LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 79
Corvus patiently indulged Alicia’s tantrums for a while.
Alicia swung her fists passionately, sweating profusely.
The monster being subject to her antics simply clicked its beak, staring at her like a cute rabbit.
But one can’t go on like this forever.
With nails neatly tucked away, Corvus lightly hoisted Alicia up.
“Let’s stop here.”
“Alicia hasn’t even—Karem’s—done yet—”
“Lord Karem is making a new menu along with a gift.”
“—seems to have given! Yes! Let’s go forward!”
Alicia’s sullen face was only momentarily forgotten.
Her transition was quicker than flipping her palm.
Radiating curiosity and joy, Alicia patted Corvus’s arm urging him on.
After seeking Corvus’s approval, Karem borrowed a basket, filled it with a variety of mutated Fire Witch Fingers, and followed behind the two, no, one person and the monster.
“Though it may be smaller than other kitchens in Winterhome, let me guide you to my kitchen.”
“You cook quite well then?”
Corvus nodded, indulging Alicia’s antics.
“As you can see, given my body, it’s far-fetched to be served by someone, and work is limited as well.”
Corvus turned his beak to gently pick a feather that precariously poked out from his shoulder and handed it to Alicia.
“Naturally, I ended up getting involved in cooking. The greenhouse has plenty of vegetables and fruits, and groceries come regularly.”
“Are you allowed to use the plants in the greenhouse freely?”
“I suppose you could call it a privilege of being the greenhouse manager. Thanks to that, I can enjoy fresh, sweet fruits, and rare crops even in midwinter.”
Corvus bragged, saying it was one of the few joys he had.
Indeed, the source of the fresh fruits supplied to the kitchen was that greenhouse.
They were led through the forest of the greenhouse to a space close to the kitchen—no, the residence of the greenhouse manager.
Karem felt uncertain.
Under the shade of a large tree, there lay a massive nest made from various branches and straw, with furniture scattered around.
“A kitchen? A residence? It’s confusing.”
“The two words are a bit anthropocentric, so please call it a nest.”
“Well, where are the groceries?”
“Oh, are you setting the menu?”
“Yes. A few ideas floating around.”
Actually, that was a lie.
Karem hadn’t thought about the menu at all.
“I’m planning to decide for sure after seeing the prepared ingredients.”
“Then follow me this way.”
Still holding Alicia, Corvus guided Karem to a decently built cabin on the outskirts of the nest.
Wait, you built a nest outside when there’s an intact house? Why?
As if reading Karem’s thoughts, Corvus set down Alicia and opened his beak.
“I’m a bit introverted among my kind, and strangely, I feel more comfortable outside than indoors.”
“So, you’re using the leftover cabin as a storage room?”
“Yes.”
Whether he was sincere about it or not, the inside of the cabin was filled with various groceries, covering the floor from top to bottom, more than before the population increased in the tower’s kitchen.
Karem was taken aback, intending to survey and decide on his cooking.
Having so many ingredients just made more recipes bloom in Karem’s mind.
“I need to take a closer look inside.”
“Feel free to look around. I’ll prepare the cooking utensils in advance. I’m looking forward to this. I should probably light the oven just in case.”
“Corvus is sure to enjoy Karem’s cooking!”
“That certainly sounds promising, Lady Alicia.”
As Alicia tugged at Corvus’s feathers and wandered off, Karem set down the basket he was holding.
He intended to examine the cabin’s interior properly.
As Karem stepped into the cabin, he felt the cold air.
A chill similar to that of the Wizard’s Tower’s storage room. It was definitely magic.
And then Karem’s eyes laid upon vegetables and fruits he’d never seen before.
In that moment, he suppressed his surging curiosity.
“Not yet. Let’s focus on the ingredients first.”
Karem was confident in his cooking.
However, he wasn’t sure enough to whip up recipes right off a light sampling.
With guests—no, people waiting, Karem couldn’t experiment right away and began to explore the cabin, focusing on familiar ingredients.
“Beef? Bell pepper jeon and Qingchao sixi? Without oyster sauce, the latter is obviously a no-go.”
Bell peppers might be a polarizing vegetable due to their distinct aroma and the genetic factor, yet they were still used in various dishes as either main or side ingredients.
Sichuan stir-fried bell pepper, stuffed grilled bell peppers, stuffed bell pepper dolmas, and bell pepper tsukune became popular in dramas, etc.
As Karem ventured further into the cabin, a room filled with various types of cheese presented itself. And curiously, a lone barrel was plopped among the cheese.
A barrel among cheese storage?
Karem found it hard to resist the curiosity this time.
When Karem lifted the barrel’s lid, a weak pungent scent that just barely registered as cheese wafted with a faint tang.
Inside was a thick, rich white paste, reminiscent of whipped cream but even thicker and denser.
It was a sight Karem was all too familiar with from his past life.
“Could this possibly be cream cheese?”
No way, could it really? Just in case…
Karem quickly grabbed the cheese knife resting on a nearby shelf.
The marks and textures created as the knife moved were definitely a familiar testament.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to taste just to be sure, so Karem sampled the presumed cream cheese off the knife.
“It’s definitely cream cheese?”
The thick and soft texture felt on his tongue.
The taste was several times richer than cream and had a mild sourness.
And the smell too.
Everything seemed like cream cheese.
And along with that, in Karem’s mind, a multitude of recipes aimed at each other, all pointing guns at one another, vanished, leaving only a single victorious recipe behind.
Poppers.
Originally made with jalapeños, it later became a traditional dish in America with various ingredients.
“It’s alright to make poppers now…”
Halved peppers, bell peppers, and mini peppers were filled and mixed with cream cheese, baked poppers are great as a snack or as drinking food.
If wrapped in bacon according to taste, it’s even better.
Honestly, it’s a combination that’s hard to dislike.
Moreover, the Fire Witch Finger Karem had filled his basket with had a taste somewhat similar to bell pepper and was still small enough to be perfect for making poppers.
And the cabin was overflowing with various spices to mix with the cream cheese.
There was bacon too. Of course, it was sirloin bacon, but cutting only the fatty portions and using it would solve any issues without a hitch.
In making poppers, not many ingredients were needed, so Karem quickly loaded up a basket and exited the cabin.
At the nest, Corvus was already lighting the oven after finishing the equipment maintenance.
Nearby, Alicia had begun zoning out, staring at the flames flickering inside the oven.
As the boy made a sound, Corvus turned his head.
“Oh, Lord Karem. You’ve arrived.”
“I’m not a lord, you know.”
“Then we’ll add ‘Sir.’ By the way, hmm?”
At the sight of the ingredients bundled with the mutated Fire Witch Fingers, Corvus clicked his beak.
“That barrel is from this morning when I accidentally dropped a few drops of vinegar into the cream barrel. I was going to throw it away later due to its strange condition, but—”
“Oh dear, throwing away something this delicious?”
Alicia, who had been staring blankly at the oven, responded.
“Delicious!”
“Lady Alicia, would you like to taste it?”
There was no need to wait for an answer.
Karem picked up a piece of bread from the basket, sliced it thinly, and generously spread the cream cheese on it before handing it over.
“Oh wow, it’s somewhat buttery. The color is a bit whiter though.”
“But the taste will differ entirely. For the better.”
Alicia bit down on the bread immediately.
Her eyes widened, and she started jumping in place.
The slightly dried and crispy bread spread with pure white cream cheese—
The flavor, fresher than butter and denser than whipped cream, reminiscent of concentrated milk jam, conquered Alicia’s mouth.
In the midst of enjoying something entirely different from the jams, butter, and cream she had spread on bread until now, Karem borrowed a knife and cutting board.
Corvus approached, polishing his nails to a shine with a wet towel.
“Karem, I’ll help you prepare. Seemingly a lot, so let me assist.”
“Oh, in that case, could you please handle the Fire Witch Fingers in the basket?”
“How should I prepare them?”
“Please remove the stems and slice them in half, taking out the seeds and the stems.”
With that, Karem immediately added salt from the cabin along with various spices, cheddar, and parmesan cheese into the container holding the cream cheese and mixed them together.
The filling made from that was generously stuffed into the hollowed mutated Fire Witch Fingers.
Corvus, perhaps gaining some insight into Karem’s cooking style, momentarily opened and closed his beak.
Stuffed dishes are common anywhere you look in the world, so it was understandable.
Just as in Karem’s past life, dishes similar to dumplings made with flour dough were common on the continent of Europa.
Even without flour dough, dishes involve stuffing meat or vegetables and baking or boiling them were common.
It was common in the Kingdom of Seophone to stuff fruits, or anything at all into whole roasted meats when roasting beef, pork, or chicken.
“Karem, will you wrap it with bacon and roast it like this?”
“Not quite right. It goes like this.”
Karem brought the halved, stuffed fire finger together as one.
Thanks to the somewhat viscous cream cheese, it stuck together, but he couldn’t cook it like this, so he soon wrapped it with bacon.
“Just like this, pop it into the oven, and it’s done.”
“That sounds delicious! But it seems like it’s going to take a long time. Hmm.”
“Well, attaching the bacon to the stuffed fire fingers takes time, so there’s no helping it.”
But the more effort put into cooking, the sweeter the fruits.
Of course, while Alicia, like a pink steamed bun alien, gleamed her eyes in anticipation, that was joy in itself.
Seeing the guests enjoy the food is the true joy of a cook.
“Hmm, Karem, I want to try it too.”
“Feel free to do so. But the tools might…”
“Please use this butter knife. I’ll help with my claws as well.”
Naturally, Alicia played more than made the poppers with the ingredients.
Her poppers undoubtedly turned out lumpy, with stuffing spilling out in an unrefined fashion.
Once the poppers were ready, Corvus promptly placed them in a row on the pan and stuck them in the hot oven, where they would wait to be filled.
“Hmm, the cooking method is rather straightforward.”
“It’s just a matter of filling the hollow with the contents and wrapping them in bacon before baking. That is all for poppers.”
“How long will it take?”
“Just until the bacon is crispily cooked.”
Alicia, who was fidgeting in anticipation, lifted her head.
“Karem. I want to eat more of that bread spread with cream cheese.”
“Well, it seems we still have enough left for us to share.”
“Hmm, simply adding vinegar into the cream still yielded such a rich and dense flavor…”
The toast, quickly crisping up in the oven’s heat.
As she spread the spiced cream cheese on top, a rich aroma began to rise.
It was just a very simple open sandwich, but because of that, the flavors of the ingredients felt even more alive.
Various spices and other cheeses muddled the pure taste of the cream cheese.
But perhaps due to the harmonious blend of the diverse ingredients, the taste felt even richer.
And as the time passed and all the remaining cream cheese and bread vanished,
A unique and mouthwatering smell began wafting from the oven, something Alicia and Corvus had never encountered before.