City Of Witches 284

Chapter 284 – #63_Interlude (6)

#282

One.
The first place in Ars Magna Town.
If you go up the hillside road densely planted with beech and oak trees on a low slope, you will see the Mansion of Zemonai at the top.

The mansion of the countess Zemanai is also called the ‘Gemonai Palace’ among witches.
This is because the area of ​​the entire mansion site is similar to that of a small village, and even the mansion boasts excellent facilities and size that can be used as a hotel with a little infrastructure.

To the east, it is bordered by a large lake that crosses Arsmagna Town, and four artificially created ponds pass through it, so you can roughly guess the size of it.
Passing through the huge front gate that seems to overwhelm visitors, there is a garden with magical flowers in full bloom regardless of the season.

Stepping on the green lawn of the seemingly endless garden and past six fountains, you will come to the main building of the mansion, which is also famous for its beauty.

As soon as you open the front door and enter, the hall exudes profound beauty with the majestic marble staircase and the architectural ceiling with two overlapping arches like a cathedral.
The long gallery alone, which is connected to the main entrance hall and used as a banquet hall, is over 6m wide and 70m long, and various beautiful paintings and sculptures are lined up like vases.

It was never about the ostentation or vanity of a rich man.
There is an aristocratic elegance to this mansion that doesn’t make you feel snobbish at all, even with all this extravagance and extravagance.
In addition, it is a mansion that runs the edge of extravagance and splendor to the extent that there is no flaw in every corner of the mansion, let alone the ivory carvings that adorn the stairs.

Conversely, it also meant that it was a place with subtle tension that would make your eyes pour out just by breathing carelessly.

However, this situation is a little better if you go out to the annex along the corridor to the north.
Originally used as the main building, it is used as an annex after the extension, so the management is somewhat loose.

Therefore, most of the rooms of the apprentice witch twins, the lodgings of about 50 employees, and the rooms where the employees work were all gathered on this side.
If there were employees of this size in a mansion of this size, there would naturally be a lot of work and rooms to do it.

A still room for the preparation of bottom ingredients that require fire day and night, such as jam or soup stock.
A pantry to store luxurious plates and glasses.
A knife room for storing knives and utensils with handles made of ivory.
A ladder that processes and processes meat and stores various food ingredients such as eggs, cheese, and butter.
A laundry room that uses the heat from the boiler room to wash and iron clothes.
There is a room that supports the busy daily life of the spacious mansion.

However, the daily life of the mansion, which is busy from dawn to late evening, becomes quiet at night.
In particular, in the case of the kitchen where cooking is prepared, the lights are not turned on until this time unless it is the day before a festival or banquet.

But tonight, despite the fact that it was well past 11:00, a soft light leaked from the semi-basement window where the kitchen was located.

“Hmm….”
“Why sister? Got a problem?”

The spacious kitchen was occupied by Gemanna, Odile, and Odette.
The twins, who were always busy bickering, were facing her head with the same goal and the same worries tonight.

Sooner or later, an assistant who has solved the problem in this world is scheduled to visit the mansion.
It is sure to be exciting in itself, but they are planning and preparing to serve steamed guinea fowl cooked by hand for even more sincere hospitality.

However, they are twins who grew up as the golden jade leaves of the count’s family and never put water on his hands.
The ambitious plan to make the world’s best steamed guinea fowl was creaking from the beginning.

“Odette, will you show me the recipe Lena gave me again?”
“You already memorized the recipe.”
“Give it anyway. I mean, I wonder if this is right.”

First of all, the preparation of the bottom material was perfect.

One large, trimmed guinea fowl.
I wanted to prepare from start to finish, but I didn’t dare to pluck the feathers of a live guinea fowl and organize the intestines, so I asked Pecha in advance.

“Black garlic thinly sliced, carrots, sage, ginger, celery, bay leaves… Rosemary is ok, there are all kinds of spices, there is butter… “
“Why are you doing that? Is it as Lena told you?”
“Doesn’t something seem lacking?”

Yes.
Lena washed and peeled the vegetables, fearing that Odile and Odette would injure her hands.
The guinea fowl had been soaked in milk to remove blood and fishy smell, and the oven had already been preheated.
In fact, the ingredients were already prepared at the level of a simple cooking kit rather than a homemade dish.

Although clumsy, the remaining work was simple for the twins who cut the vegetables without difficulty.
Rub olive oil, salt, rosemary, and melted butter thoroughly over the surface to marinade.
Fill the emptied guinea fowl with crookedly sliced ​​vegetables and various spices and seal it with a thread and a needle.
After covering the scraps of vegetables and herbs to prevent the guinea fowl from touching the oven floor directly, bake it in a preheated oven for about an hour and you’re done.

In fact, it was not a very difficult dish, and the recipe was simple enough that Lena and Pecha had taken care of the cumbersome preparation process.
However, the reason why Odile’s impression does not unfold is because the process was ‘too simple’.

“Listen, Odette.”
“Yes, sister.”
“We’re definitely trying to make the world’s best steamed guinea fowl, right? That’s just to treat my assistant.”
“That’s right.”
“But will this be enough? After all, it’s a dish that just puts vegetables in a guinea fowl and bakes it.”
“What?”

Odette, who was carefully listening to her sister’s words, seemed to suddenly realize something.

The steamed guinea fowl on the table was definitely delicious.

Luxurious texture close to that of a wild bird rather than regular chicken.
The thick skin, which has turned yellowish brown, is crispy like the outside of a cookie.
As the fat under the skin melts in the heat, it moistens the meat, and when the flavors of vegetables and herbs are added to the filling, you will feel happy as if your tongue is being caressed.

The eight-line recipe seemed too simple to the twins who remembered the ecstatic taste.

“Could Lena have been hiding her secret recipe and not revealing it?”
“Ah, no way, Lena would tell such a lie about how close we are.”
“No, you picked up a turtle on your own before, and it got caught by us. Lena said she could lie to us if she put her mind to it.”
“That… Is it?”

Odile raised his eyebrows earnestly and preached his opinion to her naive little sister.
As much as Odette, who had worked hard for the cause of serving delicious homemade dishes to her assistant, nothing came of it.
On the contrary, he nodded his chin with a plausible expression.

“Originally, special sauces and recipes are like a witch’s magnetic magic.
It is a very secret and precious thing that her grandmother passes on to her mother, and that mother to her daughter. Why is there a saying, ‘The sauce she doesn’t even tell her daughter-in-law’?”
“That… So, wouldn’t it be very rude for us to ask Lena for the recipe?”
“Maybe. So there is no need to blame Lena for hiding her special recipe. The important thing is that we have to arrange it to achieve our original goal.”

Odile and Odette’s gazes, concluding that ‘Lena hid her secret recipe!’, Simultaneously turn to the guinea fowl on the chopping board.
The guinea fowl, which appears to be almost 50 cm in size, is lying down with a bewitching figure as if oil was applied before tanning.
However, certainly, looking at it again, it didn’t seem like that beautiful taste would come out just by putting vegetables in it and grilling it.

“Sister, shall we fill vegetables first? I think the taste will depend on what ingredients are put in it anyway.”
“Okay, let’s fill it half instead! The rest is to ponder and come up with a better recipe.”
“Great!”

Snorting and full of enthusiasm, Odette quickly heads towards the food warehouse.
Odile filled the belly of a cool, moist guinea fowl with various vegetables, peppercorns, and spices.

“Sister! How about this?”

Odette, who had disappeared for a moment, took out an oyster buried in a box full of sawdust and ice.
One of Odette’s favorite foods was fresh raw oysters topped with lime, mustard, and vinegar.

To the extent that when I went to Taro Town to play, I rang the bell and asked the oyster seller to move the cart to the outpost.

Moreover, the quality of the oysters sold by the oyster vendors in Taro Town and the oysters delivered to the Countess Jemanai’s family is sky-high.
It is an expensive natural oyster that is much larger than Odette’s palm, with its unique fragrance and savory taste comparable to that of the flower of the sea.
Odette was not to pass by such good material.

“Odette! It’s been a long time since I’ve had a very good idea?”

Delicious oysters + delicious guinea fowl =?
It is a very tasty guinea fowl.
Can’t be tasteless

Odile, who likes oysters as well, though not as much as Odette, couldn’t help but praise the novel idea.
Odette’s sassy nose rises.

“Ahem! Sometimes this kind of shift in thinking is important, sister. Once um… Let’s just put 10 of them.”
“OK!”

Odette washed the sawdust on the shells with water, brought a special knife for oyster trimming, and handed the oysters trimmed with skillful hands to Odile.
But something is missing as it is.
I thought I could still add better ingredients.

“If you put your sister’s oysters in, wouldn’t you need some food to catch the weeds?”
“I’m still thinking about it. How about lemon or lime? It goes well with oysters.”
“That’s good! Wait! I’ll come find you!”

The cooking research society is becoming more and more astral.
If Lena had heard, she would have stopped her twins by grabbing the hem of their skirts, but unfortunately there was no one to stop her twins from running amok tonight.
In succession, all kinds of “Delicious ingredients” Start to mix in the guinea fowl’s stomach.

“You learned it when we went out to this world, right? Sweet salty sweet salty is very important.”
“Then shall we add some honey?”
“Hmm… I think something more suitable than honey would be sugar.”
“Wouldn’t it be better to use fruit to enhance the sweetness rather than sugar?”

Pride in creating even greater dishes by breaking away from existing recipes.
As a result, the twins, who enjoyed the feeling of being great chefs, started adding ingredients while having plausible discussions.

“Then you should be hungry. I’ll chop… What! Odette! It doesn’t peel well.”
“Let’s just put it in the shell! You can take it off later anyway.”
“Hmm, what can I do? In fact, I remember hearing that many of the delicious flavors of fruits are collected in the peel.”

That’s how the whole ship was cut.
Add.

“Odette, don’t you think the flavor will be a bit lacking at this rate? The spices were only pepper and rosemary.”
“I think you are right. Wait huh… Cheese? Isn’t cheese good?”
“You speak well today! Cheese is good too.”

In that way, a large piece of cheddar cheese that was stored in the larder was rolled and grated.
Add.

“Cheese adds to the melty taste, but the flavor is still lacking. Okay, let’s add a cinnamon stick to balance the taste.”
“A cinnamon stick?”
“Originally, cinnamon goes really well with pears, doesn’t it?”
“Unnie, you look great today.”
“What is this, Odette, I saw it again.”
Hehe.”

As we built up a warm friendship and added this and that, before we knew it, the belly of the large guinea fowl was full like a pregnant woman.
It was to the point that I had quite a hard time suturing the crotch with thread while touching the soft flesh like a frog.

“Okay, should this be enough?”

Odile pushed the hole that was trying to stick out through the sealed gap with his finger again.

“It will make a perfect dish.”

Odette spreads butter with a brush so that the outside is golden brown.
The two of them put a large guinea fowl into the oven with their hearts pounding and confident expressions on their faces.