Let me think about it first . ”
The dipping sauce for tempura requires mirin . But can I even find mirin here? Even if I manage to find something similar, we still don’t have Japanese sake available . Are there rice wines being sold on the market here? In the case there’s really none available, should I just go with dashi flavored with soy sauce and salt instead?
Tonkatsu sauce is impossible to reproduce at present . But using a basic soy sauce and grated daikon dip can be quite tasty as well . I’ll go with that then .
Well, both dips use grated daikon and soy sauce as a base anyway, so I’ll just make something that’ll suit the two dishes using them .
“Fine, let’s make the two of them . ”
“That’s the way to go! So, what do we need?”
“Are you familiar with rice wine, Verse?”
“I haven’t heard of such a thing . Well, if you’re lookin’ for alcohol though, they’re over there . ”
Verse led us to a shop that exclusively sold different types of alcohol .
“Hey there, kid . What’re you gettin today?”
“So it’s Verse . You buying the usual grape wine?”
“No, I still have some grape wine in stock . Anyway, do you have a wine that’s made of rice here?”
“We do . As expected of you, Verse . You managed to sniff out how delicious this type of alcohol is . One bottle’s a hundred Guineas . ”
“That’s expensive . How about selling it to me for eighty?”
“You’re incorrigible . Buy some grape wine the next time you come here, alright . ”
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“Gotcha . Later then . ”
Verse managed to buy some rice wine in the end . I tried some . The flavor was a bit different from Japanese sake, but it still resembled it a great deal more . I can definitely use this for today’s dishes .
“Next would be vegetables, right? Come with me . ”
Verse bought the required vegetables one after the other .
The vegetables we got were cabbage, daikon, sweet potatoes, something similar to eggplants, something resembling pumpkins, lotus root, mushrooms which looked like shiitakes, and perilla leaves .
Everything else was ingredients for making tempura apart from the daikon and cabbage . I wanted to try a different dish variation at first but didn’t go through with it in the end . It would be better for Verse to get familiar with the basic recipe first after all .
The size of the freshwater prawns was a bit larger than the ones I’m familiar with and are definitely suited for making tempura . I wonder what they taste like?
As for tonkatsu, we bought sirloin and tenderloin slices of Big Boar meat . I want Verse to learn about the difference between using sirloin and tenderloin for tonkatsu as well .
“These are enough, I think?”
“That so? I can’t imagine what kind of dishes they would turn out just by looking at these ingredients . I’m really looking forward to it . ”
I asked Cleria and Elna about their impressions on going to the market and was told everything was a fresh experience for them, so they really enjoyed it . I’m just glad they didn’t find it boring .
Verse and I immediately started preparations for cooking the moment we got back to the inn . It was a bit early to be cooking dinner, but it was the perfect timing since I’ll be teaching Verse the recipes as we go along .
“The dishes we’re going to make today are called tempura and tonkatsu . Both are fried dishes . ”
“Oo! Fried food huh! It’s great that I’ll be able to learn two recipes . ”
“Fried food tastes the best fresh out of the frying pan . We’ll just prepare them for frying since it’s still a bit early and fry them all at once when evening comes . I’ll be making some samples though, so you can give them a taste . If we have the time, you’ll get some practice in as well, Verse . How about I let you do the cooking for today’s dinner while I supervise from the side?”
“That sounds great . It feels like I can learn them even faster . ”
“Let’s go with tempura first . This dish emphasizes bringing out the natural flavor of the ingredients as well as adding a nice crispy texture to them . It’s quite a simple dish .
First, we’ll set aside some flour and water in the refrigerating magic tool . We’ll use them both later .
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Let’s do the preliminary prep-work now . We’re going to use prawns for this dish . You bend the prawns like this, pull on it like so, and… there we go . See, we’ve separated the innards from the prawn’s flesh . Make sure to do this thoroughly . ”
“Hm . That didn’t seem too difficult . ”
“It does look simple, but it’ll leave a slightly different aftertaste if you mess up . Be sure to remove the unneeded parts as cleanly as possible . Next, you can peel off the shell from the prawn’s body by rolling it like so . Be sure to leave this tail part here . ”
“Why’s that?”
“I’m not too sure about the exact reason, but this tail part would turn a nice shade of red once the prawns are fried . It contributes to the overall presentation of the dish . This dish also places importance on appearance after all . ”
“I see, presentation huh?”
I had Verse try preparing the prawns with me . The shell of these freshwater prawns was quite soft, so I’ll refrain from frying the head portions I took off earlier .
“Next, you need to place cuts on the prawn’s flesh like so . This is done so the flesh would unroll itself and straighten out once you start frying it . ”
I then processed the vegetables into cuts suitable to go with tempura . I didn’t forget to prepare grated daikon as well .
“Next is the tempura sauce or tentsuyu . You should dip this dish in the sauce first before eating it . You’ll get it better once we’ve made it . ”
“We’ll mix the rice wine we bought earlier with some sugar . We also need some katsuobushi for this . ……This much should be fine . You mix soy, this wine, water, and the katsuobushi flakes inside a pot and let it simmer for a while . ……Right, that should do it . With this, the tentsuyu is done . Go ahead and try some . ”
I tried some of the sauce with Verse .
“This is tasty . So you dip the fried prawns in this and then eat them?”
“Yep . We’ll also put in the stuff I grated earlier, as well as the vegetables I cut .
Next, we’ll prepare the coating . Well use it to cover the flesh of the prawns and then fry them in oil . First, take some eggs and mix them in with the water we chilled earlier .
You would be able to get a nice and crispy coating if you use cold water . Next, put in the chilled flour as well and mix them all up .
You need to pay attention to how much you mix them though . This much should be just right .
The next thing you need to pay attention to is the temperature of the oil you’re gonna use for frying . The required temperature changes depending on the ingredients . Pay attention to what happens to the coating once you drop the tempura into the oil . ”
I taught Verse about how to correctly estimate the oil temperature, and the basic temperature needed for each ingredient .