Chapter 616: Chapter 599: Special Mincemeat Cutlets aka Special Menchi Katsu

We left the Adventurer’s Guild with the same number of people we went in with.

Well, at least the High Elves were all very happy and excited about how easily they managed to secure a stable income as dismantlers for a reputable company…

Once we got home, I introduced the High Elves to my, ah, other employees. Basically, this was how the meeting went.

[1] “So, uh, these are some Elves I met during my journey. Haha, and, uh, they are very good at butchering and dismantling large monsters. Especially Verde…”

“Woah, they are so gorgeous!”

“Hey~ Eye candy~”

Bish-! Bash-!

“Please continue, Mukouda-san.”

“Ahem, they are here as our dismantling team. However, since jobs at home depend on what Fer and the others bring back… Well, they will be working at the Adventurer’s Guild when not working with us.”

“Yeah! Our own dismantling team!”

“Way to go, Mukouda-san!”

“You two…” Tabitha had this really menacing look on her face.

“Since we have new people here!” I said loudly, “Why don’t we have a little party to get to know each other?”

“Yay!”

“Party!”

“Booze!”

That last one was Bartel, if you must know.

[1] Anyway, considering the status of my current employees (slaves) and my new employees (High Elves), the best thing to do now was to forge a closer relationship through good food and drink in hopes that there would be no weird social tensions in the future.

Since the High Elves were new to my home, I asked them what they would like for dinner.

“Mincemeat Cutlets!!”

[2]

“Ah, I see,” that’s right, after the Karaage and Tonkatsu meal. All the High Elves were incredibly impressed by the fried food.

“I have never seen anyone boil food in oil before in my life,”

“It is such a revolutionary way of cooking. I have only ever seen food boiled in water or roasted over fire in my long life.”

“It was almost like magic to see the food turn a bright golden brown after swimming in all that liquid fat~!”

“Ahhh, the crunch of that first bite~~”

“That juicy mouth feel~~”

“When Mukouda said that there are more kinds of fried food than Karaage and Tonkatsu, of course, we just have to try it!”

[2a]

“Somehow, the way you guys described fried food is kind of…” I muttered as I mentally reviewed the meats I had in my [Item Box]. I’ll have to mince more meat for this meal. I had used the last of my minced meat to make that Sauced Mincemeat dish last time.

“Although,” said Jorgen, “I have to wonder what a Mincemeat Cutlet looks like.”

“Would Mukouda be frying mince meat? Surely it would be really crispy?”

“Wait, wouldn’t that just be some brittle little bits of meat? I like the juiciness of whole cuts of meat when I bite into a Karaage or Tonkatsu.”

“Surely it would be really fragrant, though?”

“No matter what it’s like, I’m sure it will be delicious.”

“Whatever it is, I can’t wait~”

Since the party would involve kids and heavy drinkers. Fried food would be the best choice.

“Yes, fine, Mincemeat Cutlet it is,” I said and made my way towards the kitchen. As I was making my way there, [3] Teresa, Aiya and Seria-chan came with me. Oh, well, I guess it would be nice to have someone to help me. Even though I have that Solitary Chef title that was supposed to work best when I’m alone, it would be nice to have some help.

Cooking is best when done as a community after all.

The first thing to do for a Mincemeat Cutlet is the mincing of onions.

[4] Lots and lots of onions.

[4] So many onions that I decided to purchase a secret weapon from [Net Super]. That’s right, for mincing onion, it had to be the Manual Onion Chopper. There were all kinds of onion choppers and food choppers on [Net Super], but I bought the simplest, string-operated version. There was no point getting the more sophisticated ones since we can’t use electronics here. Well, electricity does exist (see Fer), but I don’t have a convenient electrical point for it.

I bought three of these devices and showed the ladies how to use them.

[4] To properly use the Onion Chopper (manual-string operated), the onions must first be peeled and cut to a proper size. Then, drop the onion piecess into the chopper until it’s a little more than half full and pull the string, making the blades inside rotate. Keep pulling until the onions are finely chopped.

[4] The ladies formed an onion chopping line with Teresa peeling the onions, while Seria-chan and Aiya operated the onion chopper.

While they were busy with that, I minced more meat with my mincer. For today’s Mincemeat Cutlet, I decided to go for the standard Dungeon Beef and Dungeon Pork mix.

Soon, we have mountains of Mincemeat and chopped onions on the work table. The next job was to mix the beef and pork into 1:1 ratios with plenty of onions, some salt and spices. After mixing, it was time to knead the pork until the meat became sticky and then form the meat into patties-

[5] “Lotte! What are you doing here?” Teresa cried.

I turned to the door and… oh my, Lotte and Sui were peeking around the door and looking earnestly at us with sparkling eyes. Sui was vibrating.

“Oh, hello, what are you two doing here?” I asked.

“Lotte wants to try making that, Brother Mukouda~”

“”Sui wants to help~~””

Well, well, I felt healed just looking at these two cuties~

“Lotte! This isn’t a game. Go and play outside!” said a worried Teresa.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” I said soothingly to Teresa. “[5a] Sui has helped me make these before. Sui, could you show Lotte what to do?”

Playing with a bit of meat should be fine for Lotte since it doesn’t involve knives of any sort. I set down a basin of mixed meat and showed them how to make it.

“So, you scoop out about this much, and then you slap the meat like this,” I said, demonstrating the meat-slapping technique slowly for them. “Oh, very good Sui, just like that. Here, put the patties here.” I said as I placed a tray next to them. “Take your time, okay~”

“Okay Brother Mukouda~!”

“”Okay, Aruji~~””

Ahh~~

Anyway, now that things that needed to be chopped had been chopped, it was now time to form the patties. Soon, the kitchen was filled with the sound of meat being tossed from hand to hand as the air was slapped out of them. Naturally, I made some Cheese-In versions as well.

Once most of the patties had been formed, I got started on the next part of the cooking. The batter and breadcrumb coating. It did not take long to coat the patties in flour, beaten egg and breadcrumbs. Once I had a couple of trays full of breaded cutlets, I started up the frying process, trusting the ladies to complete the rest of the patties themselves.

Once the first batch of Mincemeat Cutlets was out, I found two small figures staring at me from the side. It was Lotte-chan and Sui. Lotte was drooling.

“Ahem, I need someone to do a taste test. I wonder…”

“Me, me! I’ll do it Brother Mukouda!”

““Sui will test too~!””

“Hoho, very well. That would be very helpful,” I said as I served the one piece each.

“It’s so de~li~ciou~~” Lotte-chan cried.

“”Yummy~~ this is so yummy~~!””

Ah, Sui-tan is literally vibrating with joy~

While I continued to fry the cutlets, the ladies got started on the shredded cabbage side dish. There were a lot of cabbages. Fortunately, [Net Super] also sells special slicers for cabbages…

With my special Solitary Chef title and six pans of frying oil, I was soon done with the frying and had nothing else to do while the ladies shredded the cabbage. Lotte was not allowed to touch knives yet, so I gave her the job of mincing more meat with the meat mincer with Sui supervising on the side.

Meanwhile, I quietly took out a special piece of meat.

That’s right.

For tonight’s dinner, there will be a special menu item.

If I were to make a lot of these, it would just be wasted inside the black hole that was Fer and Co’s stomach.

Instead of putting this special meat into the mincer, I roughly chopped the meat up with my knife and kneaded it with some chopped onions until the mixture was sticky. So far, so similar.

Later, I shaped, battered and fried the meat in high-temperature oil.

No cheese.

Just a little salt and pepper, no other herbs.

Because that’s the best way to fully enjoy the super luxurious Green Dragon Mincemeat Cutlet. By now, everyone else had already cleaned up after themselves and left the kitchen and Lotte and Sui had been sent off with another fried Cutlet each. I offered the ladies one each too, but they declined, saying they would prefer to eat together with the others.

After frying up a couple of trays of this special menu item, which I immediately store inside my [Item Box] to prevent them from cooling down, I browsed through [Net Super] once again. After all, there’s more to a Mincemeat Cutlet Party than just, well, Mincemeat Cutlets.

A bottle of Worcestershire sauce to enhance the flavour of the cutlet, some soft burger buns so that the kids could make their own little cutlet burger meals, and finally, the very important bottled beer as well as ice to chill it.

This way, the Mincemeat Cutlet Party is completed. I wonder, just how everyone will react to tonight’s dinner?

I’m looking forward to dinner~

[Gumihou: Did my best. I can’t make mincemeat cutlets, but I have made hambaagu before, it’s more or less similar until the batter-and-fry part. The family can’t eat too much fried food]

[1] Make the explanation more interesting

[2] Make the reason why they wanted Mincemeat Cutlet more interesting

[2a] Speculate what Mincemeat Cutlet is, especially for people who had never encountered fried food before.

[3] Not sure why he would be ‘unsure whether to work alone or ask the women to help’, but scrap that scene by having the ladies follow him to the kitchen

[4] Add details re onion chopping

[5] Adjusted Lotte’s scene

[5a] In the manga, Sui helps Mukouda with his cooking, so…

[6] Adjusted Green Dragon mince