Chapter 58: Seafood Mutton Soup
The two newly dug out stone pots had already been soaking water on the side for more than an hour. Su Ran scooped out the two clumps of grass inside and took a look. There were no changes on the grass leaves.
But she was still a bit uneasy.
After pouring out all the water in the stone pots, she cut a piece of the remaining white-headed sheep mutton and rubbed it inside the two pots. After seeing that the meat piece showed no signs of blackening or corrosion at all, she finally felt completely relieved.
Su Ran was still a bit annoyed. Why hadn’t she thought of cleaning the two stone pots with green soap fruit pits before!
She used the green soap fruit pits to carefully clean the two pots again, then hung the two pots and their lids one by one over the campfire to dry the moisture inside.
Afterward, she sprinkled a layer of salt powder at the bottom of the stone pot, which would better preserve the mutton fat.
After doing this, she began to scoop the rendered mutton fat into the stone pots bit by bit using a wooden spoon.
This batch of mutton fat filled one and a half stone pots.
There was still some left at the bottom of the pot that was hard to scoop out. Su Ran planned to use it directly to make soup to drink.
The rendered greaves filled more than half a wooden basin. Su Ran sprinkled some salt powder on top, shook the wooden basin a bit to let the salt powder coat the greaves evenly.
Then she scooped a bowl and handed it to Gray who was watching eagerly from the side, and casually took one herself and popped it into her mouth.
“Crunch crunch…”
The greaves sprinkled with salt powder tasted even more fragrant. Su Ran nodded in satisfaction and set the remaining basin of greaves aside to cool.
Then she began preparing the ingredients for the soup.
After cutting the kelp into shreds and blanching them first, she cut the scallop meat in half, and only added a small crab, also cut in half.
Then she first stir-fried the white-headed sheep mutton in the pot, added the scallop meat and crab to stir-fry together, and when the aroma burst out, added the prepared kelp shreds and water to simmer.
On the other campfire, the several strings of roast meat were almost done. Su Ran took them down and placed them on the sweet leaf vein tree leaves spread on the ground.
She suddenly thought she should make a table.
It didn’t need to be too high, just a low table she could use while sitting on the ground. Otherwise, using sweet leaf vein tree leaves every day was uncomfortable in height and wasteful.
After about ten minutes, the aroma of kelp began wafting continuously from the stone pot. Su Ran gently stirred it with a wooden spoon, then set the spoon down and slowly waited for the soup to simmer.
Then she went and chopped a large bundle of willow branches and came back, sitting to the side weaving things.
This time she wanted to weave a backpack with straps that could be carried on the back.
This way, every time she went out, she could directly wear the backpack on her back, then let Gray hold her while flying, saving the need to hold a basket with one hand in mid-air, which was also unsafe.
When the backpack was half-woven, the fresh aroma of the soup in the stone pot grew even more intense.
Even Gray, who had been sneaking around eating greaves on the side, couldn’t resist giving up the greaves and quietly sat next to Su Ran, staring at the soup in the pot with drooling anticipation.
It pointed at the bubbling soup in the pot and asked Su Ran questioningly: “Ran Ran, what’s this, ao wu?”
Great, it had already learned to use the phrase “what’s this”!
Su Ran raised an eyebrow and smiled.
She pointed at the seafood mutton soup in the pot, which was already slightly milky white, and said: “This is seafood mutton soup.”
“Seafood, sheep, mutton soup?”
“Mm.”
Su Ran nodded, thought for a moment, and gathered the leftover scallop shells, crab shells, and oyster shells together.
She picked them up one by one to show the werewolf: “This is scallop.”
“This is oyster.”
“This is crab.”
After Gray repeated them all once, she gathered these things together, drew a circle around the pile with a branch, and pointed at the pile of shells inside: “These are called seafood.”
“Ao wu~~”
After hearing her say that, Gray tilted its head, stared fixedly at the pile of seafood shells in front of it for a moment, then reached out to pick up a scallop shell, then a crab shell, put the two things together, and looked at Su Ran: “Sea-seafood?”
“Right.”
Su Ran used a branch to push the pile of seafood shells together, then pointed at the pile of shells: “When these are put together, they’re called seafood, okay~”
“Wu~~”
The werewolf pondered with lowered eyes, still seeming not to fully understand Su Ran’s explanation.
Su Ran didn’t continue explaining to it.
The beastmen’s learning ability was already faster than she had expected.
So language teaching wasn’t urgent at this moment. For now, it was fine if the werewolf could first distinguish the different names for each thing.
The seafood soup finally took on a slightly pinkish-white color. It was unclear whether it was because cold water was used instead of hot when making the soup, or because of the ingredients in this world.
But the fresh aroma of the soup wafted out as it was ladled into bowls, tempting people so much that they had no mind for anything else and just wanted to fill their bellies first.
Su Ran first ladled two full bowls of soup, one for Gray, one for herself.
She couldn’t help blowing on the edge of her bowl a few times before taking a sip herself.
The hot soup was still a bit scalding going in, but it was this heat that brought out the rich seafood aroma in the soup.
After one sip of the fresh soup, though it had mutton fat in it, it didn’t feel greasy at all, but rather smooth and delicate. The aftertaste carried the fresh, crisp kelp flavor, which suppressed any hint of greasiness that might emerge.
And as the soup slid down the throat into the stomach, it made the belly feel warm and cozy, surging up a great sense of satisfaction from the bottom of the heart.
Even Su Ran couldn’t help sighing after drinking one sip.
As for the werewolf on the side, there was even less need to say.
While Su Ran could still maintain her poise and savor it slowly, it had already gulped down half a large bowl of soup, scaring Su Ran into forgetting her own stomach’s satisfaction and hurriedly pulling it back.
She knew that in the world where she used to live, many patients with throat diseases had gotten sick precisely because they loved drinking freshly boiled piping hot soup straight from the pot.
She absolutely couldn’t let the werewolf develop this habit!
“Wu? Ran Ran?”
Gray was also startled by Su Ran’s sudden action!
It stopped drinking the soup, looked at Su Ran for a few seconds, then hesitantly offered the remaining half bowl of soup in its hand toward Su Ran.
In the motion, its gaze followed the half bowl of soup in its hand, full of reluctance.
It made Su Ran both amused and touched.
She lifted the bowl in its hand but didn’t take it, instead deliberately holding Gray’s hand and slowly blowing on its half bowl of soup.
Sure enough, from the corner of her eye, she saw the werewolf involuntarily lick its lips, its face full of longing.
She finally couldn’t help laughing out loud, reached out and ruffled the werewolf’s ears messily, messing up that head of light brown hair before stopping.
“Just teasing you, this bowl is yours!”
