Gumihou: The general edit here is mostly smoothing out paragraphs and making them seem more lively.
Ugh, my day felt ruined thanks to those annoying guys.
Aren’t you people from the church?! Why are you guys acting like yakuza or debt collectors?!!
Haahhh…
Just thinking about those money-grubbing fellows make me sick.
After reporting them to the Guild, I returned to the mansion to prepare the offerings fo-
[1] “”Oi! Meat skewers!””
…fine, after buying up a bunch of meat skewers from several stalls, I returned to the mansion. After pulling out the skewers and serving a meat skewer lunch for my familiars…
[1]
“Oh my, this is delicious,”
“Fumu, but of course,”
“”Meat is always delicious, especially grilled meat!!””
“”Meat~~””
[1]
…I had a couple of sticks myself and bought the necessary offerings for tonight.
Then, I sat down and brooded for a couple of minutes.
Yes, it was time.
If there was ever a time to unseal a recipe, it was now.
This particular recipe is kind of a pain to make, which was why I haven’t made it yet, but… to cheer myself up from the funk that those greedy money-grubbing so-called religious idiots pushed me into… I want to eat it.
Yes.
Let’s make it.
The Mille-feuille Pork Cutlets. [2]
To be honest, I really like this refined version of pork cutlet, but haven’t made them yet because it takes a lot of time and effort.
Still, it’s super delicious.
Since it’s basically a deep-fried layered pork cutlet, I am free to put whatever I like in between the meat layers.
My favourites are cheese, pickled plum sauce and shiso leaves.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, with the title of Solitary Chef, I could quickly make complicated dishes all on my own. Especially complicated dishes with many components like Mille-feuille Pork Cutlets.
Haha.
Aahhhh, since I’m not sure when I’ll be inspired to make more, let’s make two versions. A standard Meat Only version and a Cheese-In version.
In fact, I’d like to make Cheese-In and Plum/Shiso version, but meat supremacist Fer would probably take offence.
Anyway, let’s get the necessary ingredients from [Net Super] first.
I’ll need to get a supply of Melty Cheese [3], eggs for batter and plenty of breadcrumbs. Once I have collected all the ingredients, it was time to prep.
First, layered some finely sliced Orc Meat, sprinkling each layer with a bit of salt and pepper. Each katsu was 10 slices thick.
Naturally, the thicker the stack, the juicier the pork cutlets. Even, so, there should be a balance between thickness and doneness. Although, since my familiars could eat raw meat…
The Cheese-In versions were 7 stacks deep, with three stacks of cheese in between. It was then I realised that using cheese slices would be a better idea since those were thinner and flatter…
“Hmm, let’s use all my sliced cheese first and the melty cheese later,”
The batter was a simple one made with flour, eggs and water, whisked until no lumps remain. Unlike regular cutlets which use egg wash only, a proper batter gives the layered meat more structure.
Finally, press the battered meat into the breadcrumbs and set aside.
The frying oil should be around 170 degrees. Not too high or the breadcrumbs would burn. Frying the Mille-Feuille Cutlets is mostly about waiting and watching. Once the breadcrumbs had firmed up, flip it. Flip the cutlets fairly often until it reaches the perfect golden brown colour.
I had a few pans of hot oil on the stove and spent the rest of the day frying up loads of Mille-Feuille Cutlets.
“Phew~ right,” I said as the last piece of cutlet was taken out of the oil, “that should do it.”
“Woah, these are very delicious!” Grandpa Gon groaned with delight as he ate one of the Meaty Mille-Feuille Cutlets with Tonkatsu sauce in one bite.
“Umu, it’s acceptable,” muttered Fer. This fellow… he was trying to show that he was more sophisticated than Grandpa Gon, but there was no hiding his excited tail.
“”It’s crispy and juicy and this savoury, sour sauce makes it even more delish~~!”” Dora-chan declared as he ripped into another piece of cutlet.
Traditional Tonkatsu (Pork Cutlet) sauce works really well even with these fancy cutlets.
“”Sui likes the creamy, white thing inside~~””
Ah, as expected. We have the same taste, Sui~~
I want one too~
After snagging one of the Cheese-In Mille-Feuille Cutlets, I cut into it with a knife and fork like a civilized person and dipped a corner of the meat into the sauce.
“Kuhh~~ Delish~! As expected, melted cheese is too amazing~~”
I stuffed my mouth with steaming white rice.
Oooff, another great companion to rice!
Since I’m having a Tonkatsu Rice Set, the side dish of finely sliced cabbage could not be missed.
To complete the set, I pulled out a Premium cold beer from my [Item Box].
The best companion to fried food is here!
Pssshhh, gulp, gulp, gulp.
“Haahhh~~ this is the life~”
Beer and fried food are the best combo.
“Seconds! Meat only!”
“Here too, please.”
“”Meat for me too!””
“”Sui wants the one with the white thing~~””
Yes, yes.
Goodness me, seeing everyone eating my food with such relish made the sting of ‘Solitary Chef’ less painful. [4] [4]
““Hey, can we have dessert too? I’ve been craving them extra badly after my teeth switched out.””
Dora-chan’s mature teeth fell out about two weeks ago and the newly grown teeth were almost as large as the old ones. Are you a shark or something?
When the teeth first fell out, I thought I had given my familiar cavities from too many sweets. Thus, as their master, I restricted the consumption of sweets, much to everyone’s dismay.
“”It’s just a phase!”” Dora-chan had wailed. “Like a snake shedding skin. It’s just new teeth coming in.””
I studied Dora-chan’s new teeth. Well, it did look kind of normal? I guess I shouldn’t have used human standards to judge monsters…
“Okay, since you guys helped me get rid of those Rubanove people, the ban on desserts has been lifted.”
“”Yay~~!!””
“”Awesome~~!!””
“You can order a limit of up to three items today, since it’s been a long time since we’ve had any. Tomorrow, you’ll get two, after that you’ll only get one dessert a day unless there’s a special occasion.”
“”Aww…””
Sui and Dora-chan were disappointed, of course, but it was still better than going without.
“Right, what do you want?”
“”Pudding~!! Pudding, pudding, pudding!!””
“”Cake~! Sui wants a sweet cake~~!!””
“Mm, I’ll have the usual,” said Fer in that pretentious tone.
“Right, Pudding for Dora-chan, a Strawberry Shortcake for Fer and Sui… are you alright with a Chocolate Cake?”
““Yes~~””
“Master, what is this dessert thing?”
“Ah, that’s right, Grandpa Gon hasn’t had any yet. Let’s see, it’s sweet food that’s eaten after a meal.”
“Sweet food? Is it like the sweet cider or cola?”
“Hmm, those are drinks. How about I chose for you this time?”
“Umu, please, I trust Master’s judgement when it comes to food.”
“Alright,”
I scrolled through Fujiya’s menu, selecting three different Sundae Puddings in Strawberry, Banana and the standard Custard flavour.
For Sui, I picked out a Cream filled Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Chiffon Cake and a Chocolate Banana Cake filled with banana-flavoured cream.
For Grandpa Gon, I first picked out a Strawberry Shortcake for him. Since Fer only wants those, I just ordered four of them. I also included a Limited Edition Summer Tart and, considering Grandpa Gon’s image of maturity, a Matcha Cake.
After checking out, I served everyone their desserts. Fer, Sui and Dora-chan immediately fell on the desserts as it had been a long time since they had any.
Grandpa Gon was studying his line of desserts curiously.
“Go on,” I encouraged. “Try them and let me know which one you like best.”
“Hmm,” Grandpa Gon snapped up the Strawberry Shortcake in one bite. “The cream accents the flavour of the sweet and sour fruit, very nicely. Umu, the sponge is very soft.”
Next, he ate the Sweet Summer Tart, “Hmm, this one has a better crunch to it. The cream is thicker too, which enhances the flavour of the other fruits. Very nice.”
He looked at the Matcha Cake, “Compared to the other two, this is less colourful. The scent is… there is a bit of a bitterness to it.”
“This one is made from a type of green tea called matcha. Desserts made from matcha are very popular in my world.”
“Is that so? Then…”
One lick and the Matcha Cake was gone.
“Fumu, fumu, it’s not as sweet, but, there is something about it…”
Fufufu, looks like the next dessert request would likely be matcha related for Grandpa Gon.
While everyone enjoyed their desserts, I leaned back with my sweet café au lait.
Nice, the unpleasant incidents this morning had been replaced by the nice afterglow of good food and good company~
[Gumihou: Deleted some repeated stuff, but everything else is mostly canon~~]
[1] Author seemed to have forgotten this promise, but I seriously don’t think Fer would let Mukouda forget it.
[2] Mille-feuille Pork Cutlet – thin layer of pork slices stacked like lasagne with shiso leaves and pickled plum puree in between, coated in breadcrumbs and fried.
Like, a super refined pork cutlet.
https://www.nhk.or.jp/dwc/food/recipe/beginners_31011.html – this one is baked, but the recipe is closest to what Mukouda made
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JrWwFIdsWXg – Food Wishes made a version he called ‘Layered Pork Katsu’ which involved pounding half a pork loin into a large flat sheet of meat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY_tfmiDcVo – Cooking ASMR (Korean channel) uses several pieces of sliced pork belly to make one cutlet
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80gQYX4g3dg – Sana.TV (Korean/Japanese family)
[3] Torokeru Cheese – Melty Cheese
Processed cheese that is made to melt nicely on pizza or in food like Hambaagu or other cheese stuffed thingies. Just google とろけるチーズ
https://search.rakuten.co.jp/search/mall/%E3%81%A8%E3%82%8D%E3%81%91%E3%82%8B%E3%83%81%E3%83%BC%E3%82%BA/
It’s a special Japanese product. I did try to look up to see if it was made from some combination of known cheese but, the good ones are just made from ‘milk and salt with no cellulose’
[4] Deleted Repeats of: Wow delish, wow they like, wow I’m happy, wow delish
About 300 words worth of it
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