Hokuou Kizoku to Moukinzuma no Yukiguni Karigurashi

Ahh, Wonderful Nuts
Volume 3 — The Northern n.o.bleman and the Raptor Wife’s Village, Great Renovation Plan!?

Today, I set about processing the nuts I bought from the merchant.
The nut in question is walnuts.
Walnuts are one of the delicacies of autumn. I heard that they’re very nutritious and good for one’s health from father.
Other than that, they make one’s skin more beautiful as well as prevent aging effects. It is also good for insomnia and strengthening one’s organs.

Freshly picked walnuts are cheap and easy to procure.
Because they have hard sh.e.l.ls. That is a little bothersome though.

For walnuts, the insides are eaten.

Seeing the three boxes of walnuts, I reflected a bit that I got a little too excited.
Maybe because I had a troubled expression, Teoporon was going to help.

“Then, can you help me with getting the walnuts?”

I explained to Teoporon and started working.
I peeled the green fruit that definitely looked as though they ere unripe.
The process is simple: just smashing the fruits with a hammer.
There is the method of placing the fruits in water or burying them to rot them, but they have to be left there for two weeks so using hammers are faster.

I brought two flat slabs of stone from nearby to start getting the nuts.

“Then, let’s begin!”

Brown juices came out of the walnut fruits. These dyed my fingers. They’re troublesome like berry juice, in that they do not come off easily. I have to be careful to not get them on my clothes.

We continued working in silence.

……Even so, Teoporon is quite fast.

He got rid of the fruit and filled the basket with walnuts.
Thanks to the strong warrior, processing three boxes worth of nuts was done quickly. Afterwards, we were to rinse the walnuts.
On the surfaces of the sh.e.l.ls, there are astringent bits so we have to remove them.
We got water from the well and washed the nuts.
Even here, Teoporon kept pumping water.

……I’m envious of that stamina and those muscles.

If I tried to pump water at the rate Teoporon did it, I would definitely get muscle pains the day after that.
That was the sad reality.

After washing the walnuts, they were laid out to dry with a net placed over them to deter bugs and animals.

A fortnight after drying the walnuts. The walnuts finally became edible. If left in the sh.e.l.ls, they can be stored for one or two years, serving as a precious source of nutrients.

Moisture is the greatest enemy to walnuts!
Thus, I stored them where there was plenty of ventilation.

“Amazing.”
“I wonder if I bought a little too much?”

Seeing the great amount of walnuts, Sieg exclaimed in surprise.
I am reflecting on it.
I decided to give a third to the Rango family.

“Now then, why don’t we try some!”

It can be eaten raw, but since it’s hard to remove the sh.e.l.l we eat it after roasting it once.

“How do you sh.e.l.l the walnuts?”
“There’s a nutcracker somewhere~……”

I have a nice steel nutcracker, but objects can’t be found when searching for it.
I couldn’t help but crack them with my hands.

“The sh.e.l.l looks hard, can you really crack them?”
“If you know the trick.”

I picked up two walnuts and arranged them so the hard blunt bits will touch each other, then clenched hard with both hands.
Then, one sh.e.l.l would be cracked. If done well, both sh.e.l.ls can be removed.

“Alright.”

I grabbed two walnuts and clenched them to crack them. With a clear sound, the sh.e.l.l split.

“Hehh, amazing.”
“I think anyone can do it though.”

I talked about cracking sh.e.l.ls as though I knew a lot, but honestly I think I was lucky.
It’s been a while since I cracked walnuts with my hand. I was relieved that they were split cleanly.
The dextrous Sieg managed to learn the trick in just a few minutes.

“Be careful not to hurt your hands.”
“There’s no need to worry.”

The two of us cooperated and opened enough walnuts for both of us to eat.
I lightly fried the walnuts in a pan.
Once they were fried a bit, the brown husks came off as well.
First, we had them with a bit of salt.

The fried walnuts had an aromatic scent. The texture was crunchy.
I thought that the saltiness was just enough.

“It’s good.”
“Indeed.”

It would go well with alcohol indeed.
As she was abstaining for now, she stared off into the distance.

Next, I tried making caramel walnut jam.
The method is just adding fried walnuts and honey to condensed milk caramel and boiling them.

“We’ll have these with bread!”

I spread plenty of the completed caramel walnut jam on bread.
Then I took a bite.

The compatibility of the walnuts and the caramel was amazing.
It was just boiled condensed milk caramel, but it was very sweet and had a soft flavour.
I felt that it would go well with toasted bread.

Sieg also praised that women would like these.

“Then, should I make a toast meal set……”
“I think adding them in the dough would be nice too.”
“Caramel walnut bread! Uwa, that will definitely be delicious!”

For that, I asked Rurup.r.o.n to make some later.

The menu of the pub was slowly getting filled out.

The menus that were already decided are:

For the permanent menus, they will be simple dishes able to be made with canned foods.
For the potato dumplings that will take some time, they will be limited menus.
There will be rye bread and caramel walnut bread for the bread.

For the alcohol:

In addition, we decided to serve alcohol only for three hours every night. No one is to get dead drunk, absolutely not.

Non-alcoholic beverages:

There’s not that much for some reason, but it can’t be helped.
I am trying to make some other things. Though I’m not sure if it will succeed.

Finally, the desserts:

For the desserts, I am still in the process of researching them.
Indeed, making confection without eggs or milk is hard.
After the polar nights are over, I want to make the menu better.
I’m curious about the snacks using buckwheat that the shop lady mentioned.

Nighttime.
After everyone went off to sleep, I went to the kitchen.
To add another drink, I decided to try making a sample.

The ingredients are honey, brown sugar, white sugar, lemons, raisins and yeast.

First, water is boiled in a pot.
Sugar is added and the mixture is cooled for a bit, after which lemon juice is added.
It is then cooled more.
Once the mixture became lukewarm, I added yeast and left it for a day. Then, there will be a little bit of fizz.
That is added into a bottle with raisins and sugar, then cloth is put over the lid.
It will be finished after a week of leaving it in a cool storage.

Sparkling lemon juice, complete.
If it’s a little sour, one can add honey.

If there’s too much yeast, it will become alcohol, so I need to be careful.

I referred to mother’s recipe for this.
It was a juice I was used to from a long time ago.

I tried it after a week, and it was rather good for the first attempt.
It was refreshing, so it might go well with snacks with strong flavour.

The building that I left to the carpenter was completed recently.
The blue walls and the white roofs were appraised as cute by a neighbour lady.
Since the shop lady said that many people asked what the building next door was, so I decided to make a sign.

—— Remote Land Pub ‘The Crimson Eagle’, opening before the polar nights!

For now, we will work every other day, opening from morning to night.
I can’t even fathom how many people will come and how many people we would need.
I will have to learn as I manage the store.

We made a poster for advertis.e.m.e.nt as well.
I asked mother to draw the picture.

I was asked to write something, so I wrote about how ‘The Crimson Eagle’ will be a fun place serving good food.
Also, I remembered to write, ‘The cutest and the most popular women will greet you!’

I put up the posters at the fort’s dining hall and the village square bulletin board.

Just a little more until the opening of the store!

I continued to prepare while enjoying it greatly.