City ​​of Witches 784

Chapter 784 – #165_Miao Miao Battle

#778

1.
There’s a famous saying in the culinary world.
The taste of food is 70% ingredients and 30% skill.

This means that the quality of the ingredients is that important, and it’s no exaggeration to say that this cooking competition begins the moment the ingredient boxes are opened.

First, Eloa’s main ingredient was a large prime rib with thick meat attached to the bone.

But something is strange.

The meat is discolored with blackish spots, covered in white mold, and even the bone area has turned black.

Siwoo’s face changed strangely.

He would eat it since his teacher was cooking it, but even at a glance, the meat looked like it was in bad condition.
It looked like it was about to go bad, or rather, it already had.

“No, that’s…!”

Dorothy jumped up from her seat and shouted.
As a witch who had lived for many years, Dorothy had also mastered the path of gastronomy, and her discerning eye was excellent.
She immediately recognized the true nature of the meat, which seemed to be a guaranteed case of food poisoning.

“Dry-aged…!”
“You recognize it.”

Eloa smiled meaningfully and took out a separate meat carving knife.

With skillful hands, Eloa cut away the discolored parts.
As she discarded almost half of the meat, the red, bright red flesh and marbling were revealed behind the mold.

“What is dry-aging?”
“It’s a method of aging meat at low temperatures. It’s literally dry aging. It’s the ultimate cooking method to experience the concentrated flavor of the meat. The amino acids and umami components in the meat increase, making the meat tender, and it also adds a cheesy flavor.”
“I see.”

Unlike Siwoo, who just accepted it, Dorothy was salivating.
Eloa smiled and added an explanation.

“This meat is from the top 1% of Gehenna’s free-range cattle, aged for six weeks. It’s the best beef in Gehenna.”

She wasn’t just explaining to Dorothy.
Eloa’s gaze turned sharply towards her rival.

Before the cooking battle, they were already engaged in a battle of nerves.

So, what ingredients did Rinne prepare?
Dorothy, filled with anticipation, headed towards Rinne.

“Sweetfish?”

The ingredient, displaying a silvery sheen on the ice-filled wooden box, was sweetfish.

The size was a little larger than an adult male’s palm, and they were as fresh as if they had just been caught.
Considering that sweetfish tend to lose their flavor if they are too big, they were just the right size.

However, Dorothy’s expression didn’t brighten at all.
Instead, she wore a slightly subtle expression.

“But sweetfish aren’t in season.”

Generally, sweetfish are considered to be in season during the summer, and it was November now.

Unlike meat, seafood is sensitive to seasons, and if you miss the season, the taste will be inferior no matter how good the ingredients are.

The battle was already decided by the ingredients.
Dorothy couldn’t help but make a bitter assessment.

“Hmph, look again.”

Rinne, who had been quiet, said confidently.
Dorothy, wondering if she had missed something, carefully examined the sweetfish and said.

“Could it be farmed?”
“That’s right.”

If that was the case, it was a different story.
The taste of fish definitely depends on the season, which is greatly influenced by the spawning season and water temperature.

Conversely, with the developed aquaculture technology of the modern world, the best quality can be achieved at any time, regardless of the season.
Rather, sweetfish are anadromous fish that can be prone to parasites, but if they are farmed, they can be enjoyed raw to one’s heart’s content.

Moreover, seeing that they were supplied to Gehenna, the quality of these farmed sweetfish was top-notch.

If Rinne’s sweetfish, which abandoned the illusion that wild-caught is best and chose practicality, were used, they wouldn’t be far behind Eloa’s dry-aged ribeye.

“This competition… both of them are not ordinary.”

Dorothy trembled with excitement.
The experience felt from the preparation of the ingredients indicated that the level of this competition would be higher than expected.

Eloa, who had finished preparing the meat, immediately began preparing the vegetables.
The vegetables were skillfully cut with her knife dancing on the cutting board.

Then, she added coarsely chopped carrots, onions, celery, crushed garlic, and orange peel.
She placed a ‘bouquet garni,’ a bundle of herbs like parsley stems, thyme, bay leaves, and rosemary, into a cast iron pot.

Eloa, who may not have had much wealth but only treated herself to the best alcohol, poured a generous amount of high-quality Burgundy wine over the piled-up vegetables.

Unlike Rinne, whose cooking method was still unknown, Eloa’s dish quickly took shape from the preparation.
There was only one French stew that used Burgundy wine.

“It’s Boeuf Bourguignon, isn’t it?”
“What’s that?”
“The legendary chef Julia Child said it was ‘the most wonderful dish humans can make with beef.’ But it’s the first time I’ve seen it made with dry-aged ribeye, so I wonder what it will taste like…”
“Ah, I see.”

Thanks to Dorothy’s excellent explanation, Siwoo had a little more to enjoy.
While Eloa used the basic alchemy principle of ‘aging’ to promote the rapid aging of vegetables and wine.

-Wham!

As if trying to reclaim the stolen attention, a loud crash was heard from Rinne’s side.
When he looked to see what she was doing, she was pouring sand onto an oven tray without hesitation.

“Sand?”

Siwoo tilted his head, puzzled by the scene that didn’t seem to have much to do with cooking.
After flattening the sand, Rinne placed charcoal and used ignition to make it glow red, as if she were making a campfire.

After checking the temperature with her hand, she skewered whole sweetfish, as if they were swimming, onto a long skewer, setting them up diagonally with their heads facing down.

By now, even Siwoo could understand the purpose of the sand.
The purpose was to evenly distribute the heat radiated by the sand while providing a foothold to hold the skewers.

She was going to salt-grill the plump sweetfish, generously sprinkled with coarse salt, using the embers of the charcoal.

“That’s some great detail.”

But as much as one knows, one can see.
Dorothy saw more than that.

“What is it this time?”
“Charcoal-grilled salt is the best way to bring out the natural flavor of fish.”

“I know that much.”
“Sweetfish are best enjoyed whole. If you lay them diagonally with their heads down like that, the sweetfish oil will run down the body and collect in the head. In other words, you can eat the best sweetfish head, where the flavor and aroma are concentrated to the extreme.”

That wasn’t all.

By skewering them as if they were swimming, she enhanced the visual appeal with ‘Odorikushi.’
Not stopping there, she prevented the fins from burning by applying enough salt to them, a technique called ‘salt makeup.’

The meticulousness of not missing even the seemingly negligible parts.

The essence of cooking, ‘caring for the person who eats,’ was fully present.
The sweetfish were sizzling nicely, and Rinne was fanning the flames to control the heat.

-Sizzle!

Eloa had also begun cooking in earnest.

She lightly seared the meat in a pot with olive oil.
As expected of dry-aged meat with low moisture content, the Maillard reaction occurred quickly.

She then added the vegetables that had been quickly aged in wine and cooked them together.

When the vegetables were about half-cooked, she added the remaining wine, salt, pepper, veal stock, tomato paste, ginger, paprika, and flour.

The rich aroma of the wine, which began to bubble as the alcohol evaporated, mixed with the various ingredients, creating a sweet harmony.
It would be complete if the broth was simmered until it was bubbling, but Eloa’s secret weapon was not over yet.

She took out a new pan to add more ingredients.

“Bacon, button mushrooms, shallots… It’s a really authentic recipe.”

All of these were additional ingredients to enhance the flavor of the sauce.

After squeezing out the bacon fat on a frying pan with plenty of butter, she added mushrooms and shallots to roast.
When the mushrooms and shallots had absorbed enough oil, she added them to the main pot and simmered them together.

The aroma, which became richer even from a distance, was beautiful.

And the final piece to encompass everything, Eloa’s secret weapon.
It was two pieces of 70% dark chocolate, which made the aroma more aromatic and the flavor deeper.

“Amazing…”

She had based it on a formal recipe, but it was her own recipe that she had arrived at after many trials and errors.
It was only natural that Dorothy’s expectations were sky-high.

-Boil, boil, boil

All that was left was to simmer the stew so that it wouldn’t burn.
Therefore, Eloa placed two new burners to prepare the mashed potatoes and steak to accompany the dish.

“Then what about Rinne…?”

It was a competition where one couldn’t take their eyes off either side.
Rinne was preparing rice, which was essential in Eastern cuisine.

It wasn’t just ordinary rice.

Rinne selected two sweetfish that were far from the charcoal and two that were closest to it and cooked them until they were crispy.
The crispy sweetfish were for broth, and the two less cooked ones went into the pot.

If she cooked the rice with the fish broth and placed the whole sweetfish on top, each grain of rice would be coated with oil.

It was the best way to enjoy fresh sweetfish whole, without wasting a single bone.
It was sweetfish pot rice.

“This side is amazing too!”

While Dorothy was holding her hungry stomach and screaming with joy.
The two teachers’ dishes were gradually being completed.

“5 minutes left! Hurry~ Hurry~”

There was not much time left.

Eloa was resting the medium-rare steak to lock in the juices, and
Rinne was removing the flesh from the sweetfish taken from the pot rice so that it would be easy to eat.

“Time’s up…!”

And so, the two teachers’ dishes were completed.

Eloa’s course was steak, Boeuf Bourguignon, and mashed potatoes.
It was a hearty, meaty home-style course that looked filling just by looking at it.

On the other hand, Rinne’s course was sweetfish salad, pot rice, miso soup, and salt-grilled sweetfish.
It was a lavish yet simple meal set on a small table.

The two of them brought out their dishes with flushed faces.
Both Rinne and Eloa had eyes full of pride and confidence in their victory.

“Be sure to tell us the results.”
“Please be honest.”

Siwoo, who had somehow gotten involved, realized that he had to choose one of the two teachers’ dishes.

“Then… I’ll eat.”

His heart was heavy, but the food looked too delicious.
Let’s think about it after eating.

“Thank you for the meal!”

Dorothy, who was overly excited, received glares from Rinne and Eloa as the tasting began.