SC1 9.2 – Sweet Potato Flour

After finishing our lunch and had a little rest, I took Yunno and Yui to the edge of cliff next to the hut. While pointing at open field below our feet I said, “Starting today, let’s call this huge natural balcony as the Balcony.”

“The Balcony?” Yui asked before turning her gaze to me.

“Yeah, the Balcony,” I firmly replied. “It’s an ideal place for my plan to build greenhouse, bee farm, kitchen, and pantry.”

“Uncle Deitoro,” Yunno said. “Why do we build many things in the Balcony?”

“Warrior training requires lot of money,” I calmly said. “I plan to take care of this issue by entering food industry. That’s why we build kitchen and other constructions in the Balcony.

It will not easy and we have to put everything we have to ensure the plan bring good fruit. So, prepare your selves well.”

“”Hai!””

Yunno and Yui firmly replied. Their voice still retained their childish side, but steel determination was clearly visible in their eyes. And so, after a smile I told them our today kitchen work.

“Today, we will turn sweet potato into sweet potato flour.”

““Hai!!””

Wasting no time I took Yunno and Yui to descend to the Balcony, and then explained the detail of our today kitchen work.

The method I used to produce sweet potato flour was very simple. First, washed clean the sweet potato, steamed it until fork tender, peeled it, and then mashed it. Second, spread the mashed potato on chopping board at 2 mm thickness, cut it into 5x2 cm strip, arranged it on bamboo strainer, and then dried it under the sun.

Third, once the sweet potato strips were fully dry and crisps, we would grin it using mortar pestle, fine sieve it, and then stored it in 3 kg paper bag. Today, we would definitely arrive only at second step, but it’s not a big deal. We would work it steadily.

“Any question?”

““No,”” Yunno and Yui replied at the same time.

“Let’s get started then.”

“”Hai!!””

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A few days ago I already built a simple kitchen, so today we could go straight to the work. Without delay, I took out a sack of sweet potato, giant iron wok, four-tier big bamboo steamer, a big jar of water, big wooden fork to mash the steamed sweet potato, wooden spatula, wooden work surface, and five bundles of firewood from my spatial storage.

For the first sack of sweet potato, I worked it together with Yunno and Yui. It needed around 90 minutes before we had a dozen of bamboo strainer full of wet sweet potato strips, neatly arranged under the hot sun.

“You two did a really good job.”

I happily praised Yunno and Yui for their hard work, and a proud smile instantly bloomed in their lips.

“Now, can you continue the process on your own?”

“We can,” Yunno firmly replied.

While Yui eagerly nodded and added, “Yeah, we can.”

“Good.” As I took out five sacks of sweet potato from my spatial storage I continued, “Work on your own pace. Not hasty, but also not lazy.”

““Hai!!””

“You can start.”

Without delay Yunno and Yui started the work. I supervised them until they finished arranged a batch of clean sweet potato on the bamboo steamer. After that, I took my time to made mortars and pestles made of black rock, fine sieves made of acacia wood, and other kitchen utensils.

Of course, even though I had my own work I didn’t fully let Yunno and Yui worked outside my watch. Yunno and Yui were still children after all. And so, I deliberately chose my working station next to the giant stone stove to ensure no mishap happened in this area.

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Around four at afternoon, Kato returned from her shopping. She then went to the Balcony and handed over the groceries I asked her to buy. She also bought fresh oyster, clamp, and mussel, so I concluded that she must be gone to nearby fishing village and that’s why she returned so late.

After putting everything to my spatial storage I turned my gaze to Kato. “Thank you and you can keep the money we get from Butcher Jin.”

“Okay,” Kato happily nodded before turning her gaze to Yunno and Yui, and after observing them for a moment with ease she concluded what the two were doing. “This is the first time I see such method to produce sweet potato flour.”

I immediately asked, “What method do you usually use?”

“Peeled the sweet potato, thinly slice it, blench it in the boiling water for two breaths of time, and then dried it under the sun. Once it become fully dried chips, grin it into flour.”

“I see.”

“But your method is much easier for Yunno and Yui to handle. It’s also has higher efficiency rate,” Kato said as she rolled her sleeve. “I will join them.”

“Nope, you can’t,” I firmly said.

“Why? We can finish the work faster if I help them.”

“The kitchen work is not just physical work. It’s part of their martial training.”

“How so?” Kato curiously asked.

“There are lot of spells that we can use in cooking and kitchen work. For example, Dehydrator Spell, we can use it to replace sunlight when we want to dry something.”

“I see.” Kato said as she handed over a paper bag to me. “I will go preparing our dinner then, but give Yunno and Yui this snack before they start their afternoon practice.”

“Okay.”

A few minutes later, I asked Yunno and Yui to store everything to their spatial ring. After they enjoyed the rice cracker Kato bought for them, we started our afternoon practice.

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Normally, people only make flour at summer or fall when they could get sunlight as much as possible. The amount of sunlight was important because in the first sunbath each chip or strip had to be dried up as much as possible, or it would grow mold at night and had to be discarded because moldy sweet potato chip or strip was highly poisonous.

Those people would also start their work at early morning. Therefore, they could arrange the ready to dry chip or strip on the yard as soon as the sun arose in the east. However, even when they had good sunlight, mold could still grow on some chips or strips if the night air was too humid.

In short, without modern equipment such as air dryer or food dehydrator, the flour industry was always stuck at low rate production, and that’s why the price of flour in Rokube was always high and flour-based culinary tradition was under developed.

Fortunately, Yunno and Yui had spatial ring and anything they put into it would stay the same as it entered the ring. Therefore, mold wouldn’t grow at their sweet potato strip and they would have high production rate. For every 10 kg sweet potato, Yunno and Yui would have 4 kg high quality sweet potato flour. Not to mention, they could also add the sweet potato peel to the chicken feed.

For the last few days, Yunno and Yui worked very hard to make sweet potato flour. In total, they already bagged 11 kg sweet potato flour. As for today, they only had to dry the last batch of sweet potato strip from yesterday work, because I wanted to teach them how to make oyster sauce. After they neatly arranged the dozens of bamboo strainers full of sweet potato strip under the sun, I took them back to the kitchen.

“Today we will make oyster sauce?” I calmly said.

“Oyster sauce?” Yui tilted her head to the side as she curiously asked.

“Yes.”

Without delay I then took Yunno and Yui on their first journey of making home-made oyster sauce.

*****