Chapter 139: 127

Chapter 127 Stone Bowl Bibimbap (end)

Translated by Gumihou

Edited by Gumihou

A meal for three people should be simple but that doesn’t mean it should be simply made.

When Shiyu walked into the kitchen, she found that the rice had already been cooked, the vegetables plucked, trimmed and washed by Lao Er. Shiyu was sure that if Lao Er’s cooking skill extended beyond this, lunch would already be on the table.

As Shiyu studied the ingredients before her, she was suddenly struck by a simple and delicious recipe. Stone Bowl Bibimbap. That’s right, Shiyu is craving Korean food!

[1] Well, not necessarily Korean food, but the sight of the stone pot gleaming under the sun appeared to beckon her. She suddenly recalled the first proper meal she ever had in this world. A chipped stone pot filled to the brim with wild mushrooms cooked with nothing but salt and water. Hearty, meaty and simple.

This stone pot was different from that old, chipped one that Grandpa must have salvaged from somewhere. This pot was much bigger was very smooth and shiny. In this era, it’s more common to use stone pots to cook rather than woks, perhaps that’s why they tended to be better made?

Anyway, Shiyu rinsed out the pot and set it on the side to dry while she dealt with the vegetables. A standard, restaurant-style Bibimbap is made with colourful julienned vegetables and meat set in a circle to show off their colours. Normal bowl style Bibimbap would have a fried egg in the middle. [2] Today, however, she will be making a home-style Bibimbap with the fresh green vegetables that Lao Er had already washed.

[3] First, she trimmed the vegetables and split the stems from the leaves to blanch them separately. There were a lot of vegetables, so there was no need to prepare carrots, black fungus or mushrooms just for the variety of colours. [4] In a shallow pan, she set half a pan of water to boil with a little sesame oil and plenty of salt. The stems were blanched first and taken out once they softened. She did the same thing with the leaves. After gently squeezing out some excess water from the vegetables, she set them aside.

The next step is very important. The Bibimbap Sauce. Thus far, Shiyu had not seen anything similar to the sauce for sale in this era. Actually, Shiyu had some idea how to make the Bibimbap Sauce, but [4] felt like having something a little more special today. That’s right, she decided to make Chilli Crabs with extra sauce and pour said sauce over their Special Stone Pot Crab Sauce Bibimbap.

Shiyu has a few crabs living in her Saint’s Dwelling. They were sea crabs she had collected on her sea voyage. Afraid that these crabs would die and spoil if she kept them longer in her space ring, she had moved them to the space. They were now living in a large earthenware jar filled with saltwater. The last time Shiyu checked on them, they all looked very large and lively.

[6] She fished out one huge crab and proceeded to gut and cut the guy up. Since she wanted to maximise the crab sauce, Shiyu decided against frying the crab and just steamed it directly in a covered wok with just a little water and a few slices of ginger. This way, she could partially cook the crab, collect the crab juice in the water and reserve it to cook the sauce.

While the crab was steaming, Shiyu oiled the bottom of the stone pot and scooped out the cooked rice into it. Then, she arranged the vegetables over the rice. She only has two types of colour, dark green and light green. However, that did not prevent her from alternating the stem and leaves, making a little spokes wheel of light and dark green colour on the white rice. With the vegetables all arranged, [7] it still looked a little boring, but it can’t be helped. It was [2] no longer a typical Korean Bibimbap anyway, so Shiyu decided to fiddle with the egg too. Instead of [8] cracking a whole raw egg on top, [8] she beat three eggs together and set it aside.

While the pot of rice is being scorched over a moderately low fire with the lid off, it was time to make the Chilli Crabs. [6] Out came the sweet wine, mala oil, garlic, ginger, onions and some paste she had made with the tomato-like vegetables. The aromatics were finely minced and sizzled over a little oil. Next, she splashed in mala oil, wine and scooped out a couple of spoonful of the tomato-ish paste into the wok. After letting the flavours get to know each other and adjusting the flavour with salt and sugar, it was time to add the crab.

[6] After stirring the crab in, Shiyu covered the wok. The rice was starting to make crackling sounds now, so she added the beaten egg and covered the pot. A couple of minutes later, the crab was ready to be served. Shiyu dished out the Chilli Crab onto a shallow plate, leaving plenty of sauce stll in the wok. Shiyu poured the reserved crab juice from steaming the crab as well as a couple of spoonfuls of her secret Crab Powder to intensify the crabby flavour.

[6] The rice was crackling like crazy now. So, Shiyu took it off the fire and opened the lid. She poured the crab sauce over the bright green vegetables. The eggs were nowhere to be seen, they must have sunk into the bottom of the pot. Ugh, she probably should not have beaten them. The traditional method was to crack them whole over the middle of the rice. The raw egg yolks would have looked so nice surrounded by the green vegetables and red sauce… Well, there’s always the next time.

At any rate, Stone Bowl Bibimbap (Shiyu’s Version) was now done!

“Time to eat!”

Shiyu carried the pot of Bibimbap to the table. As a final touch, she scattered some sesame seeds over the dish. It looked very attractive if she says so herself. The alternating green wheel of blanched vegetables has a refreshing and subtle elegance to it. While it was too bad she lost the brilliant yellow of the egg yolks, it was made up by the jewel red of the mala oil based Chilli Crab sauce, made even more brilliant by a scattering of white seeds.

[9] The charm of serving Bibimbap in a stone pot, however, had to be the crunchy rice underneath. The beaten egg had pooled at the bottom of the pot, making the scorched rice even more fragrant and delicious when eaten with the refreshing vegetables and strongly flavoured crab sauce. The scorched rice was delicious, but let’s not forget about the Chilli Crab!

Spicy, tender and juicy! Lao Er and Xiao Qi, while not quite the expert like Shiyu, cracked open these crustaceans with unhesitating skills and happily sucked the delicious meat out. Spicy and yummy, this finger-licking dish was definitely something only their eldest sister could make. After a while, everyone settled down to digest their food. The stone pot had been scraped clean. The plate holding the crabs were so clean Shiyu wondered whether someone had licked it.

Speaking of which, the crabs were especially tasty today. Not to mention… Shiyu patted her stomach, there was a hint of spiritual power in today’s food. Strange, she had not used any spiritual herbs in her cooking. Could the crabs have absorbed some spiritual power while loafing around the space?

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After lunch, Shiyu left the dining room. [10] Xiao Qi cleared the table while Lao Er did the dishes. Later, Xiao Qi went upstairs to meditate while Lao Er practised his martial arts in the garden. Meanwhile, Shiyu girded her loins and entered the room where 11th Martial Uncle was staying and got ready to banish evil spirits.

That evening, everyone came home.

The group that went to the palace brought news with them. The Imperial Family have no plans to pursue the incident regarding the Xue Clan. This was good news for all of them. Although they were fairly sure the Imperial Family would not say anything, it was still a relief to hear a confirmation.

The following days were rather leisurely.

Shiyu continued to exercise her Cooking Cultivation and treating 11th Martial Uncle whenever she has the time and strength to do so. Others were also fairly busy with their own thing.

However, a few days later, something unusual happened.

The villa next to them was taken up by someone. Moreover, the building they erected was the [11] exact same one as theirs! A three-storeyed bamboo villa!

[11] How odd.

[11] Once the building was already, they all wondered idly who would move in. It was only after Shiyu saw Dong-Fang Zhen glaring at them from the third floor of his copy villa that they realised the Crown Prince had become their neighbour.

Why was the guy here?

Ah well, it has nothing to do with them anyway. If he wants to glare, just let him glare.

10 days later.

Much of the black miasma of evil around 11th Martial Uncle had been dispersed. It was now time to get rid of the evil spirits hidden inside him. This would be more difficult than anything Shiyu had attempted thus far. She considered the matter for a long time before deciding to start with his hands.

With Old Gu guarding and protecting them and Fat Cat keeping vigil beside her, Shiyu began.

Shiyu held up her pointer finger. A small flame flickered to life at the tip. Carefully, carefully, she held the flame close to 11th Martial Uncle’s left palm and directed the flame to penetrate into the meridians. Sweat began to pour from her forehead as she struggled to keep Ocean Heart Flame from going burning the 11th Martial Uncle. If she loses focus, there would be nothing left of the hand but ashes.

The mental strength needed to slowly direct the flame and coaxing it to wrap around the hand and penetrate into the meridians was very taxing. Suddenly, black smoke began to emerge from the hand. The process must be very painful. For, even though he was unconscious, 11th Martial Uncle’s fingers spasm with pain.

Indeed, 11th Martial Uncle felt as though part of his body had been attacked by fire ants. Fortunately, he had been a powerful Cultivator. He could still bear this much pain for now.

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Thanks to Ocean Heart Flame’s fire, the withered and lifeless looking hand began to recover. Soon, it began to take on the appearance of the hand of a regular person.

Shiyu strained as long as she could bear, but her mental powers were quickly exhausting itself. Her brain felt three times bigger than her head and she was so tired…

Carefully withdrawing Ocean Heart Flame, she drew a hand over her face. It was wet with sweat. “I think we should stop here.” She had a feeling that would take more than a little meditation to recover from this exhaustion.

In fact, the 11th Martial Uncle’s next treatment could only be commenced three days later. For some reason, using Ocean Heart Flame taxed her mental abilities like nothing else. She could only last for a quarter of an hour before having to stop on that first day.

After resting for three full days, she finally felt confident enough to attempt the treatment again. Once again, she could only concentrate for 15 minutes before her entire body exhausted itself.

After her second attempt, it was another three days later before she could make the third attempt. Though it was tempting to speed up the healing, she dared not be careless and hurt 11th Martial Uncle. Because she was being very careful, she could only focus on making sure to increase her powers of concentration to prevent Ocean Heart Flames from hurting him.

Half a month passed and Shiyu managed to increase her active healing time. Although she never did manage to persist for longer than 30 minutes. Each time she completed treatment, she would have to retire for three days straight. Her body felt hollowed out and her mind numbed from excessive concentration.

On the 1st day of the Twelfth Lunar Month, the first snowfall arrived at the Imperial Capital City. Sparkling white snow covered everything, the villa roof, the fences and the still blooming roses in the backyard.

Shiyu stared out the window, thinking about the end of term holiday that would start in another two weeks.

On the third floor, 11th Martial Uncle laid on the bed like an ordinary patient, no longer covered in black miasma. Though the person had not woken up yet, his complexion was much better. Not only that, he did not look as thin and withered as before. Everyone who saw him believed that he would wake up soon.

On the roof, a black cat sat in the snow. It’s sleek black fur free of the white dusting of snow. As soon as snow reached certain proximity to the cat, it would instantly vanish. Beside the cat was Old Gu. The two of them stared in the South-easterly direction where an ominous-looking cloud, darker than the rest, loomed.

“Thunder Cloud would appear soon,” said Old Gu. “Nothing in Heaven or Earth could stop them then. We should prepare the children as quickly as possible.”

Fat Cat said, “We should have at least three months left. However, there is no telling whether we could make it in time.”

In three months, the Thunder Cloud would be fully formed. It would mark the beginning of the Tribulation Period of the Enlightenment Tea.

 

[Gumihou: Ahh, so many things happening in this chapter~]

 

[1] Additional Details for Logistical Purpose: The explanation that follows came out of the left field. So, added a trigger that leads to her being nostalgic about stone pots

[2] Actually, she said her Bibimbap is the “Typical Korean Bibimbap”… Girl, which dimension did you come from? Are you an alien?

[3] Splitting Paragraphs for more logical transaction

[4] Statements that made no sense: Original Text “No time to make it herself”

… excuse me, are you telling me you don’t have time to throw crushed fermented beans, mala oil, sesame seeds, honey and seasoning into a bowl but have time to make a Chilli Crab from scratch?

Pull the other one, will you?

‘No time?’ why not just say you want to eat crabs?!

[5] Deleted a Stupid: “She decided to use a thick soup as a substitute for the sauce. This thick soup is not a thick soup, but actually a thick sauce that is made from simmering Chill Crab to reduce the sauce.”

No. No. No!

Chapter 68, Note 3

No!

[6] Addition Cooking Detail: Because it was conveniently left out. Gumihou will just give readers a different, but still delicious, crab recipe

[7] Statements that made no sense: Original Text: “Suddenly, it looked very colourful”

… suddenly, you added food colouring?

Look at your writing and not at a random picture of a Bibimbap

[8] Statements of things that are impossible because physics: “Finally, she beat an egg, let the sides solidified with a little heat and placed it in the middle of the rice. Now the Typical Korean Bibimbap is ready”

…

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻

Just use a raw egg with an intact yolk, you idiot!

[9] Added more Details for Deliciousness: Shiyu, the key, the MAIN KEY of stone bowl or stone pot Bibimbap is the Scorched Rice! Where is it? Where the scorched rice? If you’re only going to talk about how “rice, vegetables and crab sauce is sho, sho yummy”, just make regular Bibimbap!

For anyone who wants the REAL Stone Bowl Bibimbap

https://kimchimari.com/dolsot-bibimbap-stone-pot-rice/

[10] Added More Details for Logistical Purpose: Xiao Qi and Lao Er’s actions were half-heartedly depicted. So Gumihou patched it.

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