Chapter 358: Trippa alla Romana [9]
Translated by Gumihou
(Zzonkedd gave up because it was too full of food technicalities, lol)
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“Master, thank you for having us!”
“Master, please teach us how to cook offal as promised!”
“Goodness, you two sure are early. As for calling me master, hmm, I think it’s best to stop it. We just met yesterday after all.”
“No, Master is Master!”
“That’s right, Master!”
“That’s not what I… haahh….”
I think there’s no way to convince Maynard and Enzo to stop calling me master. I might as well just give up. [1] Yesterday, I was sort of cornered into promising these two how to cook, but I never expect them to appear so early in the morning.
I just had breakfast and was planning to take things easy, but…
“Master! Quickly teach us how to cook the offal, please!”
“That’s right! This is really, really important to us!”
“Haahhh… I understand. Please come with me to the kitchen.” [5]
[6] Once in the kitchen, I gave them a small lecture on the fine art of cooking offal.
“Now, there’s really no secret to cooking offal. You can treat it like any regular meat in soups, stews and even on the barbecue. The most important thing is the pre-treatment, which we already did yesterday.”
“I see!”
“Especially the large intestines, that is where most body waste is collected after all, which is why it needed the most treatment. And… that’s it, end of lecture.”
“Wait, seriously!!”
“Haha, pretty much. However, pre-treatment is different for different kinds of offal. Take the large intestines, for example,” I said, as I took out both the beef and pork intestines. “You should be familiar with these by now. [8] I find that beef intestines tended to be fattier so it’s especially juicy when grilled with just salt and pepper. Pork intestines could be grilled too but it tends to crisp up more easily. It’s better as a sauce grill.”
“Following this logic, it can be grilled on skewers too?” asked Maynard.
“Of course,”
For some reason, when I confirmed this, Maynard and Enzo glanced at each other and began to grin.
“Oi, Enzo, this is the one!”
“Yeah, it’s going to go great with our ultimate super special sauce that we made through trial and error!” [5]
“Wow, you two sure are serious about developing your cooking. Since you seem to know your grilled meats, should I teach you a stewing technique instead?”
“Absolutely!”
“Absolutely yes!”
[4] “Offering simmered food is a good idea since the market is saturated with grilled skewer stalls…” I said as I run through all the stewed and simmered offal recipes in my mind.
j.a.panese Motsunabe (Hotpot Offal) isn’t suitable as a stall food, and Motsuni (Simmered Offal) would require other world seasonings such as soy sauce and miso.
Whatever the dish is, it has to use local ingredients and seasoning.
Hmm, since they have those tomato-like fruits here, let’s go with Trippa alla Romana, also known as Trippa Style Offal & Tomato Stew [9].
“Right, let’s make a tomato based stew.”
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“Alright, I think the prep work is pretty much done.”
For this stew, I decided to go with the honeycomb tripe, the second stomach of the cow is usually a.s.sociated with Trippa alla Romana, although there is no fixed rule on what kind of offal we could actually throw in.
Therefore, since we worked hard to clean the intestines and tripe yesterday, let’s use them.
“I thought that organ meat could be used like regular meat right away after yesterday’s pre-treatment, but I guess it’s still a good idea to be extra careful,” said Maynard, who was working on blanching the meat under my instructions.
“Yeah, I thought that after all that was.h.i.+ng and rinsing from yesterday, we could just cook the meats but we still have to blanch them, huh,” said Enzo.
[8] “Well, it all depends,” I said. “If you’re making grilled food, you can just put them in a marinade and grill it like normal meat. However, stews and soups are more sensitive. It’s better to blanch the meat to get rid of whatever sc.u.m or sliminess that would influence the soup later on.”
“I see~~!”
The boys were seriously absorbing my words.
“Right, now that the final pre-treatment for the offal is done, we can proceed to the actual cooking steps.” I had already purchased the necessary ingredients from [Net Super] while the boys were blanching the meat.
Normally, I’d use canned stuff or premixed seasoning for convenience, but for the sake of showing the boys how to properly cook this dish, I decided to make everything from scratch.
Starting with the ‘peeled whole tomatoes’.
It was actually not that difficult to peel tomatoes. I instructed Maynard to make a shallow cut at the bottom of the tomatoes. Then, leave them in cold water and wait for the edges to curl up before peeling the skin away. Hot water would work faster but I’m working on the premise that these kids would have limited resources.
Once the tomatoes were peeled, they were diced and dropped into some salted water to be boiled down for the tomato stew. Now and then, Maynard stood by the pot to skim off the sc.u.m.
“Right, while that’s boiling, Enzo, you can cut the vegetables.”
Onions, carrots, and celery are to be cut into 5mm cubes. Meanwhile, I minced up some garlic.
Bubble, bubble, bubble…
Chop, chop, chop…
Hmm, these aspiring chefs really do look like they knew what they’re doing.
“Right, once the tomato broth is done and the vegetables all chopped, we can proceed to the next step. I’ve already minced the garlic [5]. So, the prep work is all done now. Let’s see, stewed tomatoes, cubed vegetables [5], dried bay leaves, blanched and chopped offal, minced garlic, [8] chopped onions, [8] boiled chickpeas, [8] dried meat soup, oil… Right, let’s get started.”
“First, [8] fry the onions until soft, then put in the minced garlic [5]. It’s important to fry the onions first otherwise your garlic will burn…”
“Next, once the garlic is fragrant, add the offal and give them a quick stir-fry to make them fragrant. After that, add some of the stewed tomatoes and reconst.i.tuted dried meat soup…”
[8]
“Why do we boil the dried meat?” asked Maynard.
“…” I can’t say that it’s sort of like reconst.i.tuted bonito powder, right? “Ahem, dried meat has a lot of flavour in it. It’s like the difference between fresh mushrooms and dried mushrooms. You don’t normally get much flavour from a fresh one, but dried mushrooms could be made into soup stock.”
“Ooohhhh, I didn’t know that! I must try boiling some dried mushroom to make soup!”
Phew, safe!
[8] “So, I guess if we don’t have dried meat, we could replace it with dried mushroom soup or bone soup?” asked Enzo.
“…that sounds like a great idea,” I laughed. Goodness, have I been so spoilt by bouillon cubes and instant soups that I had completely dismissed these as options?
“Ahem, next, we add the boiled chickpeas…”
“Can we use any kind of beans?” asked Maynard.
“Come to think of it, if the beans are dried and then boiled, is the water good enough to be used as stock?” asked Enzo.
“Err, it depends on the stock,” I blinked, trying to remember if I had ever used bean stock for anything. “Always taste the stock before using it. If in doubt, only use a little first. Especially if you want to experiment with other kinds of stock.”
“I see!”
“Master is great!”
“Hahaha…” I can’t tell them that my ‘boiled chickpeas’ are actually ‘canned’. “If you can get your hands on other types of beans, it should be boiled first. Of course, if you use fresh beans, just put them in near the end of the cooking time.”
“I see!”
“To test whether the stew is done, check the tenderness of the offal and beans. These two things cook at different times. That’s why it’s best to cook the beans on the side.”
“Master, when do we add the vegetables?”
“About now,” I used two sets of spoons and found that I could easily break a piece of the offal apart. “Vegetables cook easily, even with residual heat, so it’s best to add them last. We can also add the bay leaf now.”
“I see!”
“Once the stew has boiled for a couple of minutes, taste to check the flavour and adjust using salt. Pepper is a bit expensive, but you really don’t need that much. If you have other herbs or spices, you can experiment and try different things.”
“It sure looks easy,” said Enzo.
“Most of the labour went to cleaning and blanching the meat, boiling the beans, making tomato stew and meat stock,” Maynard said, listing the necessary prep work.
Well, I usually take shortcuts using canned whole tomatoes, canned chickpeas and powdered stock…
“Hmm, I did think that it was a waste of flour and salt just to clean meat but if it turns out to be delicious…”
“It doesn’t actually take that much flour and salt,” said Maynard.
“Oh, yeah, about 1 medium cup of flour for a whole piece of intestines.” [5]
[4] “It’s especially okay since flour and salt is part of the aid given to the orphanage,”
[4] “Salt too, I heard that it’s pretty expensive but Rosendal is near a salt-producing place, so there’s that.”
“Oh?” I said. “I only heard about Rosendal being famous for its meat but not about other things.”
“We have a lot of wheat fields, and there’s a salt mine or something nearby,” said Enzo.
Hmm, now that I think about it, I remember pa.s.sing by fields of crops, so those were wheat, huh.
“It’s about done, let’s check the flavour and adjust it with salt and pepper.”
Gulp. “It looks really good with all those pretty looking ingredients…”
“It smells really nice too.”
“By the way, if you don’t have pepper. It’s fine to just adjust with salt, mint or other ingredients. Anyway, this is just a test product, so let’s try some now.”
I ladled out three small bowls of the Trippa alla Romana and… [5]
[8]
“Oi! Are you eating something delicious? Why is there so little of it? Where’s ours?”
“Ah, it’s Fer and the others… we’re just making some test dishes. It’s not done yet.”
“We can do the tasting too,” said Fer and he firmly sat down. The other two also looked at us expectantly.
Ahh, I guess I can just feed them the rest of the test dish.
“Ahem, you two try the dish first while I feed my familiars,” I told Maynard and Enzo.
While I carefully portioned out the rest of the offal & tomato stew, the boys carefully tasted the dish.
“It’s… really good! I thought there might be some weird smells left but there’s really none. Wow, the tripe is tender and the intestines are chewy and flavourful.”
“Yeah, I always thought that offal is meant to taste weird but this dish is somehow refres.h.i.+ng and delicious. The tomatoes really accented the dish. Not only that, the beans and vegetables also made the dish more interesting. And the soup… I think this will go very nicely with some crusty bread!”
The two boys continued to appraise the dish with every bite.
Finally, when their bowls were empty…
“Fufufufu, Enzo, with this…”
“Fufufufu, Maynard, we can absolutely…”
“Win this! Fufufufufufu!”
Eh? What happened to those two?
“With our ultimate secret special sauce for the grilled skewers…”
“And a super refres.h.i.+ng tomato-based stew…”
“We can take the top prize with offal meats!” [5]
“… Excuse me, what are you talking about?”
“Oh, sorry Master.”
“We’re just a little too excited.”
“Yeah, we’re talking about the Dungeon Meat Festival!”
“A… Dungeon Meat Festival?”
[4]
“It’s something that is held every year in Rosendal,” said Maynard.
“Not for long, I think? Only eight years,” said Enzo. “I heard that it’s meant to attract tourists to Rosendal.”
“Yeah, it’s to promote dungeon meat and get people interested in the Rosendal dungeon.”
“For three days straight, the streets will be filled with food stalls temporarily set up to serve meat hunted in the dungeons.”
[6] “Oh? Sounds interesting. When does it start?” I asked, always interested in good food.
“10 days from now. That’s why we’re so keen about learning how to deal with offal meat with Master.”
“Aahh…”
“Last year, there were nearly 100 stalls. I think there’s going to be more this year.” [5]
[6] “Yeah, thanks to Master, our stall will have a chance to stand out!”
After probing a bit more, I found out that anyone could open a stall during this festival, so long as they apply at the Merchant’s Guild. [5]
“Normally, people who are not registered with the Merchant’s Guild can’t even operate a small stall but during the Meat Dungeon Festival, even kids like us could have a stall if we register as partic.i.p.ators for the event.”
“We have to pay a bit of money, but that’s fine with us.”
“The highlight of the Meat Dungeon Festival is the awards ceremony where they announce the top five most delicious stalls as voted by the customers!” said Enzo excitedly.
“[5] Yeah, like Mark’s stall. He won 4th place last year and suddenly, he went from operating a stall to a shop in a really short time because he’s so popular!” said Maynard.
“I see, so regardless of whether you’re from a big restaurant or a stall, everyone has a shot at winning the award?”
That’s a pretty cool idea actually.
“We’re not aiming to open our own restaurant,”
“Not yet, but if we win, we could catch the eye of some big shop.”
“I heard that these big shops sometimes even let you run their branch restaurants in other cities!”
Certainly, winners of this festival would have more choices for their future.
If that’s the case…
“Sounds interesting, I wonder if they still accept applications?”
“Eeeehhhh!!!”
“Wait, M-master? Don’t tell me-”
“You’re planning to join!!?”
“Are you saying I can’t?”
“N-no,”
Maynard and Enzo suddenly shrank away to whisper to each other.
Still, my ears were sensitive enough to pick up their whispered conversation.
“Who told you to mention the Meat Dungeon Festival…?”
“Now we’ve done it, a powerful rival has appeared…”
Ah, so that’s their worry.
“Ahem, are you worried about me partic.i.p.ating? Don’t worry, your offal dishes will still gain the most attention since no other store sells those.”
“That’s true…”
“Wait! Enzo, don’t you remember? Officially, they still accept applications one week before the festival but the s.p.a.ces a.s.signed are according to the application date.”
“Right! That means our stalls will be far away from each other!”
“That’s fine with me too,” I said. “It would be good if our stalls don’t compete directly with each other.
“Ehehehe…”
“I only thought of partic.i.p.ating because it sounds interesting. By the way, how do you plan to get your hands on offal? Have you thought about it?”
The boys responded with a confident. “Yes!”
“Oh my, really?” I was surprised. They only knew about the possibility of offal as a delicious food just two days ago and they already have a supplier?
Suddenly, the boys widened their eyes and said in a cat stroking voice [10]:
“Master~~”
“Wh-what is it?”
“Please~ give us some offal meat~~”
You two… [5]
These boys were getting more and more shameless. [1] I mean, I don’t really mind it but it would take some work on my part.
“Sure, I can provide you with the offal, but you have to help me with my prep work for the Dungeon Festival. I can give you four Drops of offal for your work.” [5]
“Master, please let us have five Drops worth of offal!”
“Also, we can help you but only up to three days before the festival. We also need to prepare for our own stall.”
“Hmm, I guess that’s fine.” I have an [Item Box] with time stop function, after all, so everything could be prepared ahead and stored without spoiling.
“Alright, it’s a deal.”
I shook hands with Maynard and Enzo to seal the deal.
“Oi, are you done talking?”
“Hm? What is it, Fer?”
“That thing just now. It’s good, make more.”
““I want more too!””
““Sui wants to eat more too~~””
… yes, yes.
At the request of Fer, Sui and Dora-chan, I made lots of Trippa alla Romana once the boys left.
Gumihou: There were some wordplay related jokes ninniku = garlic, tamanegi = onion, that really serves no purpose aside from maybe a ‘oh we’re no longer in j.a.pan’ kind of thing. However, Gumi can’t be bothered to make the joke more relevant since ‘tomato’ was still ‘tomatoes’ here when it was a ‘tomato-like’ vegetable before. The lack of consistency = lack of importance.
Gumi also has to fix cooking steps like NOT frying the garlic until fragrant before putting the onions in. Nope, nope, nope, rookie mistake that.
Speaking of which, Maynard and Enzo ended up mostly shouting ‘Absolutely!’ most of the time aside from the bits where they explain the Meat Festival thing. A lot of the more difficult questions came from Gumi.
Yes, Gumi is that type of student that will Ask Questions.
Oh, and the author also forgot to put the vegetables in the list of things they put into the stew… although he did describe it later when they were eating it… =_=;;
[1] Structural Change: Combine 2 paragraphs
[2] Structural Change: Combine 3 paragraphs
[3] Structural Change: Combine paragraph & dialogue
[4] Structural Change: Change pa.s.sive sentence to dialogue
[5] Delete Repet.i.tive or Pointless Information
[6] Additional Information for Aesthetic Purpose
[7] Add Dialogue Tag
[8] Creative Licence Taken – Details about how to treat offal, also fixed some bad cooking steps.
[9] Trippa alla Romana
In j.a.panese, it’s トリッパ風モツのトマト煮込み or Trippa Style Offal & Tomato Stew
The j.a.panese name for this food is kind of misleading. Even though it actually exists, lol