1176 The Aromatic Golden Leg of Lamb!
Roasted leg of lamb was a main course and a rather troublesome dish to prepare.
It could be served in a feast.
Bu Fang could actually choose to serve a roasted leg of lamb at the imperial feast in G.o.ddess City. However, he didn’t cook this dish because he didn’t have the ingredient.
Now, Lord Dog and the Immortal Tree had brought him the leg of a Great Saint. This was the time to test his cooking skills.
How to roast a leg of lamb was a serious question.
Bu Fang borrowed the War G.o.d Stick from Whitey, stabbed it through the leg, and stretched it out.
Of course, he couldn’t just roast it like this. The lamb roasted in this way would taste gamey and nothing else. Therefore, Bu Fang took out many ingredients.
There were many spirit ingredients and spirit herbs planted in his Heaven and Earth Farmland now, and the ingredients of some dishes were also specially cultivated, such as Scale Tail Scallion, Purple Garlic, and Son Mother Ginger.
Of course, there were many other ingredients too, which were made into common spices by Bu Fang.
Spices were the best things to use in a roasted dish like this. Not only could they cover the meat’s gamey taste, but they could also intensify and bring out the meat’s fragrance.
He peeled a bulb of Purple Garlic and chopped the cloves into tiny pieces.
Then, he poked many tiny holes in the leg and stuffed them with garlic. After that, he sprinkled powdered herbs all over its surface.
It was a marinating process. While sprinkling herbs, Bu Fang also used his true energy to infuse the flavor of the spices into the leg of lamb.
He precisely controlled the degree of infusion, making sure that the spices only infused sixty percent of the meat. He would finish the rest during the roasting process so that the flavor would pop when the cooking was done.
After sprinkling all the spices, Bu Fang took out a processed Exploding Flame Pepper, which was extremely dry and hot.
He removed all the seeds in the pepper and stuffed them into the tiny holes as well.
Now that the preparations were done, the next step was to begin roasting the lamb.
Whitey’s War G.o.d Stick was hot, but the temperature was not high enough, so Bu Fang measured its length and built a stove with a rack over it.
He placed the leg on the rack and threw the white flame into the stove.
BOOM!
In an instant, the immortal flame roared and burst with a high temperature.
There were a few vent holes in the stove, through which the immortal flames shot out and licked the lamb.
Although this leg of lamb was the flesh of a Great Saint, after being processed by Bu Fang, it had lost its unique strong defense, and its pressure of a Great Saint was almost gone. The remaining pressure, just a tiny bit of it, could actually improve the dish’s level.
In just a brief moment, the jets of scorching flames had changed the lamb’s color from pinkish-white to pinkish-red.
As the roasting progressed, grease began oozing out and dripping onto the stove, filling the air with sizzling noises.
Roasted leg of lamb was a delicacy that required time and patience to prepare, so it could not be cooked through in a short time.
A leg of lamb was large and thick, and the meat further inside was harder to cook. Therefore, what Bu Fang needed to do with this hard-to-cook lamb was to use his divine perception to monitor the doneness of the meat as it was being roasted.
Bu Fang clasped his hands behind his back and walked around the stove. He didn’t turn the leg and just let the flames roast one side.
The aroma of spices permeated the air, which was extremely fragrant.
He didn’t know much about spices, but he knew that they were made by drying and grinding many spirit herbs, which had the effect of stimulating one’s taste buds and adding texture and flavor to the ingredients.
Spices were crucial to roasted dishes, and roasted leg of lamb required a very important spice—rosemary.
It was different from rosemary on Earth.
Bu Fang learned from the system that the required rosemary was a top-grade immortal ingredient, which was made by drying and grinding the stalks of Rosemary Bone Flower.
Rosemary Bone Flower was highly toxic, but its stalks could be made into spices. When the outer layer of the stalk was removed, you would find a substance, which was the source of the flower’s scent.
The flower’s toxicity didn’t come from its scent but the petals. It used scent to attract people to touch it, and anyone who touched the petals would be killed by an odorless and colorless poisonous substance, which was powerful enough to kill a Nine-star True Immortal.
However, its scent was harmless.
Bu Fang produced a little white ceramic bottle and uncorked it. Immediately, a pungent aroma spread out of the bottle, and a hazy golden light seemed to drift out of it as well.
This was the required spice, rosemary.
It was really fragrant. Even Bu Fang couldn’t resist it, letting himself immerse in the aroma.
However, he was a chef after all, and his divine perception was very powerful. Soon, he managed to collect himself.
He held the bottle’s neck between his thumb and middle finger, tilted it slightly, and tapped it’s mouth lightly with his index finger.
The rosemary in the bottle jumped out and sprinkled onto the leg of lamb.
The spice had an attractive pale golden color, making the leg seem to cover in a layer of gold.
As the roasting continued, the sound of grease spitting grew louder and louder, and as the surface of the lamb turned golden, a meaty aroma began to spread.
It was a rich aroma. Perhaps because of the meat quality, it was so rich that one could hardly resist the urge to taste the meat at the first whiff of the aroma.
“It smells so delicious!” Bu Fang exclaimed.
The next part of the roasting process was a bit more complicated, so instead of completing it in the kitchen, he took the roasting rack out.
The bell chimed as Bu Fang lifted the curtain and walked out of the kitchen.
As he came out, the aroma of spices, rosemary, and the lamb immediately permeated the air, attracting everyone’s attention.
The people, who were reclining in their chairs to rest and relax, immediately straightened up.
Foxy couldn’t resist the aroma the moment she smelled it, and she leaped toward the leg of lamb in a beam of white light.
Bu Fang raised a hand and flicked his finger on her head, throwing her to the table. She rolled before sitting up with a confused look on her face.
After that, Bu Fang placed the roasting rack on the table and lightly turned the War G.o.d Stick. Slowly, the leg of lamb turned upside down.
Sizzle…
Pulled by gravity, drops of golden grease glided down across the leg’s surface and fell into the roaring flames, evaporating in an instant and making the meaty aroma even stronger.
A dagger appeared in Bu Fang’s grip. He used it to gently stab the leg from time to time to feel the meat’s doneness.
Xixi stood next to him and watched intently. She could feel the subtlety of Bu Fang’s movements, his control over the flames, and the depth of the dagger when it was inserted into the meat.
The rest of the people sat around Bu Fang. This was the way the tables and chairs were set in Immortal Chef Little Store, which was very unique.
Everyone was staring at the roasting rack on the table and the leg of lamb over the stove.
After a short while, the pinkish color of the meat had faded and was replaced by a light golden color.
A rich meaty aroma wafted out of the light golden meat. However, it was not ready to be eaten yet.
The roasting continued.
The smell of spices filled the air and made everyone hungry.
Even then, Realm Lord Di Tai stared at the leg of lamb with wide eyes and sucked in a cold breath.
“You used spices, didn’t you?” he turned to look at Bu Fang and asked.
Bu Fang nodded. Spices such as rosemary were essential seasonings for roasted leg of lamb.
“Spices are a big part of delicacies. However, the Immortal Cooking Realm has never had a systematic way of making them. In the earliest days, there was a Qilin Chef who specialized in spices, but ever since he was killed by an expert of the Nine Revolution Nether Chefs Clan, the recipe for spices has been completely lost.” Realm Lord Di Tai sighed. Then, he took a deep breath as he looked at the golden roasted leg of lamb.
The fragrance of spices went into his nostrils and made him so comfortable.
“I don’t know much about spices either…” Bu Fang confessed.
Spices were a big category of food. For some chefs, as long as there were spices, they could cook even the lowest quality ingredients into the most delicious delicacies in the world.
Spices were everything for such chefs.
Bu Fang was a stranger to the combinations of spices. After all, he had not studied them thoroughly.
The combination of different spices and the amount used would make the aroma of the combined spices vary greatly.
Therefore, chefs who were good at using spices were very rare.
As time pa.s.sed, the leg of lamb turned golden red. It was the color of fully-cooked meat.
The cooking had come to the final phase.
After sprinkling all the remaining spices onto the lamb, Bu Fang took out the improved version of Abyssal Chili Sauce.
He scooped half a tablespoon of the chili sauce into a porcelain bowl and mixed it with lamb fat. Then, he took out a brush, dipped it into the chili sauce, and began brus.h.i.+ng the leg of lamb.
Sizzle…
Fat dripped into flames and evaporated, giving off a spicy scent that fused with the lamb’s aroma.
It was a delicious smell.
The crowd couldn’t hold it anymore, gulping again and again.
Foxy was about to make a move, but a glance from Bu Fang made her curl into a ball again.
Lord Dog stuck out his tongue with his eyes lit up. He knew that it was the right thing to give Bu Fang the leg of lamb. The aroma of it was simply… irresistible.
RUMBLE!
Dark clouds began to gather in the sky outside Immortal Chef Little Store. This time, they were very dense and thick.
In just a flash, the whole first layer was blanketed by dark clouds.
All the people looked up at the sky in shock. They knew an immortal chef must be cooking a delicacy and was about to face the lightning punishment.
However…
The magnitude of this punishment seemed to be quite out of the ordinary!
Gongshu Ban and the others were slightly stunned when they saw the lightning punishment. The next moment, they seemed to have remembered something, and they gasped. Then, they quickly rushed toward Immortal Chef Little Store.
Owner Bu must be cooking a delicious delicacy again!
RUMBLE!
Terrible lightning bolts flashed in the sky, which looked like dragons with each scale clearly visible.
Since the lightning punishment was here, it meant that the dish was about to be completed.
Bu Fang had almost finished roasting the leg of lamb. However, he planned to prepare some side dishes.
He took out many Scale Tail Scallions, washed them, and placed them on a porcelain plate.
In addition to scallions, Bu Fang also wanted to make roasted rice-flour pancakes.
He took out some fragrant rice, which he had harvested from the paddies in the Heaven and Earth Farmland.
The rice was put into a bowl, ground into powder, mixed with water, and shaped into small round doughs. After that, he placed them under the stove and baked until white bubbles formed on their surfaces.
When the bottom of the pancakes turned slightly yellow and white bubbles formed on their surfaces, they were ready.
He took them out one by one and placed them on a porcelain plate.
After that, Bu Fang began making the sauce.
While he was making it, he also turned the leg of lamb, causing a warm flavor to infuse into the meat instantly.
The golden and fragrant roasted leg of lamb was completely cooked at this moment.
With a snap, the white flame shot back to Bu Fang’s finger and burned quietly. He blew at it, and the fire faded away.
Now that the flame was extinguished, the dish was ready to serve.
The much-antic.i.p.ated roasted leg of lamb was finally done.