Chapter 3: Tomato Egg Dough Drops
Despite having a sense of crisis, Xiang Chuan’s stomach was still twitching from hunger right now. After just vomiting, she was even hungrier now. The most urgent thing right now was to quickly fill her stomach.
She “thought about it” and opened the nearby refrigerator and cabinet. She looked at the shriveled green vegetables in the refrigerator, then decisively reached for the eggs, tomatoes, and flour in the cabinet. She rummaged through everything and finally found a smooth steel plate that could barely be used as a cutting board. Since there was no sieve, Xiang Chuan casually found a bowl and scooped out more than half a bowl of flour. She grabbed a handful hard in her hand. To her relief, when she opened her hand, the dough was in a semi-loose state, meaning it was all-purpose flour. If it had been low-gluten flour, she would have had to figure out how to make baked or fried noodles without an oven.
But when she had cut the tomatoes—whose skins had been blanched off with boiling water—and beaten the eggs with the machine, Xiang Chuan suddenly thought of a problem: What about seasoning? The memories in her mind had no information about seasonings either. She really didn’t care about eating issues in this world!
Xiang Chuan turned her head and asked, “Brother Xiang Qi, does our home have any seasonings?”
“Huh?” Xiang Qi suddenly came back to his senses. He had been stunned watching Xiang Chuan’s series of actions just now. “The seasonings are all procured by the kitchen AI. I’m not too clear on what’s available either… Why don’t you ask? AI!”
[Beep—Good morning, Young Master Xiang Qi, Miss Xiang Chuan, Miss Xiang Xue]
So that’s how you call the AI. Xiang Chuan silently noted it in her mind. There was no information about the AI in her “memories.” She really had no interest in these things in this world.
“Kitchen AI, what seasonings are here? Also, where is the stove for heating pots?”
[Beep—Currently, the ingredient warehouse stores a total of 5 kinds of seasonings, which include all seasonings sold in the market, including salt, sugar, vinegar, chili powder, and animal oil. Food can be processed by this machine.]
“Bring me one portion each of salt, sugar, vinegar, and oil. I want to cook it myself. Just answer yes or no.”
[Beep—The black platform two slots to the right of the sink can heat vessels. Operation can be manual or handled by this machine. Salt and animal oil have been sent to the storage cabinet on the left side of the refrigerator.]
“Okay… Oh right, does the warehouse have garlic?”
[Beep—Current garlic stock in the warehouse is 20 kilograms.]
“Give me two cloves… Never mind, just give me one pound.”
[Beep—Sent to the refrigerator chilling layer.]
So in this era, garlic is considered a vegetable rather than a seasoning? Xiang Chuan silently complained in her mind while taking the garlic out of the refrigerator. Then, according to her “memories,” she peeled it and put it into the food processor to stir into minced garlic.
After she took out the two porcelain jars from the cabinet—one each for salt and sugar—and then took out two bottles about the same height as the 1-liter soy sauce bottles from her original world, one for oil and one for vinegar, the preparation work was finally complete.
Xiang Chuan placed a round pot on the heating platform, heated it, added oil and minced garlic. The fumes from heating and stir-frying triggered the kitchen AI to automatically activate ventilation mode to suck away the fumes. At the same time, the aroma of the stir-fried minced garlic made Xiang Qi and Xiang Xue widen their eyes.
So fragrant. Even more fragrant than freshly baked multigrain cookies.
Both thought so simultaneously, instinctively wanting to get closer. Xiang Chuan saw this and quickly stopped them.
“Be careful not to get splattered by oil.”
Watching the two reluctantly step back, Xiang Chuan felt embarrassed. She was used to cooking in her original world, so she didn’t mind, but her brother and sister in this world looked like they didn’t touch worldly smoke and fire. She didn’t know how much it would hurt if they got splattered by oil.
With that, she added tomatoes, salt, sugar, and vinegar—Thank goodness it was white vinegar. She had been worried before picking up the bottle that it might be aged vinegar.
Stir-frying the amount from eight large tomatoes was still quite tiring. After the tomatoes and seasonings were stir-fried into a paste, Xiang Chuan poured in four large bowls of clean water and began stewing—she liked it thicker. After the soup boiled, she turned to medium heat, covered with the pot lid, and stewed it. Next, she would start preparing the staple food part.
She found a large food basin from the cabinet. Xiang Chuan scooped several more bowls of flour from the flour box in the cabinet. After turning the faucet on and off several times, she discovered that the faucets now dispensed water according to set programs. So she simply scooped a bowl of clean water herself, dripped it into the flour drop by drop with her left hand, and stirred the dough into dough drops with chopsticks in her right hand (Xiang Chuan: Thank goodness there are still chopsticks to use now). After pouring in three bowls of clean water, all the flour in the basin was finally mixed into drops. Now she understood why the noodle shop owner next door in her hometown was unwilling to make dough drops—it was really tiring work. She shook her somewhat sore shoulders and thought.
Looking at the basin of irregularly shaped flour drops that looked like muddy soil that Xiang Chuan had made, the brother and sister both frowned involuntarily. They hesitated in their hearts about whether to speak up first and ask her to serve some soup, since both were now drooling from the sour-sweet tomato aroma in the air.
Xiang Chuan washed the flour off her hands, lifted the pot lid. The tomato soup aroma, which already made one’s mouth water, now assailed the nostrils. Xiang Qi and Xiang Xue felt like they just wanted to enjoy a big bowl.
Xiang Chuan held the food basin with the stirred dough drops and added them bit by bit into the soup pot. The originally orange-yellow tomato soup now became red and white interspersed. It wasn’t as scary as the two had imagined; instead, it looked uniquely flavorful.
“Xiao Xue… Never mind, Brother Xiang Qi, come help me with something.”
Xiang Chuan called.
“Can I come over now?”
Xiang Qi approached cautiously.
Xiang Chuan felt embarrassed: “The soup is boiling now, no need to worry about oil splattering. Go get that pair of chopsticks over there and stir these dough drops to break them up so they don’t stick together.”
Xiang Qi had the kitchen AI bring him a pair of chopsticks. He carefully stirred in the soup. The steam carrying the tomato aroma hitting his palms and the backs of his hands felt particularly novel.
In no time, all the dough drops from the food basin in Xiang Chuan’s arms were added to the pot. The volume of the soup visibly increased by more than a third, but it wasn’t done yet. Xiang Chuan had Xiang Qi step back, then took the beaten egg mixture and drizzled it little by little along the edges of the soup, stirring with the ladle as she went. Thinking that the two behind her were eating it for the first time, she cooked it a bit longer to ensure the egg mixture was mostly cooked through before turning off the heat.
“Alright, Brother Xiang Qi, Xiao Xue, bring over some bowls. Time to eat.”
Xiang Chuan stretched lazily. Although the dough drops were simple to make, finding the kitchenware and ingredients had taken her a while.
“No need for bowls,” Xiang Xue blinked her big eyes. “Just have the kitchen AI send it over with the machine.”
“Oh, right?” Xiang Chuan laughed it off. That really was something she hadn’t “remembered.” Come to think of it, she lived a life of luxury in this world—how could she possibly cook herself? “By the way, kitchen AI, does the warehouse have pepper? Best if it’s ground into powder.”
“Huh? Isn’t pepper medicine? Are you not feeling well?”
Xiang Qi looked at her strangely.
“Huh? Is it medicine?”
Xiang Chuan widened her eyes. Wasn’t using pepper medicinally a medieval practice from her original world? How did it become a time reversal in this high-tech world?
“Yeah, you should have learned that in biology class, right? But it’s not some precious medicinal material after all—it’s easy to grow, so it’s not very well-known, but it’s often used in health supplements. It’s one of the rarer low-end medicinal materials.”
“Oh… oh…” Xiang Chuan’s brain was short-circuiting from hunger. She only cared now: “So, does our home have pepper?”
“There should be quite a bit stocked. You and Xiao Xue hate taking medicine, so when you have a fever or stomachache, Dad and Mom always have the kitchen AI mix some pepper into the dishes to make you eat it.”
“As long as we have it, where is it? I’ll go get it.”
“No need to go to the trouble.” Xiang Qi opened his terminal and operated it simply. “I’ve already had the servant send it over. Alright, let’s go eat first.”
With that, he walked quickly toward the dining table at a speed two or three times faster than usual. Xiang Xue next to him couldn’t help covering her mouth and laughing.
While they were talking about pepper, the kitchen AI was operating a robotic arm extending from the ceiling to place the pot full of dough drops onto an instrument that looked like a small coffee table with four legs. The small coffee table retracted its limbs, floated into the air, and slowly carried the pot above the dining table. It extended two front arms to lift the pot of fresh fish noodle soup in front of the three people. The platform below the pot slowly rose, then it used its hind limbs to place the dough drop pot onto the platform. The platform sensed the weight, sank a bit more, and automatically adjusted the height.
When Xiang Chuan came over from the kitchen, she conveniently grabbed three new bowls and handed two to Xiang Qi and Xiang Xue. Then she decisively had the machine clear away the bowl full of fresh fish noodle soup on the table. Even though it smelled bland, just seeing that grayish thing made her recall the fishy stench that went straight to her brain. It was too unappetizing.
Xiang Qi and Xiang Xue hesitated for a moment, then set their fresh fish noodle soup aside for now. With expectation and nervousness, they each served a full bowl of dough drops.
Xiang Chuan scooped up a spoonful and tasted it. The sour-sweet soup and rich tomato flavor washed away the unpleasantness from the earlier fishy food. The dough drops were soaked full of soup, and one bite brought great satisfaction.
Seeing Xiang Chuan’s enjoying expression, the two next to her finally couldn’t hold back. Xiang Qi carefully put a spoonful of dough drops into his mouth, while Xiang Xue first scooped a spoonful of soup. The brand-new flavor stimulated their taste buds, instantly making them forget the fresh fish noodle soup next to them as they spooned the dough drops into their mouths one after another.
[Beep—Miss Xiang Chuan, your requested item has been delivered.]
Xiang Chuan turned her head and saw a life-sized starfish-like thing, red on the left and blue on the right… It should be called a starfish-like object. Its surface wasn’t as bumpy as a real starfish but had a shiny, waxed rubber texture. It held an iron box about the size of a lunchbox in its hand. Though startled at first sight, Xiang Chuan immediately “recalled” that this was their family’s servant, a bionic robot with a starfish exterior.
She opened the iron box, and it was full of pepper. Xiang Chuan quickly held her breath—sneezing now would be disastrous; she hadn’t finished her breakfast yet. She used chopsticks to pick out a small pinch of pepper, then called the kitchen AI and instructed it to grind the pepper in the box into powder and divide it into several seasoning jars.
Xiang Chuan put the small pinch of pepper from her chopsticks onto a plate, then crushed two peppercorns with her fingers, sprinkled them into the dough drops, stirred with a spoon, and took a spoonful into her mouth.
Now it’s gradually getting that flavor. Xiang Chuan thought enjoyably.
Xiang Qi and Xiang Xue also took two peppercorns, imitated her by crushing them and sprinkling them into the soup, then carefully tasted it. They discovered that the spiciness of the crushed pepper added a unique aroma to the soup, and their hands couldn’t stop.
In the end, the last drop of soup in the bowls was completely finished off by the three.
This is what people should eat. Xiang Chuan leaned back in the chair, contentedly patted her slightly full little belly.
The cooking method was looked up on Gourmet World~
