Chapter 10: Hand Grab Cake And Rice Flour Cake
Xiang Chuan got up very early, for no other reason than craving pineapple buns and being hungry.
After washing up, she opened the ingredient warehouse list sent to her by the kitchen AI yesterday on the terminal. She found herself in an awkward in-between position: wanting to make Chinese dishes, but there was no scallion ginger and no soy sauce; wanting to make Western meals or pastries, but there was no high-gluten or low-gluten flour or oven. It was not even as good as those protagonists who transmigrated to ancient times directly grabbing a handful of scallion ginger garlic to start stir-frying in the pot and showing off their golden finger, while she had to face the headache of a very limited ingredient stock.
“I should hurry up and make breakfast. Today, I don’t want to keep eating dough drops.”
When she walked into the restaurant, the kitchen AI turned on the lights for her.
[Beep—Miss Xiang Chuan, good morning.]
“Good morning, kitchen AI. Get me 700 grams of glutinous rice flour… that is, rice noodles, plus eggs, milk, sugar, oil, and lemon.”
[Beep—Understood.]
Mix the milk, oil, and boiling water, add the egg yolks, finally pour in the glutinous rice flour, squeeze in lemon juice equivalent to three slices of lemon, and hand it to the kitchen AI for stirring. Then add sugar to the egg whites and also hand it to the kitchen AI for whipping. But because this operation is close to whipping cream for Western pastries, she had to watch closely to prevent the kitchen AI from whipping the egg whites into egg mixture.
After that, it was simple, just like the rice cooker cakes she used to make in her own small rental room. Add the egg whites in batches to the yolk batter and fold gently, while being careful not to break the bubbles in the two batters.
Since there were no cake molds or other containers, she simply had the kitchen AI get three large bowls, poured the batter into them, covered the bowl openings with large plates, took a large pot, added one-third clean water, and placed it on the heating plate to steam.
After preparing the rice flour cake, Xiang Chuan couldn’t stay idle, so she started making hand grab cakes. She got all-purpose flour, oil, and salt, dissolved the salt in warm water, poured it into the flour and began kneading the dough. She picked up the sticky dough and slammed it onto the cooking surface until it was about right, then coated it with oil and put it into a sealed pot for proofing.
Waiting for proofing was tedious, so she started playing on her phone—oh no, she started browsing the terminal.
Although all-purpose flour has a wide range of uses, the current ingredient variety was insufficient. The family members might not get tired of it, but Xiang Chuan couldn’t stand it, so she needed some extra help to expand the usable range of all-purpose flour.
“Kitchen AI, call me down in half an hour.”
[Beep—Understood.]
She wiped her hands and returned to her room, starting to search for inspiration on Geegle. After all, eating dough drops all the time wasn’t sustainable.
At that moment, a line caught her attention: The method and principle of making natural yeast.
For the reception work of the first fleet diplomatic mission in these two weeks, Mr. and Mrs. Xiang Weiguo came downstairs at eight o’clock. Thinking that the children were still sleeping in, they found their eldest son, who was also in the habit of getting up early like them, standing in front of the kitchen bending over staring at something unknown, with the sound of deep frying coming from the kitchen, which they had heard yesterday.
Was he observing the breakfast made by the kitchen AI? The couple smiled at each other. Yesterday’s dinner was so delicious that it made the breakfast, which had been the same for decades, somewhat anticipated.
“Xiao Qi, why are you staring like that? Are you so… hungry…?”
After Xiang Weiguo walked closer and looked, he was also dumbfounded.
“This is… what?”
On the kitchen counter was a glass jar about half a meter tall, with two white sticky large dumplings stacked inside. Xiang Weiguo had sharp eyes and recognized that this was similar to the dough drops before they went into the pot yesterday, only not scattered like dough drops, but round and plump like a small pillow.
“Heave-ho… Ah, Dad, Mom, you’re up. Good morning.”
Just as the couple curiously leaned in to look at the glass jar, another large dumpling fell into the jar. The two looked up and found it was their eldest daughter. She was holding the large bowl used for kneading dough yesterday, blinking her eyes at them.
“Xiao Chuan, what new dish are you making?”
Xiang Weiguo looked at the glass jar full of expectation.
“This can’t be eaten—no, it can be eaten, uh…” Xiang Chuan got stuck. She had stirred three large bowls of dough in a row, and her brain hadn’t caught up. “I need to keep this for something useful, but there is a new dish. Wait a bit, it’ll be ready soon.”
With that, she quickly covered the glass jar and had the kitchen AI place it on the ground, then took out the sufficiently proofed dough to start preparing the pancakes. She shaped the dough into ten small balls and spread them out, mixed flour and oil in a small bowl and coated it on the dough balls, then folded the dough, cut strips on the edges, stacked them, and finally rolled them flat into slightly sticky round noodle cakes. After making three continuously, she handed the remaining dough balls to the kitchen AI to flatten.
Pour peanut oil onto the heating plate, heat it up, place the noodle cake in, and after half a minute, flip it with the iron plate. The originally snow-white sticky surface turned golden brown under the frying of the hot oil, with a fragrant aroma.
“Right!”
Xiang Chuan suddenly looked up, nearly flinging the iron plate in her hand away.
“Kitchen AI, is the chicken in the warehouse ready to use directly?”
[Beep—Invalid question, please rephrase your question in detail.]
“Uh, is the chicken in the warehouse live or processed?”
[Beep—The meat in the warehouse is all vacuum-packed processed meat.]
That was really convenient. Xiang Chuan immediately requested half a chicken, and upon receiving it, found that even the bones and internal organs had been cleaned out, with no chicken feet or butt left.
The meat storage and processing process of this era was truly paradise for Western chefs, she thought.
Xiang Chuan cut off the neck and set it aside. It had to be said that chicken after removing tendons and bones was really easy to cut. In no time, she had sliced the half chicken into pieces. She directly took a small pot, added oil, and started pan-frying the chicken in the small pot.
When Xiang Weiguo’s family of three heard her asking for chicken, their expressions changed repeatedly. In modern times, meat other than fish was not very tasty. Beef was slightly better, while chicken and pork were basically the least popular foods that only low-class residents would buy. But when the chicken went into the pot, an indescribable aroma wafted out, instantly dispelling their disgust for chicken.
This, this was actually the smell of chicken?
Xiang Weiguo’s eyes widened, wishing he could watch every piece of chicken go from raw to cooked in the oil pot closely.
The fried chicken was casually placed on a serving plate by Xiang Chuan. She wasn’t particular about plating anyway. While frying the chicken, she said, “Kitchen AI, get me one lettuce and 5 tomatoes, plus some eggs.”
Lettuce? Was there such a green vegetable? Xiang Weiguo opened the warehouse list. Lettuce… it turned out to be the green peony-shaped green vegetable. Upon closer look, the vegetables were basically labeled with notes.
These were all casually labeled by Xiang Chuan last night while bored soaking in the bath.
Xiang Chuan handed the remaining one-third chicken to the kitchen AI and started preparing the lettuce and tomatoes… well, “preparing” just meant removing leaves and cutting the tomatoes into chunks, tearing off vegetable leaves from the lettuce, washing them, and placing them on the plate.
Then, to the trio’s astonishment, she cracked eggs into the hot oil pan. The transparent egg mixture gradually turned snow-white, emitting a toasty scent in the hot oil.
After sprinkling a small spoonful of salt, she flipped it and fried for a bit more. Thinking that modern people had eaten “fresh food” for so long, they should easily accept medium-rare fried eggs, so she didn’t fry the second side for long before taking it out. After frying three eggs continuously, she tossed them to the kitchen AI and dashed back to the restaurant to eat.
By the time Mr. and Mrs. Xiang Weiguo started breakfast, it was already half an hour after they came downstairs. This was no problem, as their anti-gravity vehicle could travel on the topmost moving layer, reaching their workplaces in just 5 minutes, so they could now enjoy breakfast leisurely.
Lin Minzhi followed her daughter’s example, placing a lettuce vegetable leaf on the pancake, stacking on raw tomato, chicken breast, and fried egg, folding the pancake, and taking a big bite. The fresh sweetness of lettuce and tomato, the salty fragrance of chicken breast, and the softness of fried egg entered her mouth together, chewed with the crumbly flaky pancake, bringing a satisfaction different from yesterday’s dough drops.
The attentive Xiang Qi had the kitchen AI prepare juice and hot milk, making Xiang Chuan shrink her neck involuntarily. No way around it—who let her multitask earlier? Without something to drink, this yeastless rice flour cake was indeed a bit dry going down.
Of course, this was only for Xiang Chuan.
The rice flour cake directly opened a new door for the three of them. If yesterday’s yam cake was dense, this rice flour cake could only be described as fluffy. One bite was full of sweet fragrance.
After two pancakes, the couple was still not fully satisfied. They simultaneously turned their gazes to the only empty seat at the dining table, exchanged a look, and reached a consensus.
Around nine-thirty, Xiang Xue, elegantly dressed and coming downstairs, sat at the dining table. Seeing a row of unfamiliar items listed on today’s meal menu, she knew her sister had made something delicious again. She called the kitchen AI to serve quickly, only to find the serving plate in front of her wouldn’t open.
“Kitchen AI, why aren’t you serving the meal yet!”
Xiang Xue said puzzled.
[Beep—Miss Xiang Xue, your hand grab cake and rice flour cake have been prioritized to the master and madam. The kitchen is currently re-proofing the dough.]
“…………..Huh?”
Xiang Xue was dumbfounded.
Why were Dad and Mom competing with her for food?
