The European Emperor’s character remains standing

Chapter 200 Summer Cherries: On the Ways to Eat Cherries

Not to mention how many hardships An Zhe'er went through to obtain the raw materials, but his confident attempts failed repeatedly, and he finally had to give up on the difficult dish of "Lantern Shadow Beef".

On their way to collect ingredients, Lin Shilu and Ling Xia divided their entries into simple and advanced versions, both easy enough for beginners. Lin Shilu was responsible for the simplified version, while Ling Xia was responsible for the complete version, which could also be considered an advanced attempt at the simplified version. Their first dish was based on a summer cold drink.

Three days of gaming passed, and the two, who had been working tirelessly, had collected almost all the ingredients from the nearby food map. With their indecisiveness aggravated, they looked at the numerous summer food recipes but still couldn't decide what to make for their first dish.

Previously, Lin Shilu and An Zhe'er divided their responsibilities: Lu Zai was in charge of desserts, while Zhe'er was in charge of gourmet dishes. They collected ingredients separately and decided on the menu for the competition.

In the sweltering summer heat, the floating islands hover in mid-air, and the heat is unbearable.

The number of members in the Sunset Red Gang is even more sparse, with only a handful remaining. A few of them went out to escape the summer heat not long ago, and now only Lu Zai and Ling Xia are left in the gang.

Originally, Lin Shilu wanted to use the gang's large kitchen to show off his skills, but it was too hot and he couldn't think of anything to cook, so he lay down next to the bar in the lobby as soon as he came in.

"I have no appetite in this hot summer. Aya, do you have any recommendations for summer ice cream or refreshing summer desserts? Something simple to make and suitable for competitions."

Lin Shilu lay listlessly on the table.

A dozen minutes ago, looking at the gang's abundant stash of treasures, she suggested, "How about we try making iced drinks?"

She was all show and no substance, and while she looked glamorous on the outside, the taste of her creations was indescribable. Whether it was juice or cocktails, none of them were as visually appealing or delicious as the three-color juice that Ling Xia could whip up at will.

In response to Lin Shilu's confusion, Ling Xia replied, "I just mixed it by feel. I didn't remember the recipe. Even if I adjust it later, it probably won't taste the same as it did back then."

Her strong survival instinct led her to add, "This is the only cup, just for you."

After making the three-color mixed drink, the system did prompt whether to record and save it as a recipe, but Ling Xia thought it was just something she made on a whim and didn't need to record it, so she missed out.

Seeing Lin Shilu looking listless and like a salted fish that's been fried to a crisp, she said, "Want to try cherry cheese?"

"It's very simple." The two had exchanged backpacks while collecting ingredients, so it was easy to take them out now.

"How do we do it?" Lin Shilu perked up at the question, his ahoge standing on end.

Ling Xia took out the necessary items from her backpack and demonstrated while explaining: "Remove the pits from the cherries, add white sugar, and simmer over medium heat to make cherry jam."

A dozen minutes later, the cherry sauce was freshly made, sweet and sour.

Lingxia ladled out a dish of cherry sauce, let it cool for a moment, added some shaved ice, stirred it together, placed it in front of Lu Zai, and thoughtfully handed him a spoon. After tasting it, Lin Shilu said with delight, "How appetizing!"

"I feel that the decreased appetite caused by the summer heat and the scorching heat have been dispelled. It is also very appetizing, and my appetite has improved a lot."

"This is cherry shaved ice. Besides shaved ice, it can also be made into jelly. But you have to make sure it's made with big cherries. Local small cherries have thin skins, so it's hard to cook them to get the unique peach color of big cherries."

Lingxia cleaned the pot, then selected some cherries, pitted and peeled them, boiled the peels to extract a peach-colored juice, added white agar powder or edible gelatin, and waited a while to form a peach-colored fruit jelly.

Cut into pieces, arrange on a plate, and drizzle with cherry sauce made from cooked fruit pulp. The peach-pink cherry jelly is ready!

"Try it. The one on the left is cherry sauce with cherry peels, and the one on the right is cherry sauce without the peels. If you taste it carefully, you should find that they are slightly different. Which one do you prefer?"

“The one on the right,” Lin Shilu replied.

"Then choose the one on the right." The answer was expected. The flesh of the large cherry is thick, and the skin is also quite thick. If it is not cleaned, it will affect the taste during the cooking process.

(The cherries used here are of the game variety; each cherry is about the size of an apple. Normally, when making cherry jam with large cherries, the skin doesn't need to be removed.)
"Actually, the local small cherries are more suitable for making cherry jam because they have a stronger sweet and sour flavor and thinner skin. I'll make some for you to try later."

"You can also add milk during the preparation process, which will make the flavor richer and the finished product will become milk jelly instead of fruit jelly."

During the explanation, Lin Shilu took out the system's note-taking function and recorded the speech in real time.

"I'll make you a few more cherry jelly dishes." Ling Xia's cooking skills and speed were superb. In no time, a jar of cherry sauce made from small cherries was ready, and a dozen minutes later, the cherry milk jelly was completed.

Cherry jelly, cherry shaved ice, cherry ice cream.

"You can try ice cream. Instead of piping it out like I do, you can try using molds."

There are two ways to make cherry yogurt: step one is to cook the cherry sauce; step two determines the final product.

Adding agar-agar powder and milk will turn it into jelly or milk jelly; using the process of making ice cream, it will become cherry jelly.

Lingxia put an apron on the deer and taught it how to make one step by step, completely eliminating any possibility of accidents.

With a slight upturn of her lips, she was in an exceptionally cheerful mood: "After the cherry jam is made, you can add a bowl of milk, an appropriate amount of white sugar and cornstarch, and a little cherry sauce to simmer. Once it thickens, you can pour it into a mold and refrigerate it to set."

"How much is 'appropriate'?" Lin Shilu asked, looking completely bewildered.

Ling Xia remained silent. This question was too simplistic. She usually relied on her sense of touch and didn't ask the chef about their sense of touch or how much "appropriate" was.

"The ratio of white sugar to cherry sauce depends on your taste. If the cherry sauce is on the sour side, then add a small amount of white sugar. If you prefer a sweeter taste and the cherry sauce is on the sour side, add a small amount of cherry sauce and some sugar. The amount of cherry sauce affects the appearance and color of the final product. You can adjust it according to your preference. If you like a lighter taste, then add less sugar and cherry sauce. If you like a richer taste, you can add more."

Ling Xia appeared calm on the surface, but her mind was racing. She thought to herself, "What was the ratio again? Let me think."

"Here's the recipe. 200ml milk, 30g white sugar, 30g cornstarch, plus a spoonful of cherry sauce. Simmer over medium heat until thickened, then pour into molds to set and refrigerate." She pulled up the recipe page, which hovered in mid-air, displayed in front of the two of them.

Ling Xia felt tears welling up in her eyes: "This time I'm completely broken." She never looks at recipes when cooking, she only relies on her instincts.

"200g, 30g?" Lin Shilu asked, puzzled. There were no measuring tools here.

Ling Xia never looks at recipes when cooking; she only relies on her sense of touch. So, she completely ignored the measuring tools used for making desserts that were kept in the cabinet in the gang's kitchen.

Lin Shilu looked up at her, hoping, "Could you be more specific?"

"Ah, so cute! I'm speechless." Ling Xia felt like she'd been shot by an arrow, and she collapsed to the ground pretending to be dead. No, she should be saying she was so cute that she got a nosebleed and lost too much blood.

"Well, just use an appropriate amount," Ling Xia said, picking up kitchen utensils to demonstrate. "You should pay attention to that."

"Don't start the fire right away. You can pour in the milk and all the necessary ingredients first, and then turn on the fire to cook."

The milk they manually collected wasn't pre-divided; instead, the system divided it into 99 portions. Fortunately, they had boxed milk in their backpacks, which solved their immediate problem.

"One carton of milk is 250ml. If you're unsure about the amount, you can use one carton of milk as a standard. If your pot is too big, you can use a smaller pot, otherwise it's easy to boil it dry. You can also make more by using two cartons of milk."

"As for the amount of white sugar and cornstarch, the total is half a carton of milk, so you can use 1/4 of the amount according to the size of the milk carton. If you use two cartons of milk, then the amount of cornstarch and white sugar should be doubled."

"If too little sugar is added when making cherry jam, it will generally be more sour and won't color well, so it's better to choose cherry jam made from large cherries."

"If you add too much cherry jam, the flavor of the ice cream will be too strong. You can try adding a spoonful of cherry jam and stirring first. Generally, one spoonful should be a fairly normal flavor. If you are not satisfied or the flavor is too strong, you can add a few more spoonfuls, but remember to add them in small amounts. If you don't like it too strong, you can add only half a spoonful of cherry jam and a little white sugar."

Lin Shilu proceeded in an orderly manner under guidance.

"Don't add water." Ling Xia's lips twitched when she saw Lin Shilu instinctively adding water.

"Adding water will dilute the flavor, and this isn't porridge, you're making ice cream. If you really want to add water, you can add half a carton of water." This is based on the amount in a milk carton.

Lin Shilu listened to the advice, but still added too much water.

"It's a bit runny right now. It might be closer to a popsicle after refrigeration. You can continue to simmer it until it thickens. The texture will become denser after that. Be careful not to burn it."

Lin Shilu was a complete novice in the kitchen. "Then how do I tell?"

"Use a spoon, scoop out a spoonful, stand it on its side, don't hold it too high so it won't easily slip down, just enough to reach a certain depth."

"Then I should be done now," Lin Shilu said cheerfully, looking at the finished product with delight.

Ling Xia put her arm around Lin Shilu's waist, pulled him aside with one hand, and immediately turned off the stove, thinking to herself, "Luckily I reacted quickly, otherwise this pot would have burned."

Lin Shilu was held like a silly roe deer, without struggling or resisting, and obediently stayed aside to watch the expert give instructions.

Lingxia put the pot aside to cool it down, then took out various clean molds of different colors and let Lu Zai choose. "You can choose the mold you like."

Faced with the dazzling array of molds collected by the two, Lin Shilu selected nine cute molds: rabbit, rose, moon, pear, star, cat, fish, leaf, and cloud.

Lingxia reached out and touched the edge of the pot to make sure the temperature had dropped, then handed the spoon to Luzai so she could fill the mold.

Actually, using a piping bag would work, but Ling Xia's sixth sense strongly objected, and she had a feeling that as soon as Lu Zai took the piping bag, the piping tape would be destroyed in an instant, and the kitchen would be splattered with the sealed contents of the piping bag, leaving a mess.

She secretly analyzed, "It seems that using a piping bag would also work, but you have to control the force. If it's too thin and the force is too strong, then none of them will be spared."

As I pondered, I heard the deer's voice beside me: "Aya, I've finished."

Looking up, I saw that all the various molds on the table were gone; the fawn had put them in the refrigerator.

She exclaimed, "Very good!"

"Don't you need to speed up?" Yes, you can use the speed-up button in the game.

If the assist function is enabled, the speed-up function can be activated when you are near the food preparation equipment.

Such as baking ovens and refrigerators.

Of course, for ovens like the Baumkuchen oven, manual operation is more reliable because there is no speed-up option. Being impatient will only cause the previously baked Baumkuchen to fall down along with the later ones.

“Delicious food that you have to wait for is more exciting, and since I made it myself, there’s a sense of accomplishment after the patience and waiting,” Lin Shilu smiled.

“That’s true.” Ling Xia admitted that she had been too hasty.

After two game sessions, Ling Xia opened the refrigerator and unmolded the cherry sorbet. The finished product was placed on a white jade plate, waiting for the diners to enjoy it.

Lin Shilu couldn't wait to scoop out a piece with a dessert spoon and taste it. "It seems like the taste is wrong. It doesn't have that special sour taste anymore."

A moment later, Ling Xia realized what was happening.

"You mean this?" She picked up a packet of seasoning powder from the table and sprinkled it on the sorbet. "Try it now."

"Yes, that's the taste. It has a unique sour flavor that's very appetizing."

Before Lu Zai could ask, Ling Xia replied, "It's a powder made by mixing plum powder and mint powder. I like to put this in when I make desserts; it's a little personal habit of mine."

"I made this with the plums and mint I collected earlier, and I put it in the corner of my backpack. If you like it, I can mark it." As she spoke, she added a star to the top of her backpack for the homemade appetizer powder.

Lin Shilu slammed his hand on the table and said, "I've decided that this will be the first dessert, a cherry-themed frozen dessert."

Ling Xia: "Okay."

"Now that we've got the frozen dessert, let's stick to cherry-based drinks. We use large cherries for the sorbet, so let's use small cherries for the drinks to whet our appetites."

Lin Shilu clasped her hands together, opened her eyes, and prayed, "The all-powerful Aya must have the relevant recipe or delicious food, right?"

"You can add some strawberries, mix it with cherry juice, or use a cocktail mixing method to make tea."

Lingxia turned to make the ingredients: jasmine tea, freshly squeezed strawberry juice, and frozen cherries.

Cherry and strawberry fruit tea is made by mixing jasmine tea as a base with cherry and strawberry juice, and finally placing a plump cherry on the rim of the cup.

"You can wait until it cools down before drinking it, but it's also good hot."

Lin Shilu waited a moment, allowing the steaming tea to change slightly before tasting it. "The taste is very unique, strangely sweet and sour, and it makes you want to drink it again after just one sip."

What if we add a little bit of appetizer powder?

Ling Xia smiled and said, "I don't always add appetizer powder; sometimes it actually ruins the original flavor. But you can try it if you want."

"Then let's try a 2.0 version of fruit tea!" Lin Shilu said excitedly, "If we add dried flowers and make it into a floral tea, wouldn't it look even better?"

Thanks to my best friend for the generous donation. My cooking skills are terrible, that's a real shame.