Chapter 710

A Craftsman’s Morning Starts Early
A craftsman’s morning starts early.

I had gone to bed early last night, and this morning I got up earlier than usual. After quickly getting dressed, I headed to the kitchen.

“Good morning, Cristea-sama. What a lovely morning, is it not?”
“… Good morning, Suzaku-sama. Well, it’s not even dawn yet, though…?”

Suzaku-sama was already waiting in the kitchen with a beaming smile.

No, seriously, how excited were you!?
Her expectations for the completion of this tofu are way too high, it’s putting insane pressure on me!?

Guess I’ve just got to do this. I slipped into my favorite kappōgi apron and took out the bowls of soybeans that had been soaking in water since last night.

“Okay, first things first, we need to make soy milk.”

Thud! I pulled out a large mortar, transferred the soybeans into it, and began grinding them with the pestle, gori-gori. I set aside the soaking water to use later.

“My Lord, allow me to handle that.”

Kurogane took the pestle from me and started grinding vigorously, gori-gori-gori.

“Me too! I’ll do it too!”

Mashiro said that as if competing with Kurogane, so I brought out a spare mortar, and he immediately began grinding at full force.

“Ohhh… it’s turning into paste at an incredible speed.”

If I remember right, this stage is called namago, isn’t it?
And miso soup made with this is called gojiru, right?

“Kurogane, that looks about done. Could you pour this water in here and mix it again?”

After confirming his batch had been completely ground down, I had him pour in the reserved soaking water and mix it together.

I added a bit more water, transferred it to a pot, and brought it to a boil over high heat while stirring so it wouldn’t scorch. Then I lowered it to a simmer and let it cook for about ten minutes.

I set a colander over a bowl and lined it with the bleached-cloth-like fabric, then had them pour in the namago.

Once it had strained a bit and I confirmed it had cooled, I gathered up the ends of the cloth and squeezed tightly, separating it into soy milk and okara.

Well, up to this point I was used to it. Back home, whenever we wanted soy milk or okara, we used to do this.

… Okay, fine, the cooks did most of it!
Grinding is hard, okay?

Kurogane and the others had watched the process plenty of times before, so they skillfully separated the okara and soy milk.

Suzaku-sama offered to grind the remaining soybeans in the now-empty mortar, so I left that to her and moved on to the next step.

I set the okara aside to use in another dish later, poured the soy milk into a small pot, and gently heated it over low heat while stirring so it wouldn’t burn.

Before it reached a boil, I took it off the heat and stirred the soy milk gently—and now, at last! The moment of truth!

I took out the nigari and began adding it little by little while stirring the soy milk.

I never really know the right ratio here.
I guess I’ll have to divide it into small portions, vary the amount, and figure out the best balance that way.

“Cristea-sama, you needn’t add any more than that.”
“Eh?”

It seemed Suzaku-sama had been watching my hands, and she stopped me before I added too much.

Ohhh! I should’ve just asked Suzaku-sama for the optimal amount in the first place!

“Suzaku-sama, so you knew the exact right amount of nigari to add!”
“Eh? W-well, yes, more or less… just by feel…”

As I placed a lid on the pot and asked, Suzaku-sama answered while looking off in a completely different direction.

… Wait, that instantly makes it sound way less reliable.

She was probably going by intuition from experience.

… Shoot. Now I have no idea how much nigari I actually added.

I deeply regretted the fact that when recording recipes before, I had relied entirely on Shin’s “by-eye” measurements.
Turning “by-eye” into actual numbers is hard…

For the next batch of soy milk, I’ll have to confirm the amount with Suzaku-sama as we go.

About fifteen minutes later, I lifted the lid of the pot. The soy milk had turned into something that trembled like soft chawanmushi.

“Aaaah… I almost want to eat it already at this stage…”

Suzaku-sama stared into the pot dreamily.

“P-please wait just a little longer! I’ll finish it properly!”

I lined a small colander with bleached cloth and ladled the contents of the pot into it.

“Alright. Once we let it sit for a quarter of an hour and drain, the zaru tofu will be done!”
“Ahh… another quarter of an hour… yes, of course, it needs to drain…”

Even as I felt a little sorry for the very visibly disappointed Suzaku-sama, I decided not to mass-produce anything until we’d finished tasting this batch of zaru tofu. And so I continued separating the remaining namago into soy milk and okara.

What do you think about this chapter?