Cooking with Wild Game (LN) - Volume 29 - Chapter 1.2

2

“My name is Yang, and I have been invited to take charge of the kitchen here at Tanto’s Blessing once every few days. Today, I will be providing some basic lessons on making desserts,” Yang calmly stated. As he had been giving lessons on how to handle new ingredients fairly frequently over the last several months, he was clearly accustomed to the process. “We do not have all that much time, so I shall focus on the key points. Firstly, I recommend using both poitan and fuwano when preparing desserts. It goes without saying that your costs will be lower if you solely employ poitan, but the dough you make will lack stickiness, and will be quite difficult to handle. Do you agree, Sir Asuta?”

“Yes. I think if you were making those pancakes I showed off before, you could get them to work with just poitan, but to make the cooking process easier, it would still be ideal to mix fuwano in too.”

“Pancakes are that dish you made by mixing poitan, sugar, karon milk, and kimyuus egg, and then cooking them with milk fat, correct?”

“That’s right.”

“I see. You cook them by pouring the batter onto a metal tray or the like, and that would be why they can be prepared with poitan alone, despite it lacking stickiness. In fact, it seems as if they would be more difficult to prepare in any other manner,” Yang said with a nod, and then he turned back toward the innkeepers. “Now, many desserts prepared in the castle town use metal or stone ovens, but I have not seen any such equipment in the post town, so I believe the methods of preparation available to you will be somewhat limited. That is all the more reason to use a combination of both poitan and fuwano.”

“How exactly should we go about cooking them, then?” a familiar voice called out from the crowd. That was most likely Naudis, the owner of The Great Southern Tree. As the country of origin for sugar, sweet foods were common in Jagar, so he seemed to be quite interested in the lesson.

“It will be quicker to show you rather than to try to explain with words alone. Sheila, Nicola, please light the stoves.”

The two cooking assistants did as they were told, then Yang walked over to the workstation in front of him, where a bunch of ingredients for making desserts were lined up.

“We shall begin with dumplings, which are often eaten in the post town. Let us try making them with just fuwano, poitan, karon milk, and sugar.” As he spoke, Yang began swiftly sorting out ingredients. The folks in the back seemed to be leaning in as much as they could so they could see what was happening better. “The ratio should be seventy percent poitan and thirty percent fuwano. If you use any less fuwano than that, it will become difficult to knead by hand. As for the amount of sugar, it should be half of the combined amount of poitan and fuwano.”

“You’re adding that much sugar to it? Sounds like it’ll cost an awful lot,” Lema Geit grumbled.

Yang didn’t seem to mind at all, however, and continued working. “As you say, sugar is most certainly not cheap, as it must be brought in from Jagar. But ever since permission to purchase it in the post town was granted, it has become possible to purchase in larger quantities than before, which allows room for negotiation to buy it cheaper.” Polarth or Torst must have been the ones in charge of those negotiations. Though the profits the house of Turan earned from fuwano had plummeted, because some of the other ingredients they controlled were seeing more circulation, they had apparently stabilized their finances fairly well. “The next step is to knead karon milk into the dough. If you then add kimyuus egg and fruits, your final result will be even better, but our aim today is to show you how to make a basic example of what a sweet dough should be, so we shall omit them for now.”

Yang then took some of the dough and made a small dumpling the size of a ping-pong ball. Then he stabbed a metal skewer through it and turned toward the stove Nicola was in charge of.

“This should be cooked over the heat of a stove. If you let a flame directly touch it, it will burn quickly, so you’ll have to be patient as you wait for it to finish.”

This cooking method wasn’t all that common in the post town, even back when fuwano was the main type of flour they used. In fact, eating fuwano and poitan bread on their own hadn’t really been a thing people did in the past, so most folks would just use a metal tray to cook whatever they were making quickly. When preparing dumplings, they would generally either wrap the ingredients in lightly cooked dough, or otherwise would simply heat up the round dumplings in a soup.

“As I recall, you sell giba meat manju at your stalls, do you not, Sir Asuta?” Yang asked, his gaze still fixed on the stove. “I believe you steam them, but do you use both fuwano and poitan in the dough?”

“No, I just use fuwano. I came up with that dish before I thought of mixing the two.”

“I see. Well, steaming baskets are not overly expensive, and if people start selling them in the post town as well, that will allow for a wider variety of sweets to be made,” Yang said, lifting up the skewer as he did so. The fuwano and poitan dumpling had grown a bit larger and appeared to have cooked up nicely. It seemed slightly burnt on the surface, but it looked very delicious. “Cooking it until it looks like this should be plenty. I have prepared a number of others using the same method, so please, give them a try.”

Nicola then lifted a cloth off of a large plate, revealing a pile of dumplings underneath. The way she presented them reminded me of a cooking show, which I couldn’t help but find rather amusing.

At any rate, everyone went ahead and tried the fuwano and poitan dumplings, and once again, the first person to voice their opinion was Lema Geit.

“You added all that sugar, but it’s still not especially sweet, eh?”

“Correct. In order to make this dough as sweet as you would probably want, you would need to use an amount of sugar equal to the combined amount of fuwano and poitan. It’s much cheaper to use fruits and the like to give it that kind of taste instead.”

Part of what made Yang so amazing was how he could understand the mindset of the common folk despite being a chef from the castle town. He had always held the opinion that you could make food delicious even without rare and precious ingredients, going back to when Cyclaeus had been monopolizing such things. In those days, even chefs in the castle town couldn’t easily get ahold of sugar unless they had ties to Count Turan, so it made a lot of sense that he would have come to think that way.

“Personally, I would either knead fruit into the dough itself, dip it in a sauce made from boiled-down fruit, or add sweet-smelling herbs. Ideally, I would recommend using all of those methods together, while being very careful not to ruin the overall flavor.”

“Hmm. We tried to make baked poitan mixed with sugar on a metal tray at our place, but it turned out really different from this,” one of the innkeepers said.

“That is why I would suggest going with dumplings for your desserts instead,” Yang explained. “If you wrap thin bread around fruits and the like, that would also be a fine treat. But by making it into a ball shape like this, you create quite a different texture. Adding kimyuus egg or gigo to them can make them softer and fluffier as well. There are many different things you can try as you experiment on your own.”

I heard a number of voices go, “Hmm...” all throughout the crowd. It sounded like they were excited about all the possibilities this plain dough presented all on its own. Just flavoring it like Yang had suggested could lead to lots of different viable products they could sell.

“Moving on, I would like to talk about fried treats a bit. Sheila, are your preparations complete?”

“Yes. The pot should be hot enough now.”

The stove she was manning had a pot partially filled with heated reten oil on it. Yang gave her a single nod before reaching out toward the ingredients once again.

“Now I will make some more dough using the same ratio as before, but this time I will make it flat and fry it. It hasn’t been long since reten oil first started seeing use in the post town, so this seems like a good opportunity to learn about frying.”

“Asuta, you’ve sold fried dishes at your stalls too, haven’t you?!” I heard Yumi call out from the back.

I looked in her direction and replied, “Correct. I’ve sold fried giba meat before. Making that dish involved dipping all of the ingredients in heated oil and letting them cook.”

“That sure was delicious! And wait, why are you talking all formally like that to me too?”

“Because everyone is listening to us speak.”

A few of the innkeepers chuckled in amusement at that. Even Yang gave a slight smile as he lifted the formed dough up above his head. It was oval in shape, and looked to only be around five millimeters thick.

“You should prepare the dough so that it’s about this thin. You can still cook it through to the middle if it’s a little thicker, but this thickness will allow the true appeal of fried dishes to shine through.” Yang then placed the dough into the oil, and a pleasant crackling sound filled the air.

As she listened to it, Rimee Ruu’s eyes started sparkling with anticipation. “You made a fried sweet before too, didn’t you, Asuta?! What’ll it taste like when it’s that thin?”

“I’m not sure, but it will probably have a really interesting texture.”

Since it was so thin, the sweet was finished in no time, with the thin oval of dough taking on a nice golden brown color.

“Now we just need to wait a bit for the excess oil to drip off, and it will be ready. Please give this a try as well.”

Unsurprisingly, he had yet more finished goods on another large plate, ready to be eaten. When she tried one, Rimee Ruu made a satisfied noise and said, “Delicious! Oh, and this is like the sweet you made for the last tea party, isn’t it?”

“That is correct. I used a metal oven for that, but since these are also very thin, they probably have a similar texture.”

I bit into one myself with anticipation, and found that sure enough, it had a pleasant texture to it that reminded me of pie crust. It was crispy and flaky, and not too oily. I also thought that the texture was very appropriate for a dish that was faintly sweet thanks to its sugar content, and also featured the rich flavor of karon milk.

Sure enough, it seemed to surprise the innkeepers a lot more than the dumplings from before had, causing a real commotion among them. Even Lema Geit was carefully chewing rather than complaining.

“This was quite a while ago, but there used to be a popular sweet in the castle town that used fuwano and milk fat. If you added too much milk fat, however, the taste became overly heavy, and it was also more expensive than using reten oil,” Yang lectured in a flat tone. Since he was dealing with people who had no experience with making desserts, he had chosen simple and practical topics to be the focus of his lessons. The things he was explaining were pretty basic, but he was imparting the information so logically and precisely that I couldn’t help but think he was quite well suited to being a teacher. Honestly, it would be difficult to find someone more fitting for this role than Yang, especially considering his masterful skills at making desserts. “At any rate, frying is a rare technique here in the post town, so it should be easy to attract attention this way. Also, if you add fruit, it will come out nice and soft in the end. I believe you should be able to try a variety of different flavors with this dish as well.”

Yang then proceeded to offer a detailed explanation on how to utilize fruit in this kind of dish. With sour arow or sheel, you could steep or boil them in sugar water in order to make them more suitable for adding to desserts. Ramam, meanwhile, was sweet to begin with, so it could simply be used as is or boiled down. He calmly expounded on topics like how much of each ingredient was needed, how strong of a flame should be used, and how long to boil for.

“I have also steeped kimyuus meat in sugar and honey in order to prepare sweets.”

“Oh? You can use meat in sweets as well?” Jizeh asked, sounding impressed.

“Yes,” Yang replied with a nod. “Karon leg meat has too strong of a flavor and is not suited to such dishes, but kimyuus meat should not present any issue. However, I believe it works best when you slice it into fine strings and prepare it such that you cannot tell it is meat.”

“I see. I certainly wouldn’t ever think of such an idea on my own. This has proven quite informative.”

“I am glad to hear you say that. Now then, I would like to ask the chefs from the forest’s edge to take over at this point.”

“Of course. We’ll be preparing the samples for everyone to try as we go, so it may take a bit of time, but I hope that you’ll stick with us all the way through,” I said.

It was finally our time to shine. Yang, Sheila, and Nicola all stepped back, and the four of us from the forest’s edge stepped forward.

“To start with, we’ll discuss how to use kimyuus eggs. It can be very effective to simply mix them into your dough, but there’s an even more interesting way to use kimyuus eggs which I’d like to tell you about.”

I was referring to the method of using the whites to make meringue that I had developed recently. The leftover yolks could just be mixed into the dough down the line. By combining whipped whites with the batter, you could create a unique, incredibly soft texture.

“I’ll be proceeding with the same ratio of fuwano, poitan, and sugar that Yang used before. Then we’ll cook this on a metal tray.”

As the four of us were busy beating the eggs, Yang and company prepared the other ingredients. Then we lit the other four stoves and started cooking, somehow managing to make enough for all twenty innkeepers to have a small sample.

When they gave it a bite, they reacted with the same sort of surprise they showed when eating Yang’s fried dish. I even managed to spot Lema Geit’s eyes shooting open wide in pleasure.

“If you compare this to the pancakes I made at the previous meeting, the difference should be quite clear, even though we used basically the same ingredients.”

Next up was the topic of flavoring. Yang was more skilled when it came to working with fruit, so I was going to focus on sugar instead.

“There’s an ingredient known as panam honey that comes from Jagar. It’s very handy when making sweets, but it definitely costs more than sugar. Because of that, I often process sugar in a way that makes it usable as a substitute for honey.”

Naturally, I was talking about caramel sauce. It really wasn’t too tricky to make. It just involved dissolving sugar in water and boiling it until it turned nice and brown. Then you added more boiling water, and it was done.

“This is what the honey-like substance I poured on top of the pancakes really was. By adjusting the amount of boiling water you add at the end, you can make it more viscous than the example I made before, and it can even work well as a small snack you can eat with your hands.”

I went ahead and smeared some of the caramel atop the baked goods, then waited for it to congeal, showing everyone a new way it could be used.

“If you eat them like this, the sweetness of the sugar comes at you more directly, so I believe this should let you cut back on the amount you use in the dough. And it should also pair quite well with desserts like the fried one Yang demonstrated a little while ago.”

I also showed them how to prepare fresh cream. Most inns already knew how to make milk fat, so that made the explanation quite simple. After all, whipping the fresh cream further and separating out the fat was how milk fat was made.

“If you whip it with a wooden skewer like we did with the eggs before, it ends up nice and fluffy like this. You can also add more sugar to it, and it should pair quite well with sweet fruits. It also has a rather intriguing appearance, so I’m sure your customers will enjoy it.”

I went ahead and showed off each of the things I had mentioned and had everyone give them a taste test, which ended up taking quite a bit of time. But after this, I only had one topic left to cover.

“I’d also like to show you how to make something that only uses kimyuus eggs, no fuwano or poitan.”

“Only kimyuus eggs? Who’d order something that stinks that badly of poverty?” Lema Geit protested for the first time in a while.

I kept my hands moving properly as I shot her a smile. “Kimyuus eggs have a bad reputation because poor people tend to eat them in place of meat, right? But they can be an amazing ingredient when you use them in other ways. And you can buy as many eggs as you please here in Genos, so it would be a real waste not to use them.”

To start with, I simply used sugar to make sweet rolled eggs. When Tapas took a bite, his eyes immediately opened wide. “Oh my. It’s been quite some time since I last ate kimyuus eggs, but it goes quite well with this sweet flavoring.”

“Right. Back in my home country, people would do things like add sugar to make them sweeter or salt to make them saltier.”

As people were trying those samples, I had Toor Deen and the others get our steaming baskets ready. Though it would definitely take a fair bit of effort, I intended to demonstrate how to make steamed pudding as well. “With the chatchi mochi we served you before, you have to extract the starch from the chatchi first, which takes a lot of effort. We don’t have enough time today for that, so instead, I was thinking I’d show you how to prepare a different unusual sweet.”

It took a fair bit of doing to make enough for this many people, but the process itself was really simple. You just combined whipped eggs with karon milk and sugar, then steamed them in a container with a lid. Rimee Ruu took charge of measuring out the proportions for the ingredients, so it was probably going to taste even better than it did when I first unveiled it in the castle town.

“Since we’re so short on time, we’re going to have to pass it around and have each of you take a single bite. Is that all right?”

With that we used a large spoon to scoop the pudding out onto a plate, which we then passed around to all of the innkeepers. Even the folks who were leery of it at first had expressions of admiration and satisfaction on their faces after they tasted it.

“What a surprise. To think that you could make such a strange dish with kimyuus eggs. It feels like magic,” Jizeh remarked. Lema Geit also looked astonished. In a way, the pudding might have been the most surprising dish we had prepared all day.

“That’s all we have to tell you. If you combine this with the dough and fruit Yang taught you how to prepare, you should be able to produce a huge variety of different treats,” I concluded.

“But it’s such a wide variety that I don’t even know where to start. I’m seriously at a loss,” one of the closer innkeepers said, scratching his head as he spoke.

Then the guy next to him called out to me, “Hey, those things are called steaming baskets, right? How do we get ahold of those?”

“I had Yang help me purchase these.”

When my gaze turned toward him, Yang gave a slow nod. “They are sold in the castle town, and I am willing to act as an intermediary for anyone who wishes to purchase one. As I mentioned before, they are not overly expensive.”

Several of the innkeepers asked to do so on the spot. I figured that was proof of just how much they liked the steamed pudding. Or maybe they had tried the giba manju we served at our stalls before. Steaming baskets had a lot of uses outside of making sweets.

“Well then, that will wrap things up for today. When we have time, I would like to hold another study session like this one, which I will contact you about as soon as I can,” Tapas said.

With the lesson over, around half of the innkeepers promptly exited the kitchen. However, the other half stayed, and they were all looking at me.

“Hey, these sweets are all well and good, but what about giba meat? You still haven’t sold any at the meat market.”

“Ah. We got official permission from the castle town to go ahead with that just yesterday. We should be able to start selling meat there around the end of the yellow month.”

“What do you mean by ‘around the end’?” one of the innkeepers inquired, crowding around me.

“Er, for the moment, all I know is that we should be ready around ten days from now. But from what I’m told, the official dates for the meat market aren’t announced until the day before.”

“How much meat are you going to sell? Will we not be able to get any unless we show up first thing in the morning?”

“We’re planning to bring around fifteen boxes. The amount of each cut will vary, though.”

“Fifteen boxes? Then only five inns will be able to buy any!”

I assumed they were getting that number from the fact that you had to buy at least three boxes in order to be allowed to pay the wholesale price.

“Well, we’re not really sure yet how much demand there’s going to be.”

“Maybe none of us will jump right to buying five or ten boxes, but I’m sure nobody’s gonna buy it at the higher price if they don’t have to. That means only five inns will be able to buy any, right?”

“I suppose that’s true. But we’ll be happy as long as we don’t have any leftover stock.”

“Do you really think there’s any chance that you won’t sell everything you bring when you’ve got this many people still standing here asking about it?”

Sure enough, there were still more than ten of them in the room. They each belonged to a different inn, and if they were all after giba meat, it was inevitable that we would sell out.

“Even if you’re trying not to be greedy, you have to strike a balance, and fifteen boxes is way too few. The folks from the castle town didn’t buy it all up, did they?”

“No, they didn’t. Nobles are barred from monopolizing the supply. The decision was made that we should sell the same amount in the post town and the castle town. Though if there’s any left unsold in the castle town, they did say we could sell that portion in the post town instead.”

“They’ve got way more money to spare than us, so there’s no way those nobles would pass up the chance to buy giba meat. They’re sure to snatch it up even faster than we will.”

That side of things was going to be managed by Polarth and his people, so I didn’t have much to say about it.

Just then, Yumi stealthily approached and tugged on my sleeve. “Hey, Asuta, we’re still going to be able to buy giba meat separately, aren’t we?”

“Ah, yeah. We’ve arranged things so that the four inns we’ve had deals with prior to this won’t need to worry about it.”

“And you’re sure that includes us? We’re the only one that doesn’t buy complete meals, after all.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve made sure that everything will work out.”

“Thank goodness!” Yumi said with a sigh of relief.

As we talked, several of the other innkeepers started sulking childishly.

“Tch! So you lot can buy giba meat as often as you need without even having to go to the meat market, eh? You sure are sitting pretty.”

“Hee hee! I became Asuta’s friend right after he started doing business with his stalls, you know! It’s only natural to get some perks from that!” Yumi didn’t let anything intimidate her, even a much older innkeeper.

And with that, the others just shrugged, sighed, and got ready to leave.

“Well, when you learn what day it’s gonna be, let us know, okay? I’ll be stopping by your stalls again soon.”

“Oh, and thanks for helping out with the lesson. I’m definitely going to get right to trying some things out back at my inn.”

“Yeah. Thank you all for coming out here.”

The innkeepers then exited the kitchen. Tapas had been talking with Yang off to the side, but with them gone, he walked over to us with a smile.

“Thank you so much for your help today, dear guests from the forest’s edge. This is the reward money for you from Lord Polarth.”

“Ah, thank you very much.”

This had been an official job from the castle town, so they were paying us for it. As the one who had provided the location, Tapas must have been paid a similar amount.

“Good work today, Sir Asuta. You certainly did demonstrate a great many different techniques today. This has proven quite fruitful for me as well,” Yang said.

“Your advice should be helpful for us too. Now these girls will be able to make even more delicious treats.”

Rimee Ruu, Toor Deen, and Sheera Ruu all bowed to Yang as well, and he gave them a satisfied smile in return.

“I have heard that you will be participating in Lady Odifia’s tea parties once every few months going forward. I shall pray to be invited on those same days,” Yang said to Toor Deen.

“Yeah, I’d love to eat your sweets again too! Thanks so much for everything today!” Rimee Ruu cheerfully chimed in.

After that, we left Tanto’s Blessing after having spent a full two hours in the kitchen. I was feeling pretty exhausted, but my sense of fulfillment easily overcame that.

“Ah, there you are, our friends from the forest’s edge. You did splendidly today,” a voice called out once more as we stepped onto the street. When I turned to look, I saw Jizeh smiling at us. “This works out perfectly. It seems this group here was waiting for you.”

“Huh? For us?”

There were a number of tall figures standing there beside Jizeh, all clearly from Sym. One of them bowed and pulled back his hood.

“It has been some time. Asuta of the Fa clan, isn’t it? Do you remember me?”

He was a middle-aged man with features that clearly marked him as an easterner. His nose was high-bridged, his lips were thin, and his face was narrow. His long black hair was tied up in the back, and his skin was noticeably darker than that of the people of the forest’s edge. The strong light shining in his eyes was definitely familiar.

“Ah, are you Kukuluel of the Black Flight Feathers?”

“Yes. I am Kukuluel Gi Adumuftan, and I am glad to see you looking well,” Kukuluel replied, speaking incredibly smoothly for an easterner. “I’m truly grateful to have run into you today. I apologize for asking, but could I trouble you for a bit of your time?”

“Huh? You’ve got business with me?”

“Any person of the forest’s edge would do, but I have only truly gotten to know you and Ludo Ruu. There are a number of matters I would like to confirm regarding the new path through the forest’s edge,” Kukuluel stated in an incredibly calm tone.

I had no idea what was going on, but I also couldn’t see any reason to turn his request down.