Chapter 210: Fruits of the Sea

Translated by Zzonkedd

Edited by Gumihou

The moment we reached our temporary home, my familiars were all-

“I have high expectations for dinner.”

“I’m expecting something good!”

“Aruji~ Dinner will be extra, extra yummy, right~”

For some reason, the expectations for tonight’s dinner is really high, naa…

I waved them off with a simple ‘Yes, yes, I understand,’ and headed towards the kitchen. Now, what should I make?

[6] Let’s make all the things!

[6] I’m all fired up now!

Ah, but first, let’s have a little taste of everything so that I know what I’m working with. I sliced off a bit of the Kraken, Sea Serpent and Aspidochelone and placed them under the grill. [6] Uhoo, the smell is wonderful. Grilling with a tiny bit of salt is the best, although I didn’t even use salt this time since the seafood is so fresh~

Three minutes under a hot grill is good enough. I took out my tray and did the taste test.

Kraken: Hmm, hmm, yes, it tasted kind of similar to a regular squid. [2] Oh, but it’s chewier and the flavour is stronger somehow… Oh, oh, now that I think of it, Kraken isn’t a giant squid after all. It’s a giant cuttlefish! That’s right, though both squid and cuttlefish look alike, cuttlefish actually improved with longer cooking [8]!

Sea Serpent: Uhm… as expected. [3] It’s a giant sea snake after all and has the similar chicken-ish tastes I get from land Serpents. I guess I’ll just treat it like chicken… let’s have some fried Sea Serpent!

[6] Aspidochelone: is a fish. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but it really is just a fish. A very lovely and nice fish though I don’t quite dare to eat it raw… so let’s cook it with some sweet and sour sauce.

Alright, I’ve decided! [5]

Grilled Kraken! [1] Ah, I don’t have a fish grill, but this frying pan should do the trick. Since I love squid and cuttlefish, let’s make Kraken Stir-Fry too along with some colourful vegetables.

Shopping! Time to shop for ingredients ~

Fufufu, let’s see, I still have some barbecue sauce I can use for the Grilled Kraken. I have salt, of course, but a stir fry must have fresh garlic and ginger, so let’s get those. For the vegetables, let’s splurge and get some asparagus and a few types of paprika in different colours.

I have all the ingredients for Karaage since I make it very often, so let’s look for seasonings for the sweet and sour fish dish. I plan to fry the Aspidochelone and pour a sweet and sour sauce over it. Since my familiars don’t eat enough vegetables, let’s get carrots, enoki mushrooms, bamboo shoots and some red and green peppers. I also bought a bottle of ketchup since I like to use a couple tablespoons of it when making a sweet and sour sauce.

Now then, let’s get started~

First, I chopped the Sea Serpent meat to bite-size pieces and soak them in both a soy sauce and a salt brine bath for Soy Sauce Karaage and Salted Karaage.

While those guys are soaking up flavours, I moved on to the next dish. Grilled Kraken!

[6] I’ve decided to make my own grilling sauce when I spotted the fresh ginger. I mean, ginger paste from a tube is fine and all, but nothing beats freshly grated ginger. [1] The sauce base is made from the basic sake, mirin, soy sauce and grated ginger mixture.

I cut the Kraken into strips and heated up my frying pan. The strips of Kraken turned white against the hot oil nearly immediately. While it’s still sizzling and spitting angrily, I quickly pour on the sauce, causing the pan to splutter and bubble. A quick toss to coat the Kraken in the sauce and it’s done! This would be great with a little mayonnaise later.

Oh no, I forgot to buy mayonnaise!

Oh well, I’ll just buy some later, I thought as I divided up the Grilled Kraken onto four different dishes and put them away in my [Item Box].

[6] For the next Kraken dish, I cut a wide and flat piece of the block and cut a grid pattern on it before slicing it up into bite-size strips just like before. For some reason, stir-fried squids and cuttlefish have to be served like this to be delicious.

Next, I finely chop lots of garlic and ginger, peeled the lower bit of the asparagus and chopped it into 5 cm pieces. For the paprika, I cut them into halves, take out the seeds and cut them into strips that were about the same size as the Kraken.

Now, time to stir fry!

I slicked up the pan with a dash of oil and sizzled up the chopped garlic and ginger. When the aromatics began to give out a good smell, I poured in the asparagus and paprika. Once the vegetables have softened, I set it aside, clean the pan and oil it up again. Time to stir-fry the Kraken.

Again, once the oil was hot, I put in a generous handful of garlic and ginger. This time, when the pan began to emit fragrance, I pour in the sliced Kraken. Once the Kraken started to change from translucent to white, I threw in the pre-cooked vegetables. This is the best way to make stir-fries because it prevents overcooking or undercooking many different ingredients.

Once the ingredients have a little time to get to know each other, I seasoned it with a little salt, pepper, sake and used chicken broth to deglaze the pan and let it simmer for a little while. As a final touch, I dissolved some potato starch with water to thicken the sauce a little.

Ahh, the Kraken Stir-Fry looks really gorgeous with its white, green, red and yellow colours against a light brown sauce! Again, this was divided up into four different plates and put away in my [Item Box].

I’ve decided to fry the Karaage last since it would taste better the longer it stays in its marinade, so let’s do the sweet and sour Sweet Vinegar Aspidochelone next.

Largish pieces of Aspidochelone fillet about the size of my hand was cut and seasoned with salt and pepper. Then I coat it with a thin layer of potato starch. In a shallow frying pan, I fried the fillets until it’s a nice light golden brown. I put four pieces on two plates, two pieces on one and one piece for myself, before piling the rest onto a different bowl.

Once all the fillets were fried, I poured out the excess oil from the frying pan and got started on the vegetables. The first to go into the pan was sliced onions. Once the onions had taken on a translucent colour, I added the sliced carrots, peppers and bamboo shoots and stir-fried everything until it has softened before putting in the enoki mushrooms.

For the vinegar sauce, I had prepared everything in a bowl. Water, soy sauce, vinegar, mirin, sugar and ketchup were duly mixed in a bowl and poured into the pan after the enoki mushrooms. A little adjustment of flavour with salt and sugar. Later, I thickened the sauce with potato starch. This cooking style is very Chinese influenced as it uses ankake sauce made with sugar, ketchup and vinegar. Well, I say Chinese style, but it’s more like Japanised Chinese cooking.

Once the sauce is done, I dole it out over the fried Aspidochelone.

Ah