International students at Hogwarts

Chapter 17 Braised Pork (Two in One)

"As long as your magic power is sufficient, others cannot invade your brain. Your brain is safe now. But what I will teach you next is how to modify your own memory." Speaking of this, Grindelwald still Rubbing his hands excitedly - if Lu Ren can modify his memory, then he Grindelwald will be the biggest beneficiary, and he can enjoy the entertainment achievements of the next nearly 30 years in advance!
"So what should I do?" Lu Ren asked with some expectation.

"Memory itself is a part of ourselves. As long as you practice a little, you can change the shape of your memory. You can train with me every day, and you can do it. The current goal is to extract the novels and comics in your mind, Don't bring anything else."

Lu Ren: "..." Okay, anyway, it's about emptying out emotions.After the training, Lu Ren also successfully condensed the predetermined novel in his mind into a stream of memory, and poured it into the Pensieve.

Seeing that Grindelwald was about to stick his head into the basin happily, Lu Ren couldn't help coughing heavily, "Mr. Grindelwald, do you think it's time to eat?"

At this time, several hours had passed since the negotiation in the office, and it was already past seven o'clock in the evening... Lu Ren hadn't eaten much after lunch, and was already hungry.

"There are ingredients in the food storage cabinet upstairs. You can cook it yourself." Grindelwald's heart has already flown into the Pensieve. As for what to eat, it doesn't matter! The big deal is to give it to the child after reading the novel. Two baked potatoes, with a few sausages and sauerkraut.

Grindelwald plunged into the Pensieve.As soon as he entered the Pensieve, he saw lines of words flying and arranged in the air, finally forming a novel:
"The grotesque dream full of whispers quickly fell apart, and Zhou Mingrui, who was sleeping soundly, felt a throbbing pain in his head, as if he had been savagely swung with a stick, no, it was more like being pierced into his temple by a sharp object and accompanied by agitation... ..."

That's right, Lu Ren chose the most famous fantasy novel "The Master of the Bathroom" in the era before his time travel as Grindelwald's "initiative reading".After all, this book is finished, so that Grindelwald will not be furious when he finds out that the novel has no end; secondly, the western setting of this book should be very pleasing to the old man; Devore reads for a while.

At this time, Lu Ren also needed to make some food to satisfy his hunger.After all, although my eyes are innocent, but I can't fill my stomach, and I can't seek a job by relying on innocent eyes, let alone become famous.It would be absurd if these things could be done with innocent eyes.Still have to be down-to-earth and down-to-earth to do things.

It is difficult to find the location of the storage room with just one keyword.upstairs?Where is upstairs?

However, Lu Ren's doubts were quickly answered.He left the bedroom and walked up the winding stone steps to the uppermost floor of Nurmengard Castle.There are no forks or rooms along the way, and the stone steps only lead to the house on the roof.Lu Ren pushed open the door of the house.

The first thing that caught Lu Ren's eyes was a huge brightly lit kitchen illuminated by the fire and wall lamps. It was over a hundred square meters, so the interior of the kitchen seemed a bit empty.The floor is covered with a wool carpet with the Hogwarts school emblem painted on it.

Facing the door was a big three-meter-long and two-meter-high cabinet. Lu Ren walked to the cabinet, opened the door, and a gust of cold air rushed in.

Inside the cabinet, fresh meat and bacon are stacked on top of each other.Dried meat, ham and other meat ingredients, large bundles of sausages, mountain-like pork belly, whole ribs... The meat-eater gene has awakened in Lu Ren's body, and these meats are teasing his nerves.

The second layer is a variety of vegetables, the classic three giants of foreign cuisine: carrots, onions, tomatoes, of course, there are also celery, eggplant, pumpkin, mushrooms, etc. There are always nearly a hundred kinds of vegetables .

The third layer is the staple food, including potatoes and bread.Oatmeal... Even Lu Ren saw a bag of Vietnamese fragrant rice.

The fourth layer is spices and seasonings. Hundreds of spices are packed in small boxes and neatly stacked.

There is a large fireplace embedded in the left wall, and there are several tongs on the small grille of the fireplace. Lu Ren thinks that this fireplace can be used to barbecue.

On the right side is the kitchen workbench. The basic pots, dishes, knives, forks and tea cups are all fully equipped, and there are many strange kitchen utensils - Europeans do have a lot of things to do when cooking, just There is even a special egg beater for beating eggs, obviously a pair of chopsticks can solve the problem.

What surprised Lu Ren even more was that there were many professional kitchen utensils on the workbench, and judging from the buttons, they should all be products of the Muggle world.

"It looks like I can show my skills." Lu Ren rubbed his hands excitedly.

Lu Ren picked out a piece of pork belly weighing more than four catties from the cupboard. The meat was tender and fat, and it looked like the best meat.Then Lu Ren picked out all the seasonings needed for braised pork, but he seemed to have encountered a problem—there was no soy sauce in the cabinet—strictly speaking, there was, but it was Japanese sushi soy sauce, not Lu Ren’s. The soy sauce and dark soy sauce that Ren needs.

How can braised pork be without soy sauce?Braised pork can really be without soy sauce.

In his previous life, Lu Ren learned a dish called Mao's Braised Pork, which was a branch of Braised Pork.And there is an interesting little story about the origin of this kind of braised pork.

According to legend, there was a great man who loved braised pork since he was a child, but one day he saw a layer of maggots floating on the sauce tank in the soy sauce workshop. Since then, the great man could no longer eat soy sauce.

Later, when a chef learned about this, he improved the recipe of the braised pork, using sugar and salt instead of soy sauce to color and season the meat.After cooking, the color is golden, oily but not greasy.After the great man tasted it, it was very useful, so it spread.

Lu Ren first ignited the stove, then heated up a large pot, put the pork belly skin down into the pot and scald until the pig skin turned brown, then took out the pork and washed it with clean water.

This step destroys the sweat glands and reduces the smell of the skin.Then cut the meat into cubes about three centimeters thick.Then Lu Ren put the meat into a pot of cold water, then added scallions, ginger and cooking wine—this cooking wine was actually placed in the wine cabinet!I'm afraid only Merlin knows what Grindelwald has done to this bottle of cooking wine.

Then there is blanching.The meat must be blanched.After blanching the meat, Lu Ren took out the meat and washed it, then put it in a small grate for later use.

He set up another pot, added a permissible amount of oil, and then put the meat in it to stir-fry for a while to get the fat out of the meat, and at the same time let the meat set its shape.Afterwards, Lu Ren poured out most of the oil, leaving a part of the bottom oil, and when the bottom oil was heated again, Lu Ren put a few large pieces of rock sugar in it.

Sugar color is the key to this dish, Lu Ren also calmed down and became serious.He kept stirring the spatula, and soon the rock sugar melted in the oil, turning a maroon color, and thick bubbles appeared, a bit like beer just poured out.At this time, he poured in the boiled water that he had prepared by the way while blanching, and the sugar color was fried at this time.

The color of sugar will have a bitter taste after being fried for a long time. Thanks to the well-developed food delivery industry and the cramped public kitchen in the rented house in his previous life, Lu Ren has never cooked braised pork a few times in his previous life, so Lu Ren has no idea about the level of sugar color. —— Travelers also have limits!
Lu Ren scooped out the sugar, rinsed the pot briefly, then poured in a little bit of the previous oil, added star anise, cinnamon, bay leaves, green onion, garlic, dried chili, and sautéed until fragrant.When the aroma is overflowing, add the meat and sugar and stir fry.

When the flesh turned slightly yellow, Lu Ren poured a can of beer into it.Beer is the secret recipe taught to Lu Ren by his grandmother. All kinds of stewed meat dishes can be flavored and relieved by adding beer.Finally, add water, and then turn the shallots into knots and add them.

The semi-finished meat does not have the sparkling feeling that braised pork should have, but once the juice is collected, everything will change like magic - Chinese cuisine is simply the closest to magic in the Muggle world.

Lu Ren sprinkled a little salt and cooking wine in before covering the pot.The next thing is to simply cover the pot and cook.It takes about an hour to simmer, so Lu Ren also steamed rice, mixed cucumbers, cut two lemons, and made a glass of lemon honey water.

When the time was almost up, Lu Ren opened the lid of the pot, and an extremely rich aroma rushed directly to Lu Ren's face, making the smell of meat in the room even more intense.The meat in the pot was already bright red, Lu Ren quickly picked out all kinds of seasonings, and then collected the juice on high heat, a pot of Mao's braised pork was ready.

'This color is as beautiful as adding pigments!Bright red! Lu Ren secretly exclaimed.

The arrangement of the braised pork is also particular. First, arrange the meat piece by piece in a bowl. The layers should not be too messy, and then cover the bowl with a plate.Then just turn the bowl and plate upside down.Take the bowl away, and there is a round braised pork like a small hill.

Lu Ren poured the little bit of broth left in the pot over the meat, and the dish was completely finished.Lu Ren brought this dish, rice, cold cucumber and iced honey lemonade to Grindelwald's bedroom downstairs.

After a while, Lu Ren returned to the bedroom with a pot of rice, and Grindelwald had already escaped from the Pensieve.

Grindelwald pointed to the two plates on the table and said: "I've already made dinner, bacon sandwiches, grilled sausages and German specialty sauerkraut, let's eat it while it's hot." Grindelwald said with a proud Said to Lu Ren in a tone, as if it was a great honor to have dinner with him--in the eyes of outside wizards, this is indeed a deed that can be boasted for a long time.

As he spoke, Grindelwald grinned and showed a mouthful of white teeth—the teeth of a person at such an age are actually not bad, and a strange thought suddenly popped into Lu Ren's mind. "You should try, German food. Tomorrow we can have a roast pork knuckle with sauerkraut."

Lu Ren raised his eyebrows and looked at the two dishes: rye bread with dark bacon, stringy sauerkraut with a strange smell and dark sausage.

He took a deep breath, "Why don't you try my cooking tonight? The mysterious food from the far east." Think about it carefully, how good a cooking skill can you expect from a person who is as powerful as an emperor?Even if this guy loses power, Dumbledore will pamper him. Looking at the types of food in the storage room, you can tell that Grindelwald's life is quite nourishing even if he is imprisoned in the castle.

Lu Ren misunderstood Grindelwald.Although Dumbledore provided sufficient ingredients, he did not provide Grindelwald with auxiliary roles such as servants, so Grindelwald was self-reliant most of the time...

All in all, after self-reliance for so long, but the craftsmanship is still the same, it is really hopeless.

'But Grindelwald cooks for me, it feels so good! Lu Ren was still very happy.

Lu Ren didn't wait for Grindelwald to refute, or be arrogant, he hurried to the kitchen and brought down the dinner.

"No, I'm not used to Central Plains food."

Although his throat rolled up and down, Grindelwald still calmly glanced at the braised pork in front of him, and said expressionlessly. "Personally I prefer German food and I can't sleep without sauerkraut."

"Okay." Lu Ren didn't have the habit of persecuting the old man, he spread his hands to express his respect for Grindelwald's personal choice.He first served himself a bowl of rice, then picked up a large piece of steaming braised pork with dripping soup with chopsticks, put it in front of his mouth and blew it, then swallowed the meat in his mouth and chewed Special chew.

The gravy exploded, and the strong sugar aroma combined with the soft and glutinous meat burst out a taste that would make the soul tremble.Lu Ren chewed a few mouthfuls and swallowed the meat.

Then there is a spoonful of rice, with a little soup poured on it, the taste is not inferior to braised pork!

Lu Ren started to gobble it up, and Grindelwald, who was sitting across from him, could clearly hear the sound of the gravy bursting in his mouth, and he could also smell the aroma coming from the opposite plate, which made his bacon sandwich extremely hard to swallow. pharynx.

"Stop! So much meat, have you eaten? How can you do so much!" Grindelwald said sadly, "You are a shameful waste, young people today have not lived a hard life, during the war years We are all thrifty, every grain of rice and every bite of bread must not be wasted, but you are lucky to make so much at once!"

Grindelwald's eyes popped out.If he hadn't seen Grindelwald's movie, Lu Ren would have believed it.But in order to take care of the face of the elderly, he still swallowed the sentence "If I can't eat today, I can eat tomorrow", and instead invited Grindelwald to help "eliminate" these dishes.

Grindelwald cleared the dinner he made into the trash can calmly, then filled himself with a bowl of rice, and joined the ranks of eating and drinking.Of course, he kept his mouth shut and kept saying things like "I don't like to eat these, I just want to reduce waste", which also opened Lu Ren's eyes.

　Ask for recommendation tickets and collections!Two chapters in one!
　　


(End of this chapter)