Chapter 99 Are You Expecting It?
――Fiona Ackerman is skilled at cooking.
No, saying she's skilled might be a bit of an understatement.
To be more accurate, it's like this.
――Fiona Ackerman is confident in her cooking abilities.
So, why does Fiona think that way? The reason lies in her family home. Not the foreign home she used to live in, but her mother's family home in Necronia, where she moved to at a young age.
Speaking of the Ackerman merchant guild, there's no way a citizen of Necronia wouldn't know about it.
It's a relatively large-scale merchant guild, with not only a main store but also several branch stores within the city, so many people have used their services at least once. That's because the goods handled by the Ackerman merchant guild are all closely related to daily life.
What kind of goods do they handle, exactly?
In a word, it's all about "food".
They deal with various food products, seasonings, spices, and cooking utensils, as well as tableware――anything related to food. In Necronia, where the self-sufficiency rate for food is less than 10%, there are many merchant guilds that handle food products, but among them, the Ackerman merchant guild is undoubtedly one of the largest.
――So.
If it has been explain it up to this point, you might be able to guess the source of Fiona's confidence?
Fiona is the young lady of a large merchant guild that handles food, and she's been exposed to fine cuisine from a young age. She also has knowledge about the various food products handled by the merchant guild.
That's not all.
The Ackerman merchant guild, which supplies high-quality ingredients, has close ties with the chefs of famous high-end restaurants in the city. They often consult with the guild about obtaining rare ingredients that they don't usually stock.
As a result, Fiona has had many opportunities to talk with top-notch chefs who visit her family home, and she's learned many cooking techniques and secrets from them since she was young.
――Of course, she has no experience in cooking.
But, having learned about numerous delicious dishes and being familiar with ingredients from around the world, and having heard cooking tips from top-notch chefs――with that kind of knowledge, she should be able to make a dish that would make the person eating it...for example, a man sitting across from her at the table, smile unintentionally, Fiona thought.
It's been about a month since Fiona started seriously training under Aaron Gale.
She's been staying over at Aaron's house a lot, and when she does, they have dinner together like they are now. Sometimes they eat out or buy food from street stalls, but more often than not, they have dinner made by Aaron.
Fiona didn't think this situation was bad at all.
She didn't have old-fashioned ideas like "cooking is a woman's job," but it's a fact that cooking has been used as a way to attract men since ancient times. In other words, it's a tool for women to "hunt" men.
Just because she can cook doesn't mean she'll be popular, but it's definitely better than being bad at it.
"......"
Munch, munch, while eating the soup Aaron made, Fiona made up her mind.
Aaron, who had lived alone for a long time, was surprisingly good at cooking. The dinner they were having now was also delicious, even to Fiona, who knew a lot about good food.
But, even so, she's sure she can make a more delicious dish.
Of course, she has never cooked before, but Fiona had confidence in herself.
"――Aaron."
"Hm? What's up?"
Aaron, sitting across from her, looked up.
Fiona said, with a determined tone.
"It's not good to always have you cook for me, so I'll make dinner tomorrow."
"Oh, that's a great idea. Well, I'll be looking forward to it then."
For a moment, Aaron was taken aback by Fiona's offer, but he quickly smiled and nodded.
"Are you expecting it?"
"Yes, expect it to the fullest."
Fiona puffed out her chest with a "huff."
She's sure that by this time tomorrow, Aaron will be amazed by the deliciousness of her cooking.
* * *
The next day arrived.
Fiona, who had bought a large quantity of ingredients from her family's store in the morning, decided to start preparing dinner a little earlier than usual, feeling quite relaxed.
She told Aaron not to peek until the cooking was finished, and then entered the kitchen.
And so, the cooking began.
Today's menu consists of soup, salad, and a meat dish as the main course. The bread, which is the staple food, was bought from the store. In Necronia, where the population is dense and the living quarters are cramped, there are hardly any households that bake their own bread.
So, the most time-consuming part isn't the meat dish... but the soup.
Fiona intends to make the most confident soup among the many options.
It's a local dish from the Arbarheit Kingdom's border region, called "Minestro". Originally, it was a soup that mixed many ingredients together, but now it's famous for using tomatoes.
The ingredients for the soup vary from household to household, but Fiona loved the "Luxurious Minestro" that her mother occasionally made for her when she was young.
It's a delicious "Minestro" with chicken, onions, carrots, and potatoes, all mixed together with a rich broth.
First, she started by pouring a large amount of water into the big pot she brought from her family's store, and then put it on the magic stove.
The pot is enormous, enough to make soup for dozens of people, but explorers like them are big eaters. And if it's too delicious, they might not be able to stop eating. So, making a lot shouldn't be a problem, Fiona thought.
The ingredients for the "Luxurious Minestro" include, aside from the chicken and vegetables mentioned earlier, seasonings like salt and oil, powdered dried herbs, and herbs used for simmering. Some households even add garlic to their soup, and there are many variations.
So, what about the ingredients for today's Minestro? Well, of course, it's the basic faithful ingredients... or so she thought,
"Hehe! A plain Minestro is no good, so today I'll make an 'Ultra-Luxurious Minestro'!"
On top of the kitchen table, Fiona, wearing a slightly larger apron than usual, which Aaron normally uses, looked down at the mountain-like ingredients taken out from the storage ring and said confidently.
"It's already delicious as a 'Luxurious Minestro'."
Then, "Super Luxurious Minestro" would definitely be even more delicious, and.
――By the way.
When making Minestro, one sautés olive oil and the like in a pot, then add vegetables and meat, and after that, add tomato broth and simmer while mashing the tomatoes, and finally, add water and boil.
...Do you understand?
Fiona didn't do it like that, pouring water into the pot from the start.
No, no, but if she sauté the ingredients in a different pan and then add them to the pot, it's still possible to recover. It's not a failure that would make one panic.
"Well, first, let's make the soup base."
The base of Minestro is the savory flavor from sautéed vegetables and bacon, or chicken meat, and above all, tomatoes.
However, Fiona, who wanted to further enhance the completion of the soup, thought of adding new ingredients to take out the broth.
"Delicious broth is taken from chicken bones!"
So, Fiona added a large amount of chicken bones (the bones of birds) into the big pot.
"An amateur would probably boil it like this from the start, but..."
Fiona, who had learned from many cooks, knew that when boiling animal bones, it's good to boil them with aromatic vegetables to remove the gamey smell.
"I'll add onions and bouquet garni here."
Bouquet garni is a bundle of several herbs tied together with thread.
Fiona added the bouquet garni to the pot and then added 5 onions, with their brown skin still on.
But there's a reason for this. Fiona knew.
"The brown skin of onions has a strong flavor, so it's better to boil it as is."
There are cooks who use this method when making onion soup, and of course, the brown skin will be removed later.
"But can we eat this brown skin?"
Well, whether Fiona knows about that or not is another problem altogether.
Even so, normally one'd remove it. The cook who taught Fiona this recipe didn't mention it either, so...
"......Maybe it's unexpectedly delicious, huh?"
Fiona doesn't have likes or dislikes. It's unthinkable for her to have preferences.
"...Ugh, it's such a hassle, why don't I just put all the ingredients in?"
Fiona took a bold step by making a soup with chicken bones and whole vegetables, without straining it. Will she really take out the chicken bones and onion peels later?
And when she boils the chicken bones, a lot of lye comes out, but strangely, there's no scene where Fiona removes the lye.
It's strange. It's really strange.
"Okay, first, let's chop the carrots and potatoes into big pieces..."
Fiona started chopping the carrots and potatoes with a "Thud, thud, thud!" rhythm, cutting them into bold, large sizes. The meaning of "one mouthful" might be different for Fiona and ordinary people.
Huh? The skin?
The nutrients in vegetables are mostly in the skin, so it's okay to think that's a valid excuse.
"Next is the chicken."
Fiona cut, sliced, and CHOPPED!! the chicken.
Then, she put the lavishly cut chicken into the pot.
"Normally, that's all, but today it's a 'Super Luxurious Minestro'!"
Next, she took out seafood.
Fiona, who boasts of being a culinary master, knows that the flavors of the mountains and the sea combine to create a synergistic effect.
So, even though she wouldn't normally use seafood, she plans to add it to the soup this time.
One of them is shrimp. It's a big shrimp with a thick shell.
"First, let's peel the shell..."
Fiona dissected the shrimp, taking the meat out of the shell. She put the plump shrimp meat into the pot. Huh? The shell? Well, she didn't remove the shell, but rather deserves praise for taking it out.
"Next is the fish. Ah, yes... the head and bones will also make a good broth, right?"
Dun Dun Dun!! Fiona divided the big fish into pieces.
By the way, this fish was stored in the Ackerman Merchant Guild's storage ring and transported here, so it's extremely fresh. The ring has an effect that prevents the contents from deteriorating, making it very valuable.
As a result, the fish hadn't undergone any processing. In other words, its internal organs hadn't been removed.
As one could tell from the loud sound earlier, Fiona simply cut the fish into chunks.
And this fish is actually covered in very hard scales. Normally, when cooking, one'd need to remove the scales from the entire body using a knife. But with Fiona's knife skills, the hard scales were no problem――she cut through them with a single stroke.
After that, the fish, which was more like a dismembered corpse than an ingredient, was naturally thrown into the pot.
"Uh... next, I'll season it with salt..."
Does she really mean to season it now? Shouldn't she do it at the end?
You might have doubts like that, but for someone like Fiona, it's okay to season it at any stage of cooking...
Anyway, Fiona added salt to the pot.
Rrzzzz――――――!
Is the sound effect weird? One doesn't know if it's weird or not, but at least it's weird.
"Yeah, tomato I almost forgot..."
Missy Fiona, who's usually careless, had forgotten the crucial tomato for Minestro.
In a fluster, she took out a large quantity of tomato peels and chopped them coarsely before throwing them into the pot.
One can probably tell from the fact that she took the trouble to remove the peels, but this tomato is a fresh one. Normally, one'd use boiled tomatoes for Minestro, but if they're using fresh tomatoes, it's better to blanch them and then peel off the skin.
"Tomatoes are for crushing, right?"
Fiona was stirring the pot with a large wooden spoon, going "Splat, splat, splat!" as she crushed the tomatoes along with the other ingredients.
At the same time, the large amount of lye floating on the surface was also being mixed in...
"Phew... next is the secret ingredient..."
Mumbling ominous words, Fiona picked up a bottle containing white powder.
The contents aren't wheat flour. It's more like a collection of small crystals rather than a powder. If it had to compare it to something that looks similar, it would be salt, but since she already added salt earlier, it's not salt.
Fiona reveals her hidden knowledge, exposing its true identity.
"You know, sweetness is umami! There are many people who don't know this, but when you add sugar to cooking, it brings out the flavor and makes it delicious!"
Sweetness is umami. That in itself is correct. Many delicious dishes with rich flavors often use sugar unexpectedly.
Fiona learned this from a chef acquaintance.
So, she adds sugar as a secret ingredient.
Rrzzzz――――――!
Is the onomatopoeia weird? No, it's the correct one.
Anyway, after adding sugar and mixing the pot――Fiona tilted her head in wonder.
"This is strange...? It's not turning red at all."
Minestro is a dish characterized by its bright red color from tomatoes. However, the contents of the pot didn't turn red as expected.
"Maybe there wasn't enough tomato...?"
Fiona thought so, but unfortunately, she had already used up all the tomatoes she bought.
She looked around the table for alternative ingredients and spotted 2 materials.
"Come to think of it, I wanted to add spices too. Let's add this!"
Saying so, Fiona poured in a large amount of red pepper powder with a Rrzzzz――――――!
If it lacks redness, wouldn't it be good to add a red ingredient? That's the idea.
However, the red pepper powder alone wasn't enough to add redness. So, she decided to add another, even redder ingredient.
"You know, shrimp shells contain rich umami flavor."
It was the peeled shells of the shrimp she added to the pot.
The large shrimp had thick shells that were hard to crush, but Fiona, the cooking master, knew that even such thick shells could be used in cooking.
The shells of shrimp actually contain rich umami flavor components. There are dishes that use the powdered form of the shells, which have been dried in an oven or the like. One can add it to soup or sprinkle it on toasted bread, and there are many ways to enjoy it.
Many people love the strong shrimp flavor.
Fiona quickly got to work, roasting the shrimp shells in the oven and drying them, then pounding them into a mortar.
But...
"This is weird, it's not turning into a fine powder..."
The pounded shrimp shells didn't turn into a fine powder, but instead became a gloopy mess.
The reason was that the drying wasn't sufficient, and she had also used the shrimp heads. The shrimp paste inside the heads was the cause of the gloopy mess. When using the heads, it's harder to dry them, so you need to dry them for a longer time, but Fiona didn't know that.
"Well, it's okay, I'll just add it to the soup anyway."
It's not a big deal since she was going to add it to the soup anyway. What's the problem with it being gloopy?
...If only the shells had turned into a fine powder...
"I'll add the spices I bought too..."
And Fiona started adding the spices she had bought, one after another, into the mixture.
"Finally, this..."
She turned her attention to the last ingredient to add to today's Minestro.
It was a mountain of garlic.
Fiona's mother didn't use garlic in her Minestro, but this time, Fiona was determined to use a large amount of garlic.
Because...
"Garlic has an energy-boosting effect, doesn't it?"
For some reason, Fiona's face turned red. It's not like she had any ulterior motives, but...
It's not like the energy-boosting effect is the reason or anything. This is just one of the hidden flavors, and there's no other reason.
Anyway!
Fiona added the garlic. She added a lot of it. She added all 10 cloves of garlic. Just to clarify, it's not 10 slices of garlic, but 10 whole cloves. She grated them all and added them to the pot.
By the way, there are some facts about garlic.
Garlic has an extremely powerful antibacterial effect, and while a small amount is fine, consuming a large amount can have a significant impact on the human body. Specifically, if you eat a large amount of garlic at once, you may experience abnormal stomach pain, and in the worst-case scenario, it can even be fatal.
This is no joke, so please be extremely cautious when consuming large amounts of garlic.
"Ah, now the soup is complete!"
Fiona stirred the pot, which she had finished adding garlic to, and said so with a face full of accomplishment.
However, the cooking was far from over.
There was still the salad and meat dishes to prepare.
Although Aaron and Fiona ultimately didn't eat them, so she'll spare the detailed explanation.
But to put it simply,
Some vegetables contain oxalic acid, which makes them unsuitable for raw consumption.
Using fish sauce in the dressing is good, but it's really harsh for those who aren't used to it. Even if one does use it, they shouldn't use too much of it. And no matter what, they shouldn't use lard in the dressing oil.
In reality, Fiona had been planning today's meal for over a week, but the ripening and spoilage of meat are always a delicate balance, and amateurs shouldn't try to handle it.
――and so on.
And then, about 2 hours after Fiona finished making the soup, the time for the actual meal finally arrived――.
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