Chapter 36: Caramel Pudding
Xiang Chuan, who was rummaging through the kitchen, did not notice that her terminal had just received an email with an attached document. Now she was holding all the bowls in the kitchen and comparing their sizes, picking and choosing for a long time, and finally found a set of small bowls from a gift box in the corner, each with a diameter only as big as her palm.
“Little Chef, this set of tableware isn’t anything expensive, right?”
Xiang Chuan looked at the gift box that had some dust but exquisite packaging, and asked somewhat timidly and uneasily. This couldn’t be something expensive, could it?
[Beep—This is an ornament tableware set gifted by the cooperative tableware manufacturer of Yue Xiang Group. Since Young Master Xiang Qi, you, and Miss Xiang Xue are not interested in bowl and plate ornaments, the servant put it in the cabinet.]
“Who would send small bowl tableware as an ornament… But it’s perfect right now.”
After tidying up, there were about twenty small porcelain bowls, not too many or too few, just about right.
“Little Chef, prepare milk, eggs, oil, and sugar for me.”
She put a spoonful of oil into the small bowl. This should actually be done by wiping a layer with oil absorbing paper or something similar, but modern people who clearly don’t care much about oil are without such kitchen supplies, so Xiang Chuan could only use the most ancient method—drawing a circle by shaking the oil in the bowl to let the oil adhere to the bowl as much as possible. Once one bowl was done, she moved to the next.
Xiang Chuan: I’m such a genius.
Until she handed this task to the kitchen AI and saw the kitchen AI take out a soft gelatinous substance, pour oil from the oil pot onto it, then wipe it into the small bowl, with the oil precisely conforming to the porcelain bowl.
Oil absorbing gel, a modern kitchenware used to absorb oil from liquid food.
Do modern people play it this fancy!
Xiang Chuan reminded herself again: Next time, before starting operations, be sure to check what convenient props the kitchen AI has.
After repeatedly confirming that this oil absorbing gel was brand new and not the old thing usually used to absorb oil from unidentified objects like fresh fish noodle soup, Xiang Chuan finally felt a bit relieved and proceeded to the next step.
Take half of the milk and stew it over the fire, add half the amount of sugar, instruct the kitchen AI to slowly stir until the milk boils and the sugar melts. Then she took another small pot, put in sugar and a small amount of water, placed the pot on the heating plate in low-temperature mode, gradually melting the sugar into golden caramel. When preparing to pour it into the small bowls, she suddenly paused: What if the caramel liquid isn’t poured evenly?
So she simply handed it over to the kitchen AI. For work requiring precise distribution of liquid, handing it to artificial intelligence that can perform fine calculations is always right.
Xiang Chuan took a normal-sized bowl, cracked an egg into it and beat it evenly, then prepared to strain it after adding cold and hot milk… Wait, is there a sieve here?
“Little Chef, do you have any tools here that can filter liquid?”
[Beep—Miss Xiang Chuan, please use this.]
A steel arm extended from the ceiling, and the “wrist” of the steel arm unfolded in three layers of funnel shapes, with each layer’s mesh from coarse to fine, and by the third layer, the mesh holes were invisible to the naked eye.
“Uh… Up to the second layer is fine, no need for the third layer.”
Xiang Chuan looked at the third layer with a frosted texture, thinking that putting the egg milk mixture in her hand through it would filter out all the egg mixture part.
[Beep—Understood.]
She tried pouring the egg milk mixture through it. After two layers of filtration, the originally viscous egg milk mixture instantly became silky smooth. Pouring the filtered egg milk mixture into the small porcelain bowls, the slightly cooled caramel liquid did not mix with the egg milk mixture, which slightly reassured Xiang Chuan. If they mixed together, she could only pretend she was making caramel-flavored pudding instead of pudding with caramel.
“Little Chef, repeat the steps I just did, keeping the ratio of egg mixture to hot milk and cold milk at one to one to one.”
[Beep—Understood.]
Just as Xiang Chuan was thinking “This pudding is so easy to make,” she picked up the large pot to steam the pudding and discovered—no! Steamer!
She froze for a moment and began recalling all the dishes she had made in the past week: Right! She seemed to have never used a steamer, only deep frying, pan-frying, stir-frying, and boiling!
What to do? Use a taller soup bowl upside down and place the small porcelain bowls with pudding on top?
No, that way the steam would definitely push the porcelain bowls upward, and the pudding would surely be knocked over. Xiang Chuan concluded using her remaining junior high school knowledge.
Or put the large bowl on the water surface and place the small porcelain bowl inside the large bowl?
That way, although the pudding wouldn’t be knocked over, the boiling hot water and condensed steam couldn’t be guaranteed not to drip into the bowl.
She looked at the various tableware in the cabinet, her face entangled.
Ah—if there was an oven, it wouldn’t be so troublesome. Just put this egg milk mixture in the oven, and not only pudding, but even egg tarts could be made. Xiang Chuan complained in her heart, wishing she could rush to the living room right now and say she really wanted an oven, begging Father to make one for her.
Fortunately, this thought only survived in her mind for less than five seconds, because Xiang Chuan remembered a small ornament in the dining hall—the steel frame!
“Little Chef, do you have strength?”
Xiang Chuan looked up and asked.
[Beep—Miss Xiang Chuan, our maximum output is limited by the equipment, we have no physical body ourselves…]
“Stop, stop, I don’t want to hear your explanation of the principle.” Xiang Chuan broke out in a sweat and quickly stopped it, thinking that communicating with AI really requires precise wording. “What is the maximum output of the equipment you are currently using? Can you pick up that—”
Xiang Chuan pointed at the two palm-sized steel frame ornaments on the counter by the wall in the dining hall.
“Can you use your equipment to modify it according to my idea… Not turning it into a machine or anything, just changing the shape.”
[Beep—Understood.]
Two mechanical arms extended from the ceiling again, this time real mechanical arms with human-like palms and finger joints. It flexibly opened its hands and then clenched into fists, flexing repeatedly, looking like it could smash the cabinet in front of it that could bear fifty tons.
Seeing this pair of arms, Xiang Chuan was delighted: Success!
When Xiang Chuan entered the entertainment room with the servant carrying the tray, the large screen was playing episode 13 of Empresses in the Palace, the encounter between Zhen Huan and Prince Guo. The young man and woman clearly had romantic undertones in their chance meeting, making the three females—one adult and two young—on the sofa hold their breath, and they deflated after seeing Zhen Huan coldly reject Prince Guo.
“Sigh, it would be so great if Zhen Huan could like Prince Guo. He’s much better looking than that old emperor.”
Xiang Xue hugged the starfish pillow on the sofa and complained dissatisfiedly. Chou Manman, sitting beside her avoiding the camera, and the young people in the live stream room all agreed with her words.
“You can’t say that. Zhen Huan is the emperor’s wife. If she were with another man, it would be betraying the marriage.”
Lin Minzhi patiently explained. Although she was very interested in the subtle hints between Zhen Huan and Prince Guo, she still needed to properly explain some common sense to her daughter who was in junior high school.
Otherwise, after graduating from university and getting married, if she caused some affair, it wouldn’t be good for her daughter’s future work.
“Of course I know that, but this TV drama is fictional, right? Since it’s fictional, assuming Zhen Huan and Prince Guo are together is fine too.” Xiang Xue explained, “And I don’t like that emperor. He has so many wives and only pays attention to Zhen Huan on a whim, unlike Prince Guo, who seems to have only Zhen Huan in his heart.”
Listening to the three’s discussion, Xiang Chuan couldn’t help but laugh: Sure enough, relationships with taboo elements are the most topical.
She had already discussed everything about Empresses in the Palace with netizens on forums like WB in her previous life, so she had no desire to discuss it now, and directly shouted: “Dim sum is ready!”
Instantly, the three and the live stream room’s attention were all brought back to reality.
