Chapter 172 Kelp MSG Powder Clover Cake
The goods, including kelp, scallions, ginger, and sour fruit, were all traded back by the flower fairy caravan. Of course, these were all raw materials for magic potions—Shu Xin wasn't surprised at all. Honey and reeds were already magic potion ingredients, so it made no sense that tomatoes were magic potion ingredients as well.
However, the tomatoes in this world are a rather primitive variety. Not only are they very small, but they also have many hard seeds and a rather sour taste. It's normal that the flower fairies call them sour fruits. Their color, on the other hand, is exceptionally bright red and beautiful. According to the popular science articles that Shu Xin has read, tomatoes were originally cultivated as ornamental plants.
The scallions and ginger were both wild. The wild ginger was relatively easy to identify, and it didn't look much different from the ginger that Shu Xin remembered. However, the wild scallions were very difficult to distinguish. If it weren't for their unique smell, Shu Xin wouldn't have recognized them at first—they really looked like weeds!
The merchants naturally brought back seeds as well. Shu Xin had already instructed Nonoli to arrange for the flower fairies to plant them in the agricultural area. Only the seaweed did not have seeds. However, while the flower fairies used the seaweed as a potion ingredient, it was also called saltwater vegetable and was one of the vegetables that the flower fairies on the east coast often harvested and ate. Therefore, the merchants bought back a considerable amount of it.
When Shu Xin saw kelp, the first thing that came to mind was MSG. Thanks to the various popular science articles she had read, she remembered that MSG could be extracted from kelp. So she went to the Tree of Life and, sure enough, obtained the MSG recipe.
The kelp that the flower fairy merchant brought back in the space stone was all wet and incredibly fresh, probably to preserve its medicinal properties? Shu Xin wasn't sure, but if it were to be made into MSG powder, it would need to be dried first.
The kelp and delicious mushrooms were transported together to the drying yard in the industrial area, spread out to dry, and then transported to a specially built MSG workshop. There, the flower fairy slaves processed them—the kelp needed to be cut into pieces, and the delicious mushrooms needed to be chopped into chunks. Then, the kelp strips and mushroom chunks were crushed and mixed evenly with magic powder, and the otherworldly version of MSG was born.
This is naturally not as good as MSG refined by modern technology, but it is enough to enhance the flavor and aroma.
While Shu Xin was researching MSG powder, the flower fairy cooks were also researching new recipes.
Because the clover was growing so well, even though all the flower fairies in the land of sin were picking and eating it, and the flower fairy merchants had already started selling it as fodder, there was still a large amount of clover waiting to be harvested.
This is partly because the flower fairies only use clover as a side dish, and the demons don't like to eat this kind of green grass that is neither sweet nor salty. On the other hand, the livestock industry in the Kingdom of Ganar is not well developed. After merchants have completed the trade route once, they can't sell the green fodder when they go there a second time—the fodder that was sold the first time hasn't been used up yet!
The combination of these two factors led to an overproduction of clover.
The cooks were trying to figure out how to turn clover into a staple food.
When Shu Xin woke up that morning, she went over the things she needed to do that day in her mind, and then woke up the guy who had been up until midnight the night before: "Get up, get up! Time to go mining!"
Xi reluctantly opened her eyes: "Don't you feel tired, Shushuxin!"
Shu Xin not only didn't feel tired, but was also radiant. She glanced at the guy who was rolling around on the bed and shouting, "I'm so tired, I don't want to dig rocks anymore, I want to sleep." Even though he maintained his handsome young appearance, with his long, curly hair as black as ink, which made his pale muscles look particularly beautiful, Shu Xin still found it an eyesore.
When Shu Xin woke up today, she found that she didn't miss home at all. She knew with her toes that Xi had eaten up her feelings again. She looked away and walked straight outside: "I'm going to eat. You should hurry up too, or you'll miss out on your nut candy."
Xi wailed, "When are we ever going to stop digging for rocks?!"
Shu Xin's voice drifted in from outside the door, growing fainter as she said, "Now that it's harvest season, we don't need to dig anymore..."
Xi calculated the time, and with a forced effort, jumped out of bed—she'd just have to hang in there a little longer!
Ever since two unlucky guys discovered the magic gem mine in the underground city, the demons have been dragged into misfortune. All the work in the planting area has been given to the flower fairies, and all the demons have been sent to the underground mines to mine—of course, they only mine stones for half a day, and spend the other half of the day learning to read.
Mining isn't actually tiring; it's much more enjoyable than learning to read. The magical underground mines are quite comfortable to stay in. Since I started mining stones, the flower fairy has prepared and delivered my three meals a day in advance. I can also openly steal magic gems with soup and rice. But constantly digging stones is really boring!
However, Shuxin gives out nut candy blocks. The one who digs the most stones each day can also get a huge block of pure sugar that's covered in honey!
At first, some demons stole other demons' ores and pretended they were their own. But when the Flower Fairy and her flower fairies came to inspect them, she waved her magic wand and immediately cast a rewind spell.
In the end, the dozen or so demons who forcibly seized the fruits of others' labor not only failed to receive their due rewards, but were also thrown into a magic-suppressing circle and forced to wear magic-suppressing bracelets, neck rings, and anklets. They were forced to reflect on their actions for three days without any food. These brainless idiots were starved for three whole days.
When the demons were in the demon realm, it was common for them to go hungry for three months, let alone three. But since they came to the land of sin, they have been able to eat their fill of good food and soup every day. Now, suddenly, they have gone three whole days without a drop of water, and the hunger has become unbearable.
In particular, the Flower Fairy had specially set up this magic-blocking array next to the stove. Hot and fragrant food was taken away from them one after another. The imprisoned demons could only watch and swallow their saliva. After three days, the released demons became completely obedient and no longer dared to steal from their own kind.
Xi thought Shuxin would be very angry, after all, before arranging for the demons to go down into the mine, she had been emphasizing that they should not fight or rob, but quite a few of them still knowingly violated the rules. Unexpectedly, Shuxin was very happy. She said that out of more than two thousand demons, only a dozen or so jumped out to steal other people's things, which meant that the vast majority of demons already knew that this was wrong and not allowed in the Land of Sin.
If the demons work diligently for the next five working days, Shu Xin will arrange for the flower fairies to deliver honey water to them on the next working day.
When Xi drank the sweet honey water, he felt sweet inside too. Shu Xin truly lived up to his expectations of the Demon King!
Opening the wardrobe, Xi picked out a light purple cloak and put it on. The color of this cloak was the closest to the flower fairy's hair and eye color, but it still looked a bit too purple. She didn't know why, but the flower fairy's white-purple eyes and long hair looked much lighter in color, yet they were more vibrant and bright than this purple cloak.
When Xi came down to the restaurant on the first floor, Shu Xin was already eating. Seeing the blond boy coming downstairs, she waved to him with bright eyes: "Come on over! Mei Meilin and the others made something delicious! Come and try it!"
A young man, draped in a light purple cloak and looking even more fair and handsome, strode over. He looked at the translucent light green food on the table with some curiosity: "This is... green acorn pudding?"
Shu Xin laughed: "No, this is clover cake!"
When Shu Xin handed the MSG powder to Mei Meilin, she saw the four cooks from the Land of Sin in the kitchen, tinkering with clover. The grass cakes on the table were the result of their research.
They originally wanted to call this food clover chunks, but Shuxin rejected it. Nut candy chunks sounded sweet and appetizing, but clover chunks were not very appealing. To be honest, it really sounded like some kind of rabbit feed!
Shu Xin remembered that some regions in her world used grass leaves to make similar foods, such as grass jelly and herbal cake. She thought about it and felt that it would taste better to call it clover cake.
Shuxin picked up a piece of grass cake and examined it carefully. Xi thought it was acorn pudding because, apart from the different color, it did look similar to pudding. It was bouncy and chewy. Acorn pudding is actually acorn tofu. This grass cake that looks like pudding could also be called grass leaf tofu.
...Thinking about it this way, there are quite a few foods in this land of sin that can be called tofu. I wonder when I'll be able to eat real tofu.
Shu Xin silently put the grass cake into her mouth and savored it carefully. To be honest, it didn't taste very good, only had a faint grassy aroma, and the texture was soft, bouncy, and smooth. The magic it contained was much more abundant than that of a simple clover salad.
The idea of using clover in cooking was first proposed by the cook, Lilia, who learned some information from her husband—
After An Anka regained her elven form, she stopped going out to trade. However, the members of the Golden Cloak Caravan were not idle. They were now responsible for coordinating with various caravans. After all, the types of goods brought back by the caravans were becoming more and more diverse. The affairs officer, tax officer, and flower fairy all had a lot of things to deal with, so the matters related to the caravans were handed over to the Golden Cloak Caravan.
Lilia learned from Ananka that a large amount of clover planted in the Sinful Lands was piling up after the harvest, making it difficult for caravans to sell. So she began to think about how to turn clover into a portable food.
Due to their size limitations, the flower fairies mostly raise small animals, so their need for and consumption of feed is not great, and they do not need to keep extra reserves. However, the flower fairies' own food reserves are always in short supply. Lilia thought that instead of turning clover into unsellable feed, it would be better to find a way to develop new ways to eat clover, which could both consume the clover in the Land of Sin and fill the stomachs of flower fairies in other territories.
More and more flower fairies have moved to the Land of Sin, but there are even more flower fairies outside the Land of Sin who, for various reasons, have not chosen to leave their homeland. The caravan initially sold mainly acorn wine, but now they have added dried golden cherries. Lilia thought that it would be great if there were another food that was easy to transport and store.
Remembering how the Flower Fairy soaked acorns in water and then crushed them into acorn powder, Lilia tried drying clover and crushing it into grass powder as well. This grass powder wasn't very good for making soup, but it could be made into grass cakes by adding water, kneading it into shape, and then baking it in the oven. However, the taste was terrible. The biggest problem was that the magic in the clover was greatly lost after this process.
Lilia couldn't think of any more solutions, so she went to find Ananna, and together with Ananna, she went to find Memeline and Lililian. The four cooks worked together.
Later, Ananna thought of the stickiness of the ground grass. At first, they tried adding ground grass leaves, but the resulting grass cakes were rock hard and impossible to chew. Then they considered the ground grass fruit and added a very small amount of grass juice to the clover powder mixed with water. This made the grass cakes less hard, but the magic content was still very low and the texture was still rough and chewy.
Lillian suggested that instead of drying the clover, they should boil it in water like the cold salad that the Flower Fairy loves to eat to remove the bitterness, and then grind it into powder. The clover processed in this way is not powder but a paste. It can be shaped into cakes without adding extra water, and the juice of the clover does not need to be added. It can be baked directly in the oven. The resulting clover cakes do have a more delicate and soft texture, but the magic content is still very low.
Finally, Meimeilin referenced the recipe for acorn pudding and summarized the methods used by the other three cooks—
Instead of baking it in an oven, she boiled the clover into a paste and then cooked it a second time. She simply boiled it, adding some magic powder and a drop of herb juice. She stirred it well and boiled it until there was no more foam on the surface. Then she let it cool in a shady place. The final product was really similar to acorn pudding and contained a lot of magic!
It just doesn't taste as sweet as acorn pudding, but that's not a big problem. All four chefs agreed that adding more powdered sugar would solve the problem.
After preparing the food, the cooks immediately served the new dishes to the Flower Fairy's table. Shu Xin was very satisfied after eating them. A small piece of this grass cake could consume a lot of clover and had plenty of magic power. It could completely replace clover fodder for sale. With the space stone, transportation would be very convenient. The next step was to see how to preserve it to extend the shelf life of the grass cake to the longest possible.
Shu Xin rewarded each of the four cooks with a large magic gem and said that they could go to the workshop to customize high-grade magic wands and high-grade magic cloaks for free, and she would cover all the costs and materials. In addition, if they wanted to learn more magic related to their talents, she could also provide them with magic scrolls.
Thinking about this, Shu Xin wondered when she could memorize all the magic in Shu Shu Xin's memory and then build a library in the cultural and educational district.
Shu Xin almost laughed in exasperation when she looked up: "I only ate one piece! Xi! How could you have eaten the whole grass cake!"
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Author's Note: Here's the update from yesterday! The extra 1,000 words are compensation; there will be a normal update tonight!
The MSG powder recipe is based on the process of making various homemade MSG powders. The clover cake recipe is based on the preparation methods of similar foods such as herbal jelly, grass jelly, and Guanyin tofu. I'm hungry, I'm going to eat!
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