Chapter 64 (1/2)

Volume 1

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 .

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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 .

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“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 . . .