Cooking Swordmaster [EN]: Chapter 44

‘Today’s menu is gazpacho, baguette, and flambéed lobster.’

The cold vegetable soup, gazpacho, was a perfect match for the baguette. It was full of tomatoes, leaving you feeling refreshed after eating it.

First, Cainchel checked the state of the dough made with levain [a type of sourdough starter].

The dough, which had been in the fermentation room for 3 hours, had risen almost 1.5 times its original size.

And it smelled sour, like well-fermented yogurt.

‘As expected of Galia’s best levain. It’s the first time I’ve seen dough that looks delicious just by looking at it.’

First, he gently degassed it and then began shaping it.

He had to pay close attention to the width, length, and weight.

The taste of a baguette changes depending on the size, as the distribution of the crust and the inside varies.

This time, he made it in a relatively small shape since it would be eaten with soup.

‘Is this what they call a ficelle [a thin baguette]?’

After shaping the dough, he placed it in a baguette mold and made diagonal cuts.

Now, all that was left was to let it undergo a second fermentation at room temperature for about an hour, then put it in a preheated oven to bake.

Was it because his baking level had reached 5 stars?

The entire process of making bread flowed as smoothly as water.

Everything done in the kitchen must proceed continuously.

Cainchel turned around and began preparing the lobster.

The stats gained from eating food weren’t only useful for swordsmanship.

The nearly 40-point increase in agility further increased the speed of cooking.

Now, he wouldn’t feel tired even if he held a kitchen knife all day.

Before he knew it, five lobsters with neatly removed meat were prepared on the counter.

A sight so clean that Ainchel would have screamed.

Cainchel lightly blanched the lobsters as he had learned from Gordon. He planned to make flambéed lobster steak with this.

First, he added olive oil to a heated pan. Then, he added a few cloves of garlic to infuse the oil with flavor.

‘Then, add butter and melt it, then add the lobster….’

With a sizzle, the savory aroma of butter and the spicy scent of garlic spread simultaneously.

Because only the meat had been removed, it cooked quickly. After flipping it once, he covered it with a lid. Now it was time to make the flambé sauce.

A sauce that used the aroma of alcohol by burning off its alcoholic content with high heat.

This time, he would use a spirit made in the Cognac region of Galia.

The cheapest ingredient with the most luxurious sauce.

With this, his feelings would surely be conveyed to Abel.

First, he placed the pan on the stove with the heat turned up to the maximum.

He added a little butter, then added mushrooms and minced garlic. He then threw in chopped green onions.

He lightly stir-fried it until the spicy scent of the green onions permeated the mushrooms.

Then, he poured in plenty of the finest cognac [a type of brandy]. An expensive one that cost a whopping 1 gold per bottle.

Whoosh!

Flames soared from the pan in an instant.

‘Rookie chefs often burn their hair when they’re surprised by the rising flames. Good thing I don’t have to worry about that.’

But it wasn’t over yet.

He had to cook it once more so that the flavor of the sauce would completely permeate the lobster.

He dropped the lobster, which had been half-cooked in another pan, into the sauce that was still ablaze.

Then, he added broth and a little cream to finish cooking the lobster.

‘If I keep pouring the sauce over the lobster to coat it…!’

That’s how the flambéed lobster steak was completed.

Cainchel took the remaining flambé sauce on the plate and drew a line. On top of it, he placed the lobster meat, which was infused with the rich cognac and the scent of mountain herbs.

Finally, it was time for the lobster shell, which had been smoothed with olive oil.

He decorated it to pay attention to the plating.

Then, Joma Gyeong informed him of the completed dish’s rating.

[5-star dish ‘Flambéed Lobster Steak’ has been completed.]

That wasn’t the end of it.

[5-star dish ‘Yogurt-Infused Baguette’ has been completed.]

[5-star dish ‘Gazpacho to Banish the Blues’ has been completed.]

All the courses were 5-star.

‘I, this is a first….’

Until now, he had to put his heart and soul into it to barely make a 5-star dish.

To improve his swordsmanship, he had to make high-grade dishes.

And dishes of 5 stars or higher contained the power to undo the curse of the Seven Deadly Sins.

But this time, he didn’t cook for that reason.

‘I just wanted Abel to enjoy it….’

But he never expected such an amazing result to come out.

A dish made for a single friend.

A heart placed on a plate.

A smile appeared on Cainchel’s face.

He was sure that Abel would recognize the feelings contained in this dish.

@

“Ugh, I thought I was going to starve to death waiting.”

Abel, who was sitting at the table, tapped his feet. When asked, he said he had been waiting without even eating breakfast.

“Looks like you were looking forward to it.”

“Well…. You said it was a dish for me, so you must have made something better than the buttered potatoes or wild duck I had last time, right? If you bring out something weird, I’m going to give you an angry headlock.”

Cainchel chuckled and first placed the plates of baguette and gazpacho on the table.

“You can lightly fill your stomach before eating the main course.”

“It’s just tomato soup and bread. Isn’t it too ordinary for something you said so confidently?”

The wild duck was a literally unconventional dish that had never existed before. After eating that, the gazpacho and baguette seemed like nothing special.

But it’s much harder to make ordinary dishes delicious.

‘Just like Chicken Soup for the Soul [a series of books featuring inspirational stories].’

Abel puffed out his cheeks a few times and picked up a spoon. First, he cut the baguette into small pieces and brought it to his mouth.

Then, he exclaimed without realizing it.

“Uh… Is this really a baguette?”

“Yeah. It’s a little different from the baguettes you’ve had so far, right?”

“Haa…. It’s natural for freshly baked bread to be delicious, but…. This feels different. The outside is crispy, and the inside is chewy, and it has a sour taste. It’s almost like I’m eating it with yogurt.”

That was the characteristic of bread made with levain.

When he said that he had obtained natural yeast from far away in Galia to make this, Abel’s eyes widened.

“You went all the way to get ingredients for me?”

Of course, that also included the reason for Prelia.

Upgrading the honey butter sandwich would allow her to stay awake longer than now.

But he decided not to say that.

He had a feeling that something big might happen if he did.

“Oh, it’s a bread that goes well with gazpacho, so try eating it together.”

“Okay.”

Gazpacho is a cold vegetable soup. The main ingredient is a large amount of tomatoes. A dish with a refreshing and cool taste.

‘The dish is even named Gazpacho to Banish the Blues, right? Abel will definitely like it.’

When he took a bite of the gazpacho and put it in his mouth, a happy smile appeared on his face.

“Haa…. I was feeling strangely annoyed until just now…. It feels like it’s all gone in one shot. It’s so delicious?”

Dipping the baguette in the soup was also a delicacy.

Abel quickly emptied the large baguette and gazpacho and shouted.

“Then let’s eat the main course! If the appetizer is this good, the main course must be amazing, right?”

“You bet!”

“When did you start using that old joke?”

Cainchel held out the lobster dish on a plate.

Abel’s expression stiffened when he saw it.

“….It’s boiled lobster.”

“I tried cooking it in the way that’s usually eaten in Britannia. I wanted you to taste it a little before eating the main course.”

“….Ugh, okay. I just have to taste it, right?”

Why did he have to eat this thing that looked unappetizing before eating the main course?

Abel picked up the boiled lobster with a fork and brought it to his mouth.

The meat was overcooked and spongy, and it didn’t taste like anything.

“Then now for this dish….”

“Well, it’s not bad. It would be much better if you added a little more salt.”

While Cainchel went to get another plate, Abel continued to eat the boiled lobster.

Cainchel, surprised, waved his hand.

“You only need to eat one bite! This is the real main course!”

“What, is that so? I thought something was strange. But I can eat anything you make for me.”

“….”

Cainchel, embarrassed, cleared his throat. And he held out the real main course, flambéed lobster steak.

“It’s a dish made with the same ingredients as what you ate just now.”

Abel’s eyes widened. This was a dish made with the same ingredients as what he had just eaten?

Even the aroma was different.

When he lifted the shell, the meat, cut into easy-to-eat sizes, was revealed. The fragrant mushrooms and spicy green onions made his mouth water just by looking at them.

“Is this the lobster that’s famous for being tasteless?”

Abel’s expression was filled with both anticipation and doubt. But if it was a dish made by Cainchel, he could eat even boiled lobster deliciously.

But if it was a dish that smelled this delicious, he would welcome it anytime.

He grabbed a fork and picked up the lobster meat. But even the texture was different.

“Then, here we go….”

When he bit into it, he tasted a completely different flavor from the boiled lobster, which was only mushy.

The lobster, which was so bouncy that the fork bounced off, had a rich flavor that was hard to believe it was lobster.

A unbelievably rich taste.

The lobster, which was filled with the flavor of flambé sauce and various herbs, was so delicious that he couldn’t even exclaim.

The hand holding the fork moved at an incredible speed.

It was as if three blades had been activated.

Abel moved the flambéed lobster steak to his mouth with a flushed expression.

Even while eating, he wanted to eat more and more. He couldn’t stop his hands.

What, this amazing taste!

“Haa….”

Eventually, Abel’s fork stopped only after he had eaten all the sauce on the shell that had been placed for plating.

“….I was really surprised. I didn’t know lobster was such a delicious food.”

“It’s just that the cooking method was changed, and it tastes completely different, right? The same goes for baguette and gazpacho. To make that dish, I went through three processes of blanching, grilling, and searing the lobster.”

Then Abel made a blank expression.

It was the first time he had heard that so much effort went into making one dish.

“The same goes for baguette. You can’t get that taste by fermenting it all at once using yeast. You have to use levain to slowly inflate it to get that yogurt-like sour taste.”

“….”

“And lobster is the cheapest ingredient, but the sauce that went into it was full of very expensive cognac. That’s why it was able to produce such a rich taste.”

Abel realized what Cainchel was trying to say.

He felt so grateful that he was about to cry.

Abel, who put his hand on his chest, conveyed his sincerity with stammering words.

“….No matter how much I trained, my stamina didn’t increase. The growth of beginner swordsmanship also stopped at 7 stars…. So…. I thought I couldn’t bring out all the abilities of the Carter’s family swordsmanship with my abilities…. As my father and brother said, I’m not fit to be a knight…. But I realized it after eating the food Cainchel made. No matter how expensive and luxurious the sauce is, it can’t be the main thing. And the reason why lobster was tasteless was just because the cooking method was bad…. And the fact that it can change so deliciously by changing that….”

Cainchel slowly approached Abel. And he grabbed his shoulder and said.

“Abel. You can be this delicious too. You already have a lot. It’s just that the method was a little bad. …So don’t give up on your dream.”

Abel’s face turned red to his ears.

And he shouted.

“You idiot! You should say that when you propose to a woman!”

The moment he realized how embarrassing a line he had said, Cainchel screamed.

“Ugh, ugh! W, wait! Cancel what I just said! I must have been crazy from cooking since morning! How can men say such embarrassing things to each other!”

“….We’re not men.”

“Huh? What did you just say?”

“Never mind, give me another plate. You’re not thinking of ending it with just this, are you?”

Cainchel smiled.

As expected, he’s quick to notice.

In fact, he had cooked five of them. He’ll probably be able to eat until his stomach bursts.

Abel ate the food Cainchel made so deliciously.

And a miracle happened.

[You have succeeded in gaining the favor of the other person through cooking.]

[The will to move hearts has melted into the ‘Aura Sword’ skill.]

[Aura Sword: 2/3]

Cainchel hugged Abel’s small body without realizing it.

“Abel, thanks to you, I was able to get what I wanted so much. Thank you so much….”

Now there is only one slot left for the Aura Sword.

‘If I get the Aura Sword and become a Chevalier class [a rank of knight], I can become a free knight and leave the training center at any time!’

If he takes just one more step, he will be able to get what he wanted so much.

Cainchel put strength into the hand holding Joma Gyeong.

The Sword Knight he had wanted so much was now really close at hand.

Thud!

Even as he rolled on the floor after being punched by Abel, a sincere smile appeared on Cainchel’s face.

A Dish for a Friend #4