Chapter 54

Summary of the previous episode ------------------------------------------------------

After returning to Aera's shop and placing the harvest, we went to buy a pot for the sauce.

We obtained the pot at a pottery shop in a back alley.

When we returned to Aera's shop, Haruka and Toya were already there.

According to Yuki, the blackboard inside the shop was a bit large, so they had gone to call them and then came to pick it up.

"Nice to meet you, Aera. I'm Haruka."

"I'm Toya. Nice to meet you."

"Nice to meet you both. I've been helped a lot by Naoto and the others."

"Don't worry about it. It just so happened that I was busy with other things, so I had the time."

"Thank you. Shall we start making the Inspire Sauce then?"

"Yes, and the tonkatsu after that."

"Sure. The kitchen... is a bit small, so let's bring it over here."

The kitchen, originally designed for Aera to work alone, was too small for all of us to work in.

We washed the pot we bought and placed it on a table in the customer area.

"Let's start with the Inspire Sauce."

The pot of Inspire Sauce that Aera had was about one size larger than the one I bought, and when I looked inside, it was about 80% full.

She poured about a third of it into the large pot she bought, and the remaining half into our pot.

"There's not much... but will it be okay?"

Our pot aside, the sauce in the large pot was just a little at the bottom.

I've heard that eel sauce is made by adding more and more, but this seems like there's too little of the original sauce...

"Yes, it's fine. It will just take a bit longer. But in that case, it's better to chop the ingredients as finely as possible."

"Is that so?"

"Next is the fruit, and this time it's Dindles. It's quite a luxury to put in both the skin and the flesh!"

"They're expensive to buy. Are we putting in everything we picked today?"

The backpacks were almost full, so there was quite a bit, but it should fit into two large pots and two small ones.

"No, no, no! That would be too wasteful—no, the Dindles' flavor would overpower everything, so putting in two-thirds... or half should be enough."

"Is it not wasteful...?"

"Yes, of course. It's a matter of taste."

"Right! It's a matter of taste!"

"That's right. It's a matter of taste, surely."

Yuki and Natuki agreed.

Clearly, they just want to eat the Dindles.

"Well, more than half were picked by Aera, so it's fine..."

"Right. We need dessert with the tonkatsu too!"

"True. Aera, should we chop the Dindles and put them in?"

As if to say, "Before I change my mind," Natuki took out the Dindles and started arranging them on the table.

"Yes. Wash them well, remove the stems, and chop the skin and flesh finely. Please wait a moment."

Aera brought a large bucket of water, and we washed, chopped, and put the Dindles into the pot.

"Oh, don't put them in this pot. We'll use it for the tonkatsu sauce later."

"Ah, that's needed."

It's not difficult, just chop them, but Aera is the fastest. Her knife skills are so fast they're almost invisible.

Next are Haruka and Yuki, who have skills, and slightly behind them is Natuki.

From the way Natuki muttered, "Losing to Yuki... a bit humiliating," it seems she was originally better at cooking.

Incidentally, Toya and I are about the same.

While Haruka and the others can handle two in the time it takes me to handle one, Aera can handle three easily, which gives you an idea of our skill levels.

Still, thanks to the "Disassemble" skill, I think I'm better with knives than I was in my original world.

"Alright, this much should be good. Let's mix it well at this stage."

After chopping half of the Dindles and dividing them into the pots, Aera mixed them well with the sauce at the bottom.

The Dindles are quite juicy, so when mixed well, the flesh breaks down, making it a bit runnier than ketchup at this point.

The large pot with more Dindles is almost like Dindle juice (with skin), with only a faint scent of the sauce remaining.

"At this point, you can leave it if it's too much trouble, but mixing it will make it faster. In a home setting, you add a little at a time, so it doesn't matter much."

This time, we're increasing the amount significantly, so there's very little sauce, but normally, the vegetables and fruits would be immersed in the sauce, so you can just leave it.

"Next are some vegetables. Let's use what we have. I have a lot of vegetables that are starting to wilt because no customers have come... hehe... hehe..."

Aera, with a slightly dark smile—she's scary.

We helped, and the vegetables from the refrigerator filled several wooden boxes, and as Aera said, they were a bit wilted.

Needless to say, these were ingredients bought in bulk for low profit and high sales.

"Please put these vegetables into each pot, making sure not to favor one type. There shouldn't be any rotten ones, but be careful just in case."

"Can we put all of these in? What about the ratio?"

"It's fine. It works even if you're a bit random. However, be careful with strong-smelling vegetables."

Again, it's just washing and chopping.

I really want a food processor.

While Toya and Haruka and the others are quite tired, Aera, who is chopping the most, is still going strong, which is impressive.

"Aera, you're doing well to keep up at that speed."

"Hehe, the training for chefs is quite tough. I used to peel potatoes for half a day, and I even saw them in my dreams... Compared to that, this is easy."

I've heard that training for chefs is tough even in the modern world, but it seems even tougher in this world.

Without machines to do the simple tasks, in a large restaurant, all of that would be done by hand, meaning it would fall to the newbies.

"Still, did you want to become a chef?"

"Yes. Even when I was at home, I used to cook for my acquaintances, but I wanted to cook for more people.

It was my dream to have my own shop. To achieve that, I honed my cooking skills and saved money... Thinking about the shop, I could endure the tough training.

It took a long time to get here, but finally, I have my shop... but..."

"..."

We fell silent.

Who the hell scammed such a good person!

We exchanged glances and nodded in unison.

We have to turn this around, or we won't be able to sleep well.

"Until a few days ago, I didn't know what to do... I'm really grateful to Naoto for coming into the shop that day."

"Yeah, well, it's fate. We're glad to have met Aera too. Right?"

"Right, we found a delicious shop."

"And we learned how to make the Inspire Sauce."

"I'm happy to hear that."

While talking, we repeated the process of adding vegetables and mixing them. By the time the wooden boxes were empty, the contents of each pot were more than 80% full.

"Good job. Just a little more. Next is the potatoes."

Aera brought a wooden box containing potatoes, which are often used as a staple food instead of bread because they are quite cheap.

"These also need to be chopped and added, but they are the key to the sweetness, so it's better not to add them randomly. My sauce is a bit sweet, so I put about five in this pot."

"Then, for our pot, about four, maybe?"

"Yes... Since there are no other fruits besides Dindles, five might be good."

We followed Aera's advice and chopped and added five potatoes.

Aera's large pot required dozens of potatoes.

"Next is the herbs. We'll use what we picked in the forest today. It's fine to be a bit random, but be careful with strong-smelling ones. It's a matter of preference."

This time, we tore them by hand and threw them into the pot.

Since we didn't know how much to add, we followed Aera's instructions.

Our goal is to make the sauce Aera let us taste, so it should be fine.

"Finally, the spices. Use a little salt. It's better to use a small amount of other spices too. If you add too many strong spices, it can't be fixed."

"What if I add too much by mistake?"

"In that case, the only way to fix it is to make a lot of Inspire Sauce to dilute it. I once dropped a spice bottle into the sauce... and got a severe scolding from my mother."

Aera chuckled.

In normal cooking, if you make a mistake, you can just throw it away, but with Inspire Sauce, you need Inspire Sauce to make it. You can't just throw it away.

Thinking about it, we should probably store ours in two separate pots.

If one fails, we can still recover.

"Finally, mix it well and let it sit for a week. Mixing it occasionally will make it faster."

While saying this, Aera brought a long wooden spatula from the kitchen and started stirring, but the contents barely moved.

Our pots are smaller, so we can manage to stir them.

"Ugh, it's heavy."

"Hey, Aera, I'll do it."

"Um... sorry, Toya. Can you please do it?"

After comparing the pot and Toya, she probably realized it was too heavy to stir both pots, so she handed the spatula to Toya.

Toya stirred the pot from the bottom relatively easily, but it didn't look like sauce at all.

If I had to compare, it looked like a chopped salad.

"Aera, is this okay? It doesn't look like sauce at all."

"Yes, it's fine. It looks like this now, but after a night, the water will come out. In three days, it should look more like sauce. To make it completely smooth, mix it occasionally for about a week."

"In a week, this will..."

With pickles, if you add salt and a weight, a lot of water comes out overnight, so I understand that water will come out.

However, it's hard to believe that this will turn into that sauce in a week. What kind of highly metabolic bacteria are in it?

Rather, that black sauce itself might be bacteria, or maybe even a slime—

No, no, I shouldn't think about it anymore.

I don't want to lose the delicious sauce.

"For now, that's it. Good job."

"Thanks, Aera. Now it's my turn."

"Finally, the tonkatsu!"

Aera leaned forward with a smile.