Chapter 171 - Darkmtl
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Chapter 171



“Alright. So, we have beef… How should I cook this?”

In the past, whenever I got beef, I would either grill it as a steak or marinate and cook it with seasoning…

Even though it’s Blue Rare, I’ve had steak recently, and both steak and bulgogi are dishes I’ve eaten often, so repeating them might lead to a culinary rut.

That can’t happen.

I became an adventurer to taste a variety of dishes I couldn’t experience in the Lizardman Village.

It’s time for a new dish.

Simply grilling the meat would be too bland.

Should I steam or boil it?

Or, even if it’s the same grilling method, using a different approach…

Yes.

Gratin sounds good.

Gratin is a dish baked in an oven, but since the ingredients are buried in the sauce, it’s closer to boiling in principle.

Yet, it has a different charm compared to stew, which is also a boiled dish.

Once the idea is settled, all that’s left is to put it into action.

Gratin is a dish where various ingredients like vegetables, meat, and pasta are placed in a sauce, topped with cheese or breadcrumbs, and baked in an oven.

First, I need to process the monster meat, which takes the most time.

I coat the Steel Armored Bison meat with oil extracted from the seeds of the Poisonous Swamp Lotus, which has the effect of detoxifying the monster’s poison.

Since gratin isn’t a meat-centric dish, the harmony with other ingredients is crucial. Using something like the Predatory Water’s fruit juice, which has a strong flavor, might overpower the dish. Therefore, the mild-flavored oil from the Poisonous Swamp Lotus seeds is the right choice.

Next is the sauce for the gratin.

Preparing the vegetables or meat first might cause their flavors to change while exposed to room temperature, but with the sauce, that risk is lower.

Then, for the sauce, I’ll go with tomato sauce…

No, I’ve used tomato sauce enough in previous dishes.

Using tomato sauce in this gratin would make it taste similar to what I’ve had before.

That would diminish the effort of creating a new menu.

Then, let’s go with Béchamel sauce.

Béchamel sauce is known as the basic sauce of Western cuisine, used in a variety of dishes. By adding other ingredients, it can be transformed into cream sauce, brown sauce, or modern sauce, making it highly versatile.

Even just the derivative sauces like cream sauce and brown sauce have strong recognition in the culinary world, showing the greatness of Béchamel sauce as their base.

Moreover, since Béchamel sauce serves as the base for many other sauces, it’s not difficult to make.

First, I put flour and butter in a 1:1 ratio in a pan and sauté them.

The heat should be low to prevent the butter from burning.

At first, the butter and flour clump together, but with patience, the butter melts and thickens.

Once the roux is ready, I add milk.

The amount of milk depends on personal preference, ranging from six to ten times the amount of flour.

The less milk, the thicker and more concentrated the sauce.

Adding cream can turn it into a rich cream sauce, but today, I’ll start with Béchamel sauce.

Adding all the milk at once could lower the temperature of the roux, so I adjust the amount gradually, shifting from sautéing to boiling.

That’s it for the Béchamel sauce.

This Béchamel sauce can be transformed into other sauces by adding different ingredients or enhanced with spices like pepper.

Or, it can be used as is in other dishes.

I’ll add the spices when making the gratin and move on to the next step.

With the sauce ready, it’s time to start the gratin preparation.

First, I prepare the vegetables.

I slice the potatoes for the gratin and chop the onions and bell peppers slightly larger than for fried rice.

After preparing the vegetables, I take out the monster meat, which should have lost most of its poison, and chop it finely for the gratin.

Since it’s rare monster meat, I’ll use plenty of it.

Then, I boil the potatoes briefly in hot water to soften them.

I sauté the vegetables, except for the potatoes, with the monster meat.

Sautéing the onions softens their texture, removes the pungency, and brings out a subtle sweetness. The bell peppers also develop a mild sweetness when sautéed.

The meat undergoes the Maillard reaction during sautéing, enhancing its savory and nutty flavors.

I season with spices like pepper and salt, using a generous amount.

Since gratin is a type of home-style dish, most of the preparation is done at this point.

Next, I lightly butter the pan to prevent the ingredients from sticking and burning in the oven. I layer the hardest vegetable, the potatoes, at the bottom, followed by the sautéed onions and monster meat.

I generously pour the Béchamel sauce over the ingredients, ensuring they’re submerged, and finally, I grate Mozzarella cheese on top, covering the ingredients completely.

This cheese not only adds flavor when baked to a golden brown but also acts as a lid, preventing the moisture from escaping. Skimping on the cheese could significantly lower the gratin’s quality.

Then, I bake the gratin in the Dwarven Oven for about 20 minutes.

It’s done.

Tonight’s dinner:

Steel Armored Bison Gratin.

Clatter.

“Alright, enjoy your meal.”

With that, Kurt placed the gratin-filled plate on the table.

Gulp.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had Kurt’s cooking…”

“The food at the haunted mansion was delicious, but Kurt’s cooking is still the best.”

“Stop flattering and eat before it gets cold.”

“Ah, but you’re smiling, Kurt.”

As usual, Kurt and his party exchanged trivial banter before starting their meal.

“Thank you for the meal.”

Karina, as always, gave her thanks before carefully scooping a bite of gratin with her fork.

‘Hmm… Personally, I prefer steamed or boiled dishes over grilled ones…’

Although Kurt’s party enjoys anything he cooks, each has their preferences.

For example, Mari likes fried dishes like French fries, Serena prefers oily stir-fries as a drinking snack, and Karina loves stewed dishes.

So, she had hoped for a stew after a long time…

But what came out was a cheese-covered dish baked in an oven.

Despite its pizza-like appearance without bread, it didn’t even use the tomato sauce she liked.

Though momentarily disappointed, Karina’s regret didn’t last long.

After all, back at the Adventurer Guild, she could have Kurt’s cooking anytime. Even if it wasn’t stew, Kurt’s dishes were always delicious.

So, she took a bite of the gratin.

Simultaneously, the rich flavor of cheese filled her mouth.

True to Kurt’s uncompromising standards, the Mozzarella cheese used was of high quality, filling her mouth with a strong dairy flavor.

Just the cheese alone was intensely flavorful, but when melted in the oven, the golden-brown spots on the ivory surface not only looked appetizing but also enhanced the sweetness through the Maillard reaction.

Inside, instead of tomato sauce, there was white Béchamel sauce.

Thus, the flavor wasn’t the tanginess of tomatoes but a deep, rich dairy combination of milk and butter.

That alone might have been too rich, but the excessive amount of pepper balanced it out.

If it were a gratin with tomato sauce or another dish, the pepper might have been overwhelming. But here, it added spiciness to the heavy, rich gratin made with Mozzarella, butter, and milk.

‘Even without stew or tomato sauce, Kurt’s cooking is still delicious.’

After savoring the aroma, it was time to chew and taste.

Munch munch.

‘Indeed… The ingredients were first sautéed and then baked again… Huh?’

As Karina enjoyed the gratin with 80% satisfaction and 20% regret, she suddenly felt something odd.

‘It’s clearly a baked dish that went through another cooking process…’

The meat and vegetables in her mouth had the distinct flavor of sautéed ingredients.

Yet, the texture was soft, almost like it had been boiled.

It resembled the texture of a long-stewed dish, which Karina loved.

‘How…?’

Although gratin uses a baking method, the ingredients are essentially boiled in the sauce under the cheese cover.

Thus, gratin has both the flavor of baking and the tenderness of boiling.

The high oven temperature extracts the ingredients’ inherent flavors, which dissolve into the sauce, while the Béchamel sauce’s smooth, rich flavor seeps into the ingredients.

It’s like a stew where the ingredients’ flavors melt into the broth, creating a deep, complex taste.

Only here, the broth is replaced by sauce.

Thus, even though Béchamel sauce is made with just flour, butter, and milk, it becomes a deeper, more complex version after absorbing the rich flavors of the vegetables and meat.

‘This is practically half a stew!’

And that wasn’t all.

As Karina chewed the tender vegetables and the potatoes, which were half-mashed from being boiled and then baked again, she finally tasted the finely chopped monster meat.

‘Hmm!? This meat’s flavor…?’


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The Reincarnated Lizardman Wants a Hamburger

The Reincarnated Lizardman Wants a Hamburger

Status: Completed
A chaotic and whirlwind culinary adventure of a lizardman reincarnated in another world, driven by an insatiable craving for hamburgers!

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