Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 26 - Chapter 4.2

2

A little over an hour later, we returned to the tea party with three kinds of sweets. The majority of the noblewomen had obvious sparkles in their eyes, with the only ones I couldn’t read being Arishuna, Lefreya, and the young Lady Odifia.

“I can’t say I am familiar with any of these. I look forward to seeing how they taste.”

“Well then, let us compare them while keeping who prepared what a secret. That shall allow us to judge them more fairly.”

We were then asked to wait in a separate room while the noblewomen sampled what we had made for them. However, this was what I had been looking forward to most, as it was an opportunity for us to do some sampling of our own.

We were guided to the neighboring room where we found Roy, who had gone there directly from the kitchen. As he was officially just an assistant, they apparently didn’t think it was necessary for him to be there when we delivered what we had made.

“Sorry for the wait... I’m only an assistant myself, but for some reason they decided I should do something different than you.”

“You may be acting as an assistant, but you’re still their teacher, aren’t you? I’m not even an official apprentice, so our standings are totally different.”

Even now, Roy was assisting Shilly Rou and the others with their cooking in an unofficial capacity. That was the only way he could study their cooking techniques after Varkas had refused to take him on as an apprentice.

“Besides, Shilly Rou was the one who prepared everything from start to finish. Considering I was only doing the odd chore for her here and there, it would make even less sense for me to present myself to those noblewomen.”

Despite his words, Roy didn’t sound like he was being self-abasing. For now, he was solely interested in polishing his own skills. That was why he had asked to visit the settlement at the forest’s edge when he found out how skilled Reina and Sheera Ruu were and started to admire them. His drive to improve himself as a chef was really admirable.

“Well then, let’s get started with the taste testing.”

Shilly Rou seated herself next to Roy, so we sat on the opposite side of the table. Ludo Ruu also sat, while Ai Fa just stood diagonally behind me.

“I’m surprised to see more fried pastries here today,” Roy muttered as he looked at the samples that had been divvied up onto several plates. He was referring to Rimee Ruu’s traip cream croquettes. This time around, she had prepared the dish as a proper, full-fledged confection.

The outside was the same as always. It was made by coating the filling in fuwano flour, dipping it in beaten eggs, sprinkling dried fuwano crumbs over the surface, and then frying it. This was how both cutlets and croquettes were prepared.

As for the filling, she had added sugar to it in order to increase its sweetness. She had also topped them with a new sauce I had taught her how to make that used cacao-like gigi leaves, sugar, and karon milk. So, basically, it was a substitute for chocolate sauce.

Of course, while I was their instructor, Rimee Ruu and Toor Deen were the ones who had perfected the flavor. I had simply told them about chocolate sauce and pointed out the ingredients I thought they would need. They had taken care of the rest.

Naturally, Rimee Ruu and Toor Deen had used fat separated out from karon milk in order to make milk fat and cream for the dish. Figuring out how much of each of those to use, as well as how much sugar, had been a joint effort between the two of them. However, Rimee Ruu had finalized the flavor of the cream croquettes by herself. She had worked very hard on picking her ingredients and adjusting the amount she used of each ever since learning the recipe at the study session, in order to make it uniquely hers. There was no way I could make a better dessert cream croquette than her at this point.

Also, the color and consistency of the substitute chocolate sauce made it look like the croquettes were covered in Worcestershire sauce, which I secretly found rather amusing. A long time ago, my childhood friend Reina had once urged me to prepare chocolate-flavored gyoza and takoyaki, and this reminded me of that little prank.

However, there was no one here I could share that amusement with. In a land like this one that had never seen croquettes before, this was just a simple fried treat. Even Roy and Shilly Rou only saw them as unusual because of how different they were compared to the kind of food one usually encountered here in Genos.

“You served a fried sweet before too, but this one looks completely different,” Shilly Rou noted, aiming a deadly serious look in my direction. At the previous tea party, I had made donuts filled with arow jam, and Shilly Rou had attended as one of the guests.

Roy had actually seen donuts long before that, back when Lefreya had abducted me. It was a bit of a funny coincidence that both of them had tried my donuts on separate occasions.

“It’s a little embarrassing to admit this, but I’d say that Rimee Ruu’s sweet is much better than the one I made last time. I just hope you guys from the castle town like it. So, what do you think?”

Shilly Rou silently pulled a plate toward herself, and Roy grabbed a small knife to cut his croquette, which made Rimee Ruu quickly shout, “Ah!” I figured she was going to tell them the same thing she had told the noblewomen. “Um, you should bite into it directly instead of cutting it on the plate! Otherwise, the insides will all spill out!”

I hadn’t really seen them speak before, but Roy had been invited to the welcome banquet held by the Ruu clan, and they had worked in the same kitchen several times during our visits to the castle town. That was probably why instead of giving her a doubtful look, he simply said, “Oh, really?” and accepted her advice.

“Yeah! I made them small, so you should be able to eat them in one bite. And they’ve probably cooled off by now, so they won’t burn you! I think they’re even tastier when they’re freshly fried, though!”

“Hmph,” Roy snorted, switching his knife out for a fork. He stabbed through the center of his croquette, sniffed it, and then popped it into his mouth.

Next to him, Shilly Rou was already looking quite surprised. “Did you intentionally make it this soft?”

“Yeah! Isn’t it tasty? It’s called a cream croquette!” Rimee Ruu replied with a smile, knowing no shyness, and she popped hers into her mouth. Her joy when she tasted her work made her even more adorable. “Well, what do you think? I’d say they came out really good!”

“Yes, they’re delicious... Also, it’s surprising to see you employ such trickery.” The back half of that comment was directed at me.

“Yeah, Mikel said the same thing. It wasn’t all that strange of a dish back in my home country, though,” I replied, trying Rimee Ruu’s outstanding work myself.

Since they couldn’t be served piping hot, the croquettes had been cooled to room temperature. However, the coating was still crispy, and the traip and karon milk filling readily liquefied in my mouth. The level of sweetness and the amount of the gigi sauce were also perfect.

It was based on my original cream croquette filling, which meant that it also had finely chopped aria in it, but the sweetness from the traip, karon milk, and sugar was far more assertive, so anyone who tried one of her croquettes would definitely think it was a dessert item, whether they were familiar with cream croquettes or not. The aria did give the flavor some more depth, though.

“Hey, why didn’t you use giba fat in these?” Ludo Ruu asked from the end of the table.

“Hmm?” Rimee Ruu tilted her head. “I’m not sure how to answer that, but Asuta said I could use giba fat or reten oil, whichever I wanted. And when I tried them both, I thought the reten oil was better.”

“Huh. Well, it’s not like it’s an issue or anything.”

Reten oil was an ingredient similar to olive oil. Giba lard did have a surprisingly mild flavor, but apparently she had decided that the even lighter taste of reten oil was a better fit for dessert-style cream croquettes. And naturally, I had no objections.

“Hey, you try it too, Ai Fa,” Rimee Ruu called out, thrusting a plate at my clan head.

Still standing, Ai Fa took her croquette and ate it in one bite. “This is extraordinarily sweet,” she said.

“Huh? Really? But I didn’t use that much sugar!”

“I don’t exactly know what makes a dessert good or bad, but I’d say that was more than delicious enough.” There was an affectionate light shining in Ai Fa’s eyes as she patted Rimee Ruu on the head.

“Eh heh heh!” the young chef laughed happily.

“Nobles would probably really like this dish. I thought for sure that Shilly Rou would easily win this time, but I’m not so confident anymore,” Roy said with a faint smile, making Shilly Rou glare at him.

“Roy, I am manning the kitchen here as Varkas’s apprentice. I ask that you refrain from making light of this job.”

“Don’t go flaring up at every little thing. It’s still a fact that your sweets are incredibly well-made.”

The sweets in question looked pretty intriguing to me. They were small and round, kind of like dango, and came in a set of red, yellow, and green, with fine golden honey in a net pattern on top. There was also a thin layer of milky white sauce underneath them.

“What beautiful colors. It almost feels like a shame to eat them,” I said, which made Shilly Rou redirect her glare at me.

“We won’t get anywhere if you don’t eat. Or do you mean to say you don’t feel like trying them?”

“Of course not. They look delicious.”

Shilly Rou seemed to be even more irritable than usual, probably because she was still on the job, so I pointedly picked up my fork, hoping that being compliant would soothe her at least a little. Everyone else followed my example and went for one of her dango things as well.

When I stabbed my fork into the first one, I found that despite appearances, the honey on top was actually kind of solid. It had undoubtedly been a liquid while she was cooking, but the fine layer of golden honey had clearly hardened as it cooled. That meant there had to be more to it than just drizzling pure panam honey over the dumplings.

As my fork stabbed through the hardened honey, it cracked without a sound, with some of the pieces falling onto the plate. I did my best to swipe them back up, along with some of the white sauce, then popped the colorful ball into my mouth.

I had gone with the yellow one first, and when I bit into it, an eggy flavor filled my mouth. Apparently, the color had come from kimyuus eggs. I found its texture to be very pleasant. It was nice and springy, but not as viscous as the mochi I was familiar with. You never really encountered food with this kind of consistency in Genos. Even with a fuwano base, it wasn’t a texture you could create without adding additional ingredients. That alone was honestly enough to impress me.

On top of that, the flavoring was also fantastic. The core of the dumpling’s flavor was the egg, which was supported by the sweetness of the hardened honey and the white sauce. On top of that, there was another faint flavor ever so gently tickling the back of my nose... It seemed to be from the ginger-like keru root.

As for the honey, she had most likely added sugar to it and then boiled it. Sugar had a high relative density, so I figured that would cause it to harden. The white sauce seemed to have a karon milk base, and was very thick and fatty. Had she also used reten oil, perhaps? It definitely had some real depth to it, which was rousing my curiosity, making me wonder what it would taste like on its own.

The keru root had probably been added to either the honey or the sauce, since it was highly compatible with sweet flavors. I had put it to use in myamuu giba and stews, and now Shilly Rou had utilized it in her dumplings. It provided a crucial accent that enhanced the overall taste, clearly asserting that there was more to this dish’s flavor than sugar. Paired with the wonderful texture of the dango, I found it quite delicious.

“It’s really good! And all of them taste different too!” Rimee Ruu excitedly proclaimed. It seemed she had already finished eating all three varieties. “I think I liked the red one best. What about you, Ludo? And you, Toor Deen?”

“I guess the yellow one for me,” Ludo Ruu replied.

“For me... I think they’re all very good, but I believe the green one appealed to me the most,” Toor Deen answered.

As I listened to their responses, I went ahead and tried the other two flavors. When I did, I was surprised to find how different they both were.

The red dango seemed to have several different kinds of fruit sauces mixed into it. It had a berrylike sourness alongside a citrusy taste, and a mellow sweetness on top of that. It was a truly mysterious flavor, like a composite of strawberry, lemon, and peach. I guessed that she had used arow, sheel, and minmi together somehow.

Among those three, the red coloring must have come from the arow berries. If you ate the dango on its own, all that sourness would probably be a little overwhelming, but it harmonized fantastically with the honey and sauce.

I tried the green one last, and found that it tasted kind of like tea leaves. It reminded me of the aroma I often smelled in the bathhouses of the castle town that was similar to Japanese mugwort, and was slightly bitter. It wasn’t too bitter, though, and had a rather distinctive flavor that also paired well with the honey and sauce.

In other words, even though the yellow, red, and green dumplings tasted so different from one another, the presence of the honey and sauce greatly improved all of them. The sourness and bitterness were elevated by the sweetness, and vice versa. It was the kind of dish I had come to expect from one of Varkas’s apprentices, with its numerous flavors brought into an amazing harmony thanks to the skill of the chef who created it.

“It’s delicious. The skill you showed at the dance party was already incredible, but I think this is even more impressive,” I said earnestly. Shilly Rou gave an expressionless nod in response. “These dumplings have a really unique texture. What did you add to the fuwano to get them like that?”

“Gigo, though it would be more accurate to say I added fuwano to a gigo base.”

“Gigo? I’ve mixed gigo into poitan dough myself, but I didn’t think you could use it to create a texture like this.”

Gigo was an ingredient similar to Japanese yam. We were all very familiar with how it could be used to make dough bind together better, but there must’ve been some kind of special cooking technique that she used to make it so mochi-like.

“Varkas only makes things like this as desserts to serve at the end of a meal, and usually doesn’t prepare them on his own. I suspect Shilly Rou is actually even better than he is in this particular field,” Roy stated.

“Most certainly not,” Shilly Rou calmly replied. “However, I pride myself on never serving anything that will bring shame to my position as Varkas’s apprentice.”

For some reason, her gaze was now directed at Toor Deen. Was that because Toor Deen had won first place at the previous tea party? The young chef shrunk in on herself as if trying to escape that piercing stare.

“You used traip too, didn’t you?” Roy casually said to her as he picked up his final plate. “I get the desire to use it during the rainy season, but it could lessen the impact of your dishes if you both prepare something with the same main ingredient.”

“Really? But they’re entirely different kinds of sweets.”

“I suppose that’s true. That first one had a really curious appearance. You can tell this one is different just at a glance.”

There was a set of small clay bowls shaped like teacups sitting on the plate, which I had previously used for steamed pudding. They were currently holding a different kind of pudding, which was glossy and brilliantly orange due to the traip it had been made from.

“You know, this is a dish that’s going to be served to nobles, so I think it’s important to consider how you present it... Wouldn’t it be better to hand it out on plates instead of keeping it in these cheap-looking containers?”

“Hmm, but it clings to the sides of the containers, so I thought it would be difficult to get it all out.”

“In that case, you could have dug it out with a rounded spoon to transfer it to the plates. There are plenty of methods you could have considered.”

Toor Deen and I hadn’t really taken the time to think about that. But even if we had, I didn’t know if we would have done as he had suggested. This dish was a kind of pudding, so it felt more natural to me to have people scoop it out themselves to eat it.

“Well, Toor Deen put everything she had into making it, so I can at least guarantee its flavor.”

With an indifferent “Hmph,” Roy scooped up some pudding with his silver spoon and took a bite of it. The instant he did, his eyes shot open wide.

Seeing his reaction, Shilly Rou visibly worked up her resolve and grabbed her own spoon. A few moments later, her eyes were wide open as well.

Meanwhile, Toor Deen was watching the pair with an upturned gaze. “H-How does it taste?”

The pair took a second bite without responding. And then they ate the rest of the contents of their bowls without making a sound. Since the bowls were pretty small, it took less than ten seconds for them to completely finish their helpings.

“Hmm. I see...” Roy muttered, leaning against the back of his chair as he set his empty bowl down on his plate. Meanwhile, Shilly Rou leaned forward to peer inside the empty container.

“U-Um...”

“Hmm? Oh, it was delicious. You utilized the sweetness and the flavor of the traip perfectly. The light and soft texture goes perfectly with the flavor as well,” Roy replied, scratching his head. “I’m at a bit of a loss for words, actually. I thought I had a firm grasp on how skilled you people of the forest’s edge were, but it feels like I’ve been smacked on the head with a bludgeon all over again.”

“Wh-What do you mean?”

“It was fantastic. Seriously, that was the most delicious dessert I’ve ever tasted,” he said. Shilly Rou shot another harsh glare at him, moving only her eyes, but he simply remained in his reclined pose and smiled listlessly. “Hey, I can’t help it. I’m just saying what I honestly feel. Not that I know for sure what the nobles will think of it.”

“Yeah, Toor Deen’s sweet was incredibly tasty!” Rimee Ruu said earnestly, cutting through the tension hanging in the air. She had been blissfully savoring her helping up until a moment ago. “Asuta taught me how to make it too, but I just can’t do it like she can. It’s all jiggly like pudding, and it’s super delicious!”

“Well, it is a kind of pudding, after all,” I replied, starting in on my portion as well.

I myself didn’t know what the technical definition of a pudding was, so I wasn’t sure whether the label could accurately be applied to this dish, but we had prepared it using a method that was quite similar to how I had made steamed pudding before. The main difference was the addition of a lot of traip and a little bit of fuwano flour.

Her first step had been to blend some milk fat into a bowl of soft boiled traip before adding sugar, eggs, and karon milk. After carefully straining the mixture, she then slowly sprinkled the fuwano flour in, taking care to not let lumps form. Once that was done, she poured a little more karon milk into the container, and lastly, she steamed the whole thing. That was all there was to it.

However, it took a ton of twists and turns for her to arrive at that point. Initially, I had proposed that Toor Deen could make a pan-grilled fuwano sweet using traip instead. Things like hotcakes were one of her specialties, after all, and that felt like a perfect fit for the pumpkin-like traip, so I had suggested that she could make something along those lines that was traip-flavored, and top it with some panam honey or fresh cream.

That was what Toor Deen had been aiming for at first, but as she sought to make her new dessert taste better, the proportions between the ingredients kept changing more and more. In particular, she had greatly decreased the amount of fuwano flour she used, while greatly increasing the amount of karon milk. Before long, it became clear that there was too much moisture in the dish for her to be able to cook it on a metal tray.

In the end, we decided to try steaming it instead...and when I tasted the result, it once again reminded me just how fantastic Toor Deen’s palate and cooking instincts really were.

Since she had used traip and fuwano flour, it wasn’t quite as smooth as ordinary pudding. But of course, it was still far smoother than any pastry could ever be. Honestly, it would probably be most accurate to call it a pudding cake.

In addition to its moistness, it also had the sort of weighty mellowness that was inherent to traip. The closest thing to it that I could recall from my memory was probably sweet potatoes.

The sweetness and the flavors of the various ingredients all melded together as it smoothly slid down my throat. But because of its thickness and density, it had a rather nice chewiness to it as well. It felt like something that would pair well with tea too. That was a big difference between it and pudding.

“You look quite satisfied, eating that sweet,” Ai Fa said from diagonally behind me, though she was actually leaning forward far enough to peer over my shoulder.

“Yeah, this is really delicious. I think you should give it a try too.”

“But I feel awkward about using ingredients wastefully.”

Ai Fa had told the girls not to make anything for her, and Toor Deen had followed her wishes. Rimee Ruu, however, had outright ignored them.

Overhearing our conversation, Rimee Ruu looked over at us and said, “You want to try it too, Ai Fa? Then you can have a bit of mine! Come on, say ‘ah!’”

“No, you’re enjoying it so much that it would feel wrong for me to take even a single bite from you,” my clan had replied, her piercing gaze stabbing into my cheek more and more. According to the customs of the forest’s edge, the only ones here who could share leftovers with Ai Fa were Rimee Ruu, a small child, and me, her clan member.

“Would you like some of mine, clan head?”

Rather than bothering to respond, Ai Fa simply opened her mouth slightly. Apparently, there would be no need to get a clean spoon.

As I prayed in my head for us not to attract too much attention, I scooped up some pudding cake and brought it to my clan head’s mouth. As she chewed away, she then stood up straight.

“I see. This is also extremely sweet...but it is startlingly delicious.”

“Y-Yeah. I think so too,” I replied, stealing a glance around the table. Rimee Ruu wasn’t paying any attention to us as she continued to eat her pudding cake, and Toor Deen was observing Shilly Rou and Roy with worry written all over her face. And as for the castle town chefs, they were whispering back and forth to each other with serious looks in their eyes. The only person who seemed to have noticed what we had done was Ludo Ruu, who of course had a huge grin on his face.

I sent him the most forceful glare I could manage in an attempt to say “Just leave it be” as I ate the last bite of my pudding cake. I didn’t see any need to make a big deal out of Ai Fa and I having a bit of indirect contact there, and yet that didn’t stop my heart rate from spiking big time.

Then there was a knock on the door, and Sheila stepped inside.

“The sampling has concluded. We ask that all chefs please return to the other room.”

Well then, what would the results be this time?

The six of us, excluding Roy, headed back to the room where the noblewomen were waiting for us.