Chapter 46 Completion

Chapter 46: Done

"Marian said we're supposed to stir hard clockwise with a spoon along the side of the bowl... counterclockwise works too. Mix the spinach paste and olive oil until it solidifies. And note, 'solidifies' here doesn't mean a solid block, but a thick, viscous state," Sirius read from his notes.

"Your notes are really detailed, and you asked the right questions during the lesson. With you being so careful and diligent, we'll make this spinach sauce taste great," Xavier said with a smile. "Let me do it."

So, he started stirring the spinach paste clockwise.

"It's not that good. I just really didn't get what 'solid state' meant at the time," Sirius said, feeling a little proud from the praise. "But you're right about one thing, we are going to make this spinach sauce delicious. It already smells much better than spinach salad."

"We can taste it tonight, using the spinach sauce on noodles," Xavier suggested.

"That sounds delicious. So for tonight, it's noodles with spinach sauce and fish," Sirius announced. "Once we get these zucchini in jars, we'll go catch fish."

"Okay," Xavier nodded.

With more oil and constant stirring, the spinach paste gradually merged with the oil, becoming smooth as a big pat of spinach butter. At this point, it was ready to be jarred.

The jars and lids for the spinach sauce were washed in advance and dried in the sun. Not a single drop or smear of water could be left inside.

Marian repeated this three times. This was the key to the spinach sauce's long-term preservation.

If there was water in the jar, the sauce would get moldy from the inside out, wasting all the effort of growing the vegetables and making the sauce.

Sirius carefully filled the dry jars with the spinach sauce, leaving a small gap at the top. He poured in a layer of olive oil to seal it, then put on the lids.

"Phew. Another one done," he said to Xavier, hands on his hips. "Today's been plenty busy already. Alright, now we have to do the hardest job."

"It's not too hard," Xavier said. "It's just a bit tedious. We can split it into two parts."

"You're right. Doing it in two parts sounds much simpler. I'll slice the zucchini, and you get the fire going to roast them," Sirius said. "I'm worried if they smell too good while roasting, I won't be able to stop myself from sneaking a bite."

"Would you? Aren't you afraid I might sneak a bite too?" Xavier joked, though it wasn't particularly funny.

"I might not, but you definitely wouldn't. You seem more... more honest," Sirius thought for a moment.

"Hmm..." Xavier frowned, as if he didn't quite agree with that answer.

But Sirius was already lost in slicing zucchini, and wasn't coming up for air anytime soon.

They roasted the sliced zucchini over the fire, let it cool, and then it was ready for the jars.

The marinade for the zucchini was a mixture of olive oil, garlic slices, chopped parsley, and vinegar. It was poured into the jars, leaving a small gap at the top, and then sealed with a layer of olive oil, just like the spinach sauce.

Finally, all the work was done!

The kitchen was filled with jars and bottles. Sirius and Xavier kept a small portion of the pickles and sauces in the kitchen cabinet and moved the rest to the storage room.

Floor-to-ceiling shelves stood against the left and right walls of the storage room. This small room could only fit four shelves, all made by them bit by bit during the evenings using the best, sturdiest wood. They fixed the shelves directly to the walls to minimize the risk of collapse.

Although the shelves had been finished days ago, they held very few items—just half a sack of dried fish and a small basket of dried mushrooms. The shelves were so empty even mice wouldn't bother visiting.

But once they put the pickles and sauces on them, things looked a lot better.

This time, they made 16 jars of pickled shredded cabbage, 20 jars of pickled cucumbers, 4 jars of spinach sauce, and 17 jars of pickled zucchini.

The harvest from the fields was more than this; the rest were hung on drying racks to make dried vegetables.

A small portion that ripened later was still in the ground. For the next while, they wouldn't have to worry much about food; if anything, they might worry about having too much to eat.

After locking the storage room door, they headed towards the riverbank.

Using the same old method, they rowed to a deeper spot, threw in some chopped rabbit entrails, and waited patiently.

Sirius stared at the water's surface. Ripples spread outwards from where the entrails sank, gradually weakening. There seemed to be no movement below.

"Maybe today isn't a lucky day for fishing?" he whispered to Xavier.

"Wait a bit longer. If there's nothing here, we'll move to another spot," Xavier said with certainty. "We'll definitely catch fish today."

"Yeah, we'll definitely catch fish today," Sirius also inexplicably felt a strange belief that the boat would soon be filled with fish.

After a while, fish hiding in the depths indeed surfaced, searching for the food that had fallen from the sky.

Now!

Sirius and Xavier raised their swords simultaneously. With a splash, five fish were skewered on the two swords!

Fish +5.

"Aha! A great haul!" Sirius's joyful laughter echoed over the water. "Home, home, let's go home now!"

"How about pan-fried fish fillets, or fried fish fillets? We could also make fish soup," Xavier suggested.

"Hmm, let me think," Sirius said, sliding the fish from the swords into a bucket. "I want fried fish chunks."

"Alright. We still have two bird eggs and plenty of olive oil left, enough to fry a large plate of fish chunks," Xavier said.

"Can we eat the fried fish chunks with spinach sauce too?" Sirius asked.

He had high expectations for the freshly made spinach sauce and wanted to use it on all sorts of foods.

"The spinach sauce itself tastes good; it'll be delicious," Xavier assured him.

"I'm starting to look forward to it," Sirius said, shaking the bucket with the fish.

Back at the shore, they scaled the fish and cleaned out the guts in the river. A few more fish came over hoping for scraps and were caught as well.

Fish +3.

Injured fish wouldn't survive the night. After killing all the fish, they now had a decent amount of salt, so they didn't need to make smoked fish but could use salt to make dried fish.

But not the overly salty kind—just a light layer of salt rubbed on the fish to make slightly salty dried fish.

They kept only two fish for tonight's dinner, hanging up the rest to dry.

Summer was nearing its end. It wasn't a particularly rainy season now, and cool breezes were becoming more frequent—perfect for drying all sorts of goods.

Back in the kitchen.

Sirius searched the cabinet for seasonings while Xavier placed the fish on the cutting board to debone and remove the meat.

"Should we add some pepper flakes to the batter? We also have fennel seeds, exchanged from the last trip to the grocery store," Sirius said.

"Both. Grind the pepper and fennel seeds finely; we'll also use them when marinating the fish," Xavier said while picking out fish bones.

"Okay. How much flour?" Sirius asked, grabbing two small handfuls of each and putting them into the mortar.

"Scoop two spoonfuls of flour with a soup spoon." Xavier began cutting the fish into chunks.

Sirius scooped the flour, set it aside, and started vigorously pounding in the mortar with a steady "thump, thump, thump."

After cutting the fish, Xavier came over to look. "That's fine, it's crushed enough. Leave the rest to me."

Sirius stopped and followed him to watch how he mixed the batter.

Xavier poured half of the crushed pepper and fennel seed powder into the flour, sprinkled in a pinch of salt, cracked in the two remaining eggs, added two teaspoons of olive oil, and finally, a little water.

He mixed the pale yellow batter to a slightly thin consistency. He tossed the simply seasoned fish chunks—just a bit of salt and the spice powder—into the batter and stirred a few times until each piece was fully coated.

"Can we fry the fish chunks now?" Sirius asked, then felt he'd asked a silly question. "I mean, shouldn't we make the noodles now? The fish won't be as good cold."

"We can fry the fish chunks now," Xavier nodded. "We can prepare the noodles first and cook them after all the fish is fried."

Sirius nodded; he still wanted to watch the fish frying for a while longer.

Olive oil was poured into a small cast-iron pot to a shallow depth, and they waited for it to heat up.

The method to judge if the oil was hot was simple: drop a little batter into it.

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Author's note: Night night! [Calico Cat]