Chapter 64
Ch 64 -- My Personal Cooking Style, Quick and Dirty
So, time to make dinner. The problem is, what? I've only got Rock Bird meat right now so it will have to be something in the chicken line.
Recipes, hmmm I'll go with an old favourite of mine, Szechaun chicken in spicy sauce. Fer will complain if that's all there is so I'll do some stir-fry as well, fried chicken and green peppers. I don't hate peppers like some people do, I like the sharp taste they have. I'll tweak the amounts so there's more meat than normal to keep Fer happy.
First up, shopping at the Net Super. Let's see, tomatoes, cucumber, green peppers and some red and yellow peppers too. They add colour to the dish. I put in my order, not forgetting to buy the most important side-dish, premium beer. I deserved some beer to toast the successful solving of my Guild ranking problem.
Excellent, now to get started with the Szechuan chicken. First I boiled Rock Bird breast in wine and salted water. While the meat was cooling down I sliced the tomatoes and cut the cucumbers into thin strips. I shredded the meat with my fingers then laid lots of it down on a bed of tomato slices and cucumber strips topped off with sesame seed dressing. I cut back on the spiciness since I expected a certain someone to complain otherwise but a simple sesame seed dressing should be fine. I like it anyway... If you want it hotter you can add chili oil with the sesame seed dressing.
On to the stir-fry, chicken with green peppers. I prodded some Rock Bird meat with a fork to open it up a bit then cut it into bite-sized pieces before marinating it in a ziploc bag with soy sauce and sake. I chopped up the peppers to size while the meat absorbed the flavourings.
Once the meat was properly scorched both sides in a hot oiled pan I took it off the heat and added the peppers. Once they softened I added the seasoning, some oyster sauce from a tube then fired it up again and started tossing the contents in the pan until it was ready.
I use a lot of oyster sauce for soups as well as stir-fry and I always keep some on hand. The tubes of ready-made sauce are really convenient and I've been buying them ever since they started appearing on the shop shelves.
I turned out the chicken and green peppers stir-fry onto a dish.
"It's ready," I announced to the waiting audience behind me.
"It's not just meat, is it?" Fer sniffed suspiciously.
"Let's eat it, it's delicious-"
"What's th-... *chomp*... *chomp**chomp**chomp*..." Fer settled down to some serious eating.
Sui's telepathic declaration that "It's delicious, Aruji-" was enough proof for me that the dish was a success. Sui's so cute...
I started on my own helping of Szechaun chicken and green pepper chicken stir-fry accompanied by a beer. The beer was first, of course.
"Psssh," the can foamed a little as I opened it. "Glug glug glug..." as it went down my throat.
"Fuuu, a beer is just the right thing right now." I filled my mouth with Szechaun chicken. Munch munch, yep it's delicious as Sui said. The sesame seed topping has a refreshing taste. I followed it with another mouthful of beer. Nice. Next, some stir-fried chicken, well stir-fried Rock Bird and green peppers which have a nice crisp texture as I expected. The seasonings worked really well and they're so simple, I just add them to the cooking. All praise to the Japanese food industry! I toasted them with another mouthful of beer. It's delicious.
Oh, I forgot to cook rice but I suppose bread will do in a pinch. Lessee, can I put the Szechuan chicken between two slices of bread? Hmmm, munch. "Oh, that works fine." I worried that the bread would get soggy from the tomatoes but if I eat it quick there's no problem. Hurry hurry... and some more premium beer. My enjoyment of my Szechaun chicken and stir-fry and green peppers and premium beer combo was interrupted by a loud voice.
"Hey, seconds here."
"Sui too-"
Yeah yeah. I've gotten used to their gluttonous demands but I wasn't going to be rushed so I continued enjoying my dinner and my beer while I made seconds for Fer and Sui.
"So? Was it good?" I enquired afterwards.
"It was so-so." grumped Fer. It couldn't have been that bad really, he finished off everything I put in front of him.
"Sui thinks it was delicious-" Ahhh, Sui's so honest. And cute.
"Well, I should get a lot more meat tomorrow so I'll grill some Orc King steak next time."
"If you're grilling steak do it like you usually do." Yeah yeah. Fer really likes steak, especially with soy sauce. Me I'd prefer to cook some curry instead but doing it in an inn, the smell is a bit strong... I guess it'll be a while before I can eat curry again. While I was daydreaming about curry I noticed Fer was stretching and yawning. Eating so much had made him sleepy.
"Move over and I'll put down a futon for you." I ordered, poking him in the side.
"Yeah, do that." Fer settled down as soon as I had laid down a futon in his stall.
"Right, we're going back to our room." Fer wagged his tail in reply, his eyes already closed. He was totally out of it. Shall we go back to our room then, Sui-chan?