Chapter 171: Bartolo Learning About Soy Sauce
Everyone was so engrossed with table tennis - except for me - and so it is now the next day.
I woke up early in the morning today, completely different from yesterday.
Why you ask, that’s because Elna-kaasan said at dinner last night, that she wanted to try food made using Kagura’s ingredients that I bought.
Nord-tousan and Sylvio-niisan also took advantage of that and said the same thing. And together with Bartolo’s anticipation of using the new ingredients, it’s becoming inevitable for me to wake up early in the morning to make breakfast.
Well, I said to set out for the journey to enrich our eating habits after all, and if you ask me which type of breakfast I would rather have, then it would be better to have a Japanese-type meal.
If I taught Bartolo how to make them, then he will make it from now on.
In order to obtain an enjoyable meal, it’s fine if I were to ignore this slight decrease in sleeping time, right.
I got dressed while thinking about that, and head to the kitchen on the first floor.
Perhaps it’s because no one is awake yet besides the servants, I can’t hear any conversation like during the daytime.
However, you can hear the maids working from the morning, the sounds of things being brought to the dining room, and the sound of a broom sweeping the ground from the garden.
It’s not bad to listen carefully to the silence in this somewhat dimly lit places like this.
I don’t hate the sound of such a quiet life.
I enter the kitchen while feeling happy to discover new things to look forward to in my own house.
「Hey, kid! You woke up punctually, huh!」
Immediately after I enter the kitchen, the master of the kitchen - Bartolo - came to receive me while grinning.
But, his voice is more subdued than usual maybe because it’s early in the morning.
「Well, I won’t know what Elna-kaasan will do to me if I were to oversleep despite being entrusted to cook」
「Hahaha, she cast water magic through the gap in the door yesterday, right」
It seems that Bartolo is also aware of the magic battle between Elna-kaasan and me.
Oh well, Sara was the one who wiped the wet door after that.
Few people work in the mansion, so the news about that would have spread among them in no time.
「It was really hard. If you blocked it with Ice magic then the room temperature will decrease so it becomes so cold」
「……it’s really just like the two of you, parent and child, to use relatively difficult magic in such a strange place」
Bartolo said that to me in surprise while shrugging his shoulder.
Well, that’s because Elna-kaasan and I both share the same idea of settling troublesome things using magic.
I think it’s best to solve it using magic if there were some difficult or troublesome tasks to do.
「Oh well, let’s stop chatting for now and start cooking immediately」
「You’re right」
I have to proceed with giving a lecture about the ingredients for Bartolo today.
Let’s work quickly so that we can make it since it will take a bit longer than usual.
As I start to move while telling myself that, something hit my shoulder.
When I turn my eyes in surprise, there are plenty of wooden boxes stacked up in that place.
Ooh, it’s dimmer than usual, so I didn’t notice that there was something in a place where there should have been nothing there.
「Careful now. The kitchen is now cramped since there are a lot of ingredients that we brought in yesterday」
「You haven’t been able to sort out all the luggage yet?」
「……I hadn’t been able to enter the food storage since you bought a lot of rice in hundreds of kilos, kid」
As I was just calmly listening to him, Bartolo said that while quietly staring at me with moist eyes.
Un, guess it can’t be helped. I’ll forgive you for making my shoulder hit that thing.
「So, we’re going to make a meal that uses Kagura’s ingredients, but what kind of menu will it be?」
「Hmm, the ingredients I bought are those that are convenient to store, they are mainly seasonings and dried fish. So first, I’m going to put the flavor of the seasonings to good use and make a simple dish」
「I see, then it will be easier even for people who have never eaten Kagura’s food before」
Hmm, so even if the base material is different, we should be able to arrange it into local style food if we can take the dashi and use the seasonings.
I expect Bartolo to do his work in that part.
「Then, we’re going to prepare the rice first - since it’s going to take a while -, before I explain about the seasonings」
「Ooh! I knew it, the menu will something that will go well with rice, huh」
When I say that, Bartolo starts preparing to cook the rice excitedly.
We have been eating rice since some time ago so he won’t have any problem with cooking rice alone.
Bartolo takes out a necessary amount of rice for our meal and starts to water it.
In the meantime, I’ll be preparing the simple menu.
Incidentally, today’s menu is tamagoyaki, nameko’s miso soup, salt-grilled salmon, rice, and spinach stew.
They don’t take too long to make or have mixed flavor whatsoever, so even beginners who have never tasted them can easily enjoy the flavor. And above all, the flavor of the soy sauce and miso is simply easier to express with those dishes. That’s going to be our choice of dishes that I thought of.
Speaking of the time-consuming task among these dishes, I guess cooking rice and pre-processing the nameko are the ones that take the most time.
I recall the ingredients necessary for the dishes, I went from the kitchen to the food storage.
「Ah, wait up kid! It’s dangerous in the food storage with all the wooden boxes and ingredients, I’ll get it for you. Just tell me the ingredients you need」
「Okay. Then, I’m going to wash the rice」
He might say that after considering my small body. Despite having a scary-looking face, Bartolo has a thoughtful and kind disposition.
After telling him the necessary ingredients, I start to wash the rice replacing Bartolo.
Just like stirring the inside of a bowl………
Since it’s currently summer, it feels good washing rice like this. Though it will become a hellish task when it’s winter.
I replace the water three times while thinking about such a thing. The rice is now visible in the water as if it become transparent. Now it’s done.
The fire is already burning on the kamado already so I’ll leave the rest to Bartolo.
Bartolo came back to the kitchen while holding a wooden box at the moment I was having such a thought.
「I brought the ingredients」
「Thank you. I have also finished washing the rice」
I head toward Bartolo to let him check the rice after washing my hands with water.
After Bartolo have checked the rice, he set it on the kamado and started to adjust the heat of the fire with the firewood.
We should adjust the fire here, but since I hadn’t made a simple rice cooker yet, it’s better to use the kamado in our house since the result would be tastier.
But as expected, it’s better to use a simple rice cooker when we’re busy, I wonder if Logan would be able to make it after I tell him about it this time.
I feel that, for someone who likes rice, he will be delighted to make the rice cooker. Bringing it outside and cooking rice at the destination is not a bad idea.
While Bartolo is adjusting the heat level by fiddling with the firewoods, I took out the nameko from the wooden box, and wash it lightly with water.
Then I throw them into a pot that has been filled with water, then set the magic stove to low heat.
Next, we just have to wait until the smell of mushrooms filled the air.
「Bartoloー, where’s the soy sauceー?」
「Soy sauce is placed in the wooden box near the seasonings」
Bartolo answers while still watching the flames when I ask him.
I see, it’s more or less a seasoning after all, so I guess he left it there since it’s likely to be used.
I walked toward the seasonings space and moved the wooden boxes piled up there to the floor using Psychic.
Opening the lid of the wooden box, there were small jars of soy sauce inside.
The smell of the rich soy sauce that can be said to be intense drifted in the surroundings.
When I open the jars and try tasting them, they turn out to be light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and tamari soy sauce.
「Are these the so-called soy sauce?」
「Un, that’s right」
When I was trying the three types of soy sauces, Bartolo approached me and asked - maybe he’s done adjusting the fire.
「Have you got a general taste of them?」
「Yeah, it was saltier than I thought. But, it seems that you can get a good taste out of it if you lightened the flavor by mixing it up with other seasonings」
As expected from the chef, Bartolo. It appears that he had already found out about the versatility of soy sauce.
「Yeah. You can also make a tasty sauce by combining soy sauce with other seasonings, or you can make a stew with it」
「You can use it for meat sauce, or sweetened it, spread it on a fish and grill it. And it looks like that it’s going to be delicious even if you make a stew with vegetables」
Bartolo muttered while folding his arms, perhaps he was reminded of something after he heard what I said.
Though he appears serious, he actually looks happy about it.
Looks like it’s inevitable for him to be happy when thinking about dishes with new seasonings and making them.
I watch over that Bartolo with a warm gaze and start to put the soy sauce into a small plate to explain about them.
「This here is a dark soy sauce. It has a good balance between its smell and taste, and also the easiest taste for ordinary people to handle」
When I give him the small plate, Bartolo lightly puts his thick finger to it and brings it closer to his mouth.
「Aah, so this is the least intense one. This one doesn’t have any unusual peculiarities, unlike the other soy sauce, so even those who are not used to this would likely be able to eat them by putting this to the dish as it is」
「That’s right, isn’t it. This is the common type of soy sauce. Eating tamagoyaki and grated daikon with dark soy sauce is delicious you know」
「Aah, indeed. If you put some soy sauce on it the taste will become more delicious and firmer! There are going to be a lot of dishes that will become delicious if you spread this on them, even among the dishes that I have made until now!」
Perhaps Bartolo was inspired when I tell him some examples of dishes with soy sauce as he said that while sounding excited.
Certainly, the new dishes are a matter of course, but there’s no doubt that it will even allow the preceding dishes’ taste to become more varied.
「The one on the left with lighter color is a light soy sauce. It has a milder color and smell than the dark soy sauce, and a suitable seasoning to make dishes that make the best use of the ingredients’ natural flavor, vegetable nimono, and suimono」
「Even though the color is lighter, it’s strange that the flavor of this one is stronger」
「I’ve heard that has more salt content than the dark soy sauce inside it」
And so I explain about tamari soy sauce and miso to him like that, explaining dashi while making it, and occasionally also checking the state of the fire in the kamado.
And thus, after I finished lecturing everything to him, it’s time to put it into practice.
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