Chapter 52
Chapter 52: Crossroad (3)
When they got back to the kitchen, it had the same awkward atmosphere as the garden. It could only be like that regardless of the mission. Because if it wasnt a mission which they were proficient in like steak, it was difficult for them.
However, Josephs theme had an easier point compared to Alans.
You are paella?
Jo Minjoon asked with a hopeless face. Chloe nodded and replied.
Yes. I was also surprised. I never thought that a spanish dish would appear.
After she talked like that, she let out a sigh. However Jo Minjoon was rather envious of her. Because at least, you could make paella without cheese.
He did make risotto at times, but it didnt suit it that well. Maybe because it was a dish that was basically mixed with cheese. It wasnt that he didnt like it. He couldnt digest it well. Didnt he get a stomachache right before the preliminaries eating risotto?
Even if he could make an edible risotto, he wasnt confident in making a perfect one.
Because he couldnt even cook risotto al dente. Excluding expensive restaurants, they all served disastrous risottos. Maybe, it could be to suit their tastes, but the rice grains were usually fully cooked and crushed.
Because he had lived eating those kinds of risottos, he couldnt get a model example of risotto. Even so, the reason he didnt feel despair was because he had the strength of the system. Because when he was designing the recipe, if there was an awkward point, it would be seen through the estimated score.
You picked fresh ingredients well. What kind of risotto are you planning to make?
Its a risotto made with pear, prosciutto and sage.
The sages aroma is strong, and its also the same for prosciutto. Will you be able to make it as to those ingredients dont clash against each other?
Im planning to use the least amount of sage possible. If the dish is done as Im thinking it to be, at least, it wont be thrown in the trash bin.
The judges looked at him with envious eyes without saying anything. Jo Minjoon didnt mind and concentrated on cooking. The estimated cooking score was 6. Although the recipe was good, it also meant that it lacked something. Actually, risotto was that kind of dish. Because rather than the recipe, the chefs hands could make a difference of heaven and earth. If you were a beginner, it was a dish which you would fail 100 times out of 100.
And thats why Jo Minjoon could concentrate harder than ever. Jo Minjoon poured olive oil and heated it sufficiently. He couldnt let it smoke. Because that meant that the oil was burning. When it started to have a shiny gloss, it meant that it was already heated.
Jo Minjoon sliced the prosciutto thinly and placed it on the oil along with four leaves of sage. After waiting for it to become crispy, he had to take them out with a sieve and place it over kitchen towel to take off the oil.
The next was the gravy. Jo Minjoon poured the chicken gravy in a mid sized saucepan and turned on the fire. It was a must to use an appropriate fire strength.
Be brought the gravy on fire and Jo Minjoon placed the shallots and the prosciutto on a cutting board. It wasnt the prosciutto he had fried just then, but a new one. He chopped the same amount of prosciutto he had fried along with shallots, and he just had to fry it in the low heated frying pan.
Before the shallots turned brown from frying, there were many things he had to do in those 1 to 2 minutes. First, he had to take out the sage leaves for a bit, and had to peel the pear to chop it the size of a dice. As he was handling the pear and looking around, the onions were already finished cooking. Jo Minjoons hands fastened. And that was the reason. A voice was heard.
Minjoon! Look at your hands! Hands!
It was Emily. Jo Minjoon checked his surroundings dumbfoundedly. And only then did he notice that his left thumb had quite a deep wound. Jo Minjoon raised his left arm. The medical crew quickly approached him and disinfected and sprayed hemostatic medicine in his thumb. Emily asked with a worried face.
Can you continue?
I will.
Jo Minjoon replied briefly and chopped the remaining pear with his other hand and put it on the frying pan. Pear, rice, and a teaspoon of sage. It wasnt frying but just coating it in oil while shaking the pan, and the next was the wine. After the treatment ended, he put on a rubber glove, and he poured half a cup of dry wine in the frying pan. His hand burned, but Jo Minjoon was too concentrated to bother about that.
He raised the fire of the pan that had the mixed ingredients, and Jo Minjoon just waited for the wine to boil down in the rice grains. And only then could he notice Emily that was still looking at him concerned. But she wasnt the only one. He didnt know when he had come, but Alan also approached him and was looking at his hands. Precisely speaking, at his left hand. Jo Minjoon looked down at his hand. Now that he was conscious of it, a hot and painful feeling made him frown.
Alan and Emily could not tell him to stop and get a proper treatment. Because they knew really that for Jo Minjoon, and all the other participants, this place had a deep meaning. Jo Minjoon composed himself and said.
Im okay. Theres no need for you to be concerned.
..As soon as the mission ends, get proper treatment.
Alan said in a blunt voice and turned his back. Emily too let a sigh and went to another table. Jo Minjoon bit his lips. The pain was getting worse, but it wasnt the time to be crying.
The thumb.moving it is a bit difficult.
Because of the pain, he couldnt feel it well. However he was already done with the knife. The inconvenience wasnt that big of a problem.
When the wine was almost boiled down in the rice, Jo Minjoon poured about half a cup of the boiling chicken gravy on the rice. When it boiled down, another cup. It boils down and another cup.
And like that, 10 or 15 minutes passed and the rice grains were slowly becoming more sticky. And that was the time to put in the remaining pear. Jo Minjoon peeled off the pear, chopped it just like before and then put it on the pan. The pear slowly started to lose shape under the hot gravy and then disappeared.
Jo Minjoon repeated tasting it. He felt the roundness of the rice grains, and also felt the faint aroma inside it. He couldnt exactly know what al dente meant, but he tried his best to give it flavor. It was through the taste his system couldnt do, but his tongue could.
It was hard. The rices flavor, pears flavor, wines flavor, gravys flavor, sages flavor. Feeling all of these flavors at the same time was a really difficult thing to do. However, Jo Minjoon was in a state of concentration like never before. It was an unfamiliar dish. And because of that, he had to evaluate it more perfectly.
Jo Minjoon soon forgot about the pain in his thumb. He just felt the flavors. Flavor, aroma, texture. The only thing he was seeing right now was the risotto, and he was only listening to the rice grains exploding in his mouth. Jo Minjoon put all of his concentration in his tongue. No, precisely speaking he wasnt concentrated in his tongue. Cooking. Jo Minjoon was immersed in cooking. No, the cooking embraced him.
Even before he used all of the gravy, Jo Minjoon confirmed that the rice grains were completed. They were inflated like a balloon, and when he chewed the insides of it, his teeth felt the softness. The aroma of the wine and chicken gravy; and the aroma of the sage and prosciutto tickled his nose like an elaborated puzzle.
Jo Minjoon turned off the fire, and started to cool the risotto. After a minute passed, he put in the melted butter, cheese and pepper to do the seasoning. It was completed.
The estimated score was 6?
Jo Minjoon bit his lips and stared at the risotto. The system was his strength. In the end, it didnt decide his limits. An excellent risotto. Although he had never eaten a proper risotto, in the end it was still food. A delicious one. And Jo Minjoon knew how to give it flavor. Just like Alan had said, he knew what cooking was. Although he didnt have the absolute sense of taste they thought he had Jo Minjoon believed in his talent and passion for cooking.
Theres a saying that those who believe in themselves have no impossible things. At times, he thought that that versicle was too idealistic and simple, but now he got the feeling he had comprehended those words.
And that comprehension and trust, compensated him.
[You made a risotto thats over your limits with a surprising concentration!]
[The ingredients have perfectly harmonised themselves. The rice you made is taking all of that flavor!]
[The mastery of Italian cuisine cooking has risen!]
Jo Minjoons eyes shook. He looked at the last window with those shaking eyes.
[Pear risotto]
Freshness: 95%
Origins: (Too many ingredients to show)
Origins: High
Cooking score: 8/10
< crossroad=”” (3)=””> End