The Cooking Princess - Chapter 78

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Princess Who Cooks

Episode 78

Even if she remembered the royal banquet, it would be difficult to completely recreate what Chloe knew.

And elements that might divide preferences needed to be replaced or omitted.

The Empress would naturally try to find fault with Chloe’s cooking, so she had to prepare dishes that would at least please the Emperor.

‘First, I’ll include tarakjuk (*porridge made with milk), and exclude wild vegetables. If I add wild vegetables wrong, the Empress might complain that I dared serve food that only commoners eat to the Emperor.’

Tteokbokki would be good as a delicacy for dessert. Making rice cakes requires a lot of work, so I’ll need the servants’ help.

Chloe began carefully planning the royal banquet, selecting foods one by one.

‘I don’t remember exactly, but young Shuel used to dislike red foods.’

Judging from Shuel’s comment about being surprised by the bright red color when eating pasta, overly red foods would give the Empress something to complain about.

So if she wanted to serve red foods, she’d need to tone down the color or mix in other ingredients.

With that thought, Chloe first considered the porridge varieties.

‘I’ll serve tarakjuk first.’

Porridge made with milk was naturally smooth and wouldn’t burden the stomach, making it perfect as an appetizer before the main dishes.

Various recipes flashed quickly through Chloe’s mind.

‘Sinseollo (* traditional hot pot) absolutely cannot be left out of a royal banquet. Of course not.’

Having thought that far, Chloe pondered what meat dish to serve as the main course.

‘I’m torn between samgyetang and imjasuutang (* cold chicken broth with ground sesame, served with shredded chicken and vegetables)… Even if it takes more work, imjasuutang would be better for a royal banquet, right?’

Since this was a royal banquet after all, unlike before, Chloe planned to make various dishes without distinguishing between soup and steamed dishes.

‘For meat, I’ll serve braised beef ribs and neobiani (* thinly sliced beef with shallow cuts, seasoned and grilled thin).’

Thinking galbitang might also be good, Chloe pondered again.

‘I should prepare rice but also serve bread alongside it. Just in case it’s not to their liking.’

Chloe thought she should also prepare simple salads that could be eaten with bread.

‘For soup, gomguk would be better than seaweed soup. I heard some people dislike the slippery texture of seaweed.’

Thinking this, Chloe nodded and also considered how best to serve fish dishes.

‘Grilled or steamed might look too simple, so I’ll make eomandu (* dumplings made with thinly sliced fish as wrappers).’

The purpose of this royal banquet was to provide the Emperor with diverse and splendid foods, so that even if the Empress attacked Chloe over the cooking, it would appear to be ridiculous nitpicking.

‘I don’t even expect the Emperor to take my side. I just need him to know that I didn’t do anything wrong.’

Having thought that far, Chloe let out a deep sigh.

‘The biggest issue is that I can’t rashly include fermented foods for fear they might divide preferences. Sigh.’

It wasn’t just fermented foods she excluded.

Excluding wild vegetables that were treated like roadside weeds left things feeling subtly incomplete.

So after much deliberation, Chloe decided to add a few more vegetable dishes to the royal banquet.

‘Grilled deodeok should be fine, so I’ll include that too. If they say it’s tasteless, I can say I added it for health.’

Having thought that far, Chloe wrinkled her nose and pondered intensely.

‘I really want to include more uniquely Korean foods. This is a royal banquet after all.’

Chloe intensely debated whether doenjang soup or soy sauce marinated crab would be more divisive, then chose the relatively visually acceptable doenjang soup.

And she decided to include simple perilla leaf pancakes as well.

‘For dessert, I’ll prepare royal tteokbokki as originally planned, and that should be perfect.’

Trying to match the standards of people here resulted in a fusion royal banquet, but this was the best menu possible.

With a satisfied heart, Chloe requested help from her maid Emily.

“Help me out!”

“Yes, Duchess. What can I help you with?”

Chloe started to explain the recipe directly but hesitated.

‘Emily can’t read, so I should only tell Emily her part, and write down recipes for those who can read.’

It would be tiring to verbally explain all the royal banquet recipes that required preparing enormous quantities.

“First, Emily, soak this glutinous rice!”

“Yes! What’s next?”

“I’ll tell you the recipe. Once you’ve soaked it somewhat, add one cup of water and grind it as is. You already know how to use it, right?”

“Yes, miss!”

After saying that, Chloe observed how Emily acted and added:

“Good. After soaking and grinding all the glutinous rice, strain it once and boil it. Be careful not to let it stick to the bottom.”

“Yes!”

Emily answered energetically and continued cooking according to Chloe’s instructions.

“Next, pour three cups of milk, adding one cup at a time. You need to add it separately for the porridge to turn out better.”

The maid didn’t add all the milk at once as Chloe instructed, but added it little by little while stirring. Seeing this, Chloe nodded and added:

“Add a light salt seasoning and sweeten it with honey.”

Emily glanced at Chloe while gradually adding salt and honey.

‘Oh. The seasoning looks quite accurate.’

Having worked as a maid for a long time, she had good basic instincts.

“It’s done. Want to try it?”

“Me? Is that really okay?”

“Of course, since Emily made it.”

Emily was moved by the fact that she could taste food made with her miss’s precious recipe for the first time, and carefully scooped up a spoonful of porridge to try.

“It’s really smooth and rich porridge, miss!”

Chloe followed Emily’s lead and tried a spoonful of the tarakjuk.

‘Oh, it’s delicious.’

It came out tasting exactly as Chloe had envisioned.

‘Chef Russo will follow along even better.’

Chloe gauged the servants’ capabilities and organized what tasks to assign them and what she absolutely had to do herself.

‘Since I’m the one who can slice fish most thinly here, I have to make the eomandu myself.’

As Chloe’s ingredients and recipes spread widely, the Garnet Estate servants now knew how to catch fish and slice sashimi, but Chloe was still the most skilled and delicate at the work.

Excluding the eomandu, she could assign less labor-intensive dishes to Pierre and Emily, and more labor-intensive foods to Chef Russo, which should roughly complete the royal banquet.

“Emily, could you call Russo and Pierre?”

“Yes, miss!”

This was absolutely not an amount Chloe could handle alone, so she decided to actively utilize the manor’s human resources.

Before long, Russo and Pierre came together.

‘Pierre has completely become part of this household now.’

Chloe felt a strange sense of pride at this fact and spoke to Russo and Pierre.

“Russo, Pierre. I have dishes for you to make. I’ll teach you the methods.”

“Just leave it to us, miss!”

“I will. Duchess!”

She planned to assign sinseollo to Chef Russo, and imjasuutang to Pierre, who had good instincts.

“First, Pierre, bring one portioned chicken, six cloves of garlic, and one stalk of green onion.”

“Yes!”

The chickens here were really very large, so Chloe had arbitrarily portioned them into half-chicken amounts.

Pierre cleanly washed and finely chopped the green onion and minced the garlic without Chloe even asking.

“Pour about 2L of water, put in all the ingredients, and bring it to a rolling boil!”

“Yes, Duchess!”

Pierre made a determined expression and put in all the ingredients along with the chicken, then brought it to a rolling boil.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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