Knowing Mo Ying prefers stronger flavors, Du Xixi decided to go all out when cooking dinner a bit later, planning to make mushroom and chili claypot rice for Mo Ying to try something new.
The main types of claypot rice include black bean rib rice, cured meat rice, tender chicken rice, loach rice, frog rice, and salted fish and savory meat rice. The authentic versions use fragrant slender rice, known for its firm yet delicate and translucent texture, a good mouthfeel, intense flavor, and ease of absorbing soup.
Du Xixi, accompanied by the extraordinarily excited 2569 after consuming an Energy Stone, chatted with Mo Ying while she headed to the kitchen to prepare a special version of mushroom chili claypot rice.
Making claypot rice doesn't require a rice cooker; Du Xixi specifically had 2569 customize a batch of Star Era sand pots—larger capacity! More heat-resistant! Most importantly, not expensive!
Du Xixi, inheritor of a billion-dollar fortune: I just manage the household so frugally~
In the country where Du Xixi previously lived, rice and noodles were the main staple foods, and they were a part of every meal. Claypot rice, which uses rice as the base and ingredients as the cover, releases a fragrant aroma after cooking, leaving a delicious aftertaste.
The ancestors of the Du Family had no contact with claypot rice. To master it, Du Xixi made special trips to places where claypot rice was popular, studying and tasting it tirelessly, visiting countless claypot eateries in the streets, and even practicing washing sand pots diligently, honing her excellent skill in making claypot rice.
Even though Du Xixi loves all kinds of claypot rice, her favorite is the mushroom and tender chicken claypot rice. Taking a bite, evenly mixed with sauce, the crispy rice combines with mushrooms and tender chicken, providing a resilient but crispy texture, interspersed with well-mixed crispy crust from the claypot bottom, offering a novel and delicious taste.
Unfortunately, there wasn't any chicken at hand now, but there were a few tiny mushrooms, unknown where 2569 found them, so Du Xixi decided to adapt mushroom and tender chicken claypot rice into mushroom chili claypot rice.
Though it transformed from semi-vegetarian to all-vegetarian, the taste was still quite good, and compared to authentic claypot rice, it wouldn't fall short much.
Du Xixi picked up a small sand pot, lifted it in her hands, feeling the weight fit her "frail body." Although the weight wasn't much, it looked about a size larger than Du Xixi's head.
Looks like it can hold more rice.
Fragrant slender rice is essential for authentic claypot rice, but in the Star Era, its trace hasn't appeared yet. The rice used here is mostly developed by the Cultural Relics Bureau based on excavated genes — inheriting excellent rice genes while constantly optimizing to enhance its taste.
But if you ask Du Xixi, if they spent some of their gene optimization skills on researching recipes, they wouldn't have turned high-quality rice, easily fragrant when cooked, into something comparable to little pebbles.
Du Xixi scooped the rice that had been soaked in clean water, placed it into the sand pot brushed with a layer of oil at the bottom, covered the lid, and carefully put it on the nearby stove.
Yes, at the same time Du Xixi had 2569 customize the sand pots, she also had it customize a batch of small stoves.
Electronic cookers are very smart, but Du Xixi always felt that foods made with high technology lack their soul, and to make delicious claypot rice now, a certain sense of ritual is naturally needed.
The small stove "whooshed" with a blue-yellow flame. Du Xixi attentively monitored the flame's size while keeping an eye on the rice inside the sand pot. When the rice was almost cooked, small pores appeared on the surface, and Du Xixi opened the lid, placing slices of pre-cut mushrooms and marinated chili segments one by one into the pot.
Originally, Du Xixi wanted to use green peppers, but knowing Mo Ying liked the intense spicy feeling, she chose chili peppers instead. Chili peppers are much spicier than green peppers, and after marination, the saltiness and spiciness slowly blend, preventing the spicy from being too intense and the salty from being too overpowering.
Additionally, as the chili peppers and mushrooms release their juices during steaming, these juices seep into the rice, mixing the spicy and salty flavors with it, adding an extra layer of taste.
Generally, chefs making claypot rice prepare their sauce, which they pour in when the rice is six to seven-tenths cooked, producing sizzling sounds, a highlight of claypot rice.
But Du Xixi found it cumbersome and simply used the naturally released juices from the ingredients as the sauce, allowing them to sizzle and pop during steaming.
Apart from the sizzling sound, another feature of claypot rice is the golden crispy crust at the bottom of the pot. Making this crispy crust isn't easy. It requires considerable experience from the person making the claypot rice, and the sand pot itself must meet certain conditions.
For example, most sand pots on Blue Star have a smooth glazed bottom, preventing the excessive number of sand eyes from hindering the crust formation. Du Xixi, to ensure smooth crust formation, required these sand pots to have a certain smoothness at the bottom.
Just as Du Xixi was waiting for the claypot rice to fully form, a strange sound came from outside, making her a bit uneasy. But the sand pot couldn't be left alone.
After weighing her options, Du Xixi turned the heat to low, ensuring no danger was likely, and quickly ran out to see what happened.
She saw Mo Ying, who had been chatting with 2569 on the sofa, now standing at the front door, with 2569, rare as a proper butler robot, standing beside her, both human and robot staring at a black-clad man outside the door.
Or should it be said... a black-clad figure like a man... a mecha?
Du Xixi already approached, but just as she was about to speak, her attention was drawn to the "black-clad man" outside the door. It wasn't its appearance that was particularly dazzling, rather the small creature it held seemed very familiar.
"...Pig?" Du Xixi's mouth twitched. Wasn't this the little piglet she was so familiar with? And it was a proper pig, not one with tusks like the Insect Clan of this era.
An Insect Clan tusked pig tribe member: How are we not proper? You can say we're not pigs, but definitely not that we're not! Proper!
"Madam, this guy is very dangerous." 2569 was extremely serious at this moment, even though it still appeared fluffy and cute, both its mechanical voice and the expression on the light screen were quite stern.
Though mecha and robots aren't the same devices, both use Energy Stones, and 2569 can very clearly sense that this mecha before them is quite extraordinary.
Because... it carries the aura of more than ten purple Energy Stones! The stronger the robot or mecha, the more Energy Stones they require.
Mo Ying also stood in front of Du Xixi, shielding her. Though she stepped off the battlefield, her ability to judge danger and the unknown had not diminished.
From the first glance at this mecha, she knew it was very dangerous... dangerous enough that she wasn't its match!
Seeing the vigilant expressions of the human and robot before her, Du Xixi felt a warmth in her heart, yet simultaneously, she sensed no ill-intent from the mecha, and it seemed quite familiar.
Du Xixi's gaze lingered over the dark golden emblem on the mecha's chest, pursed her lips, but said nothing.
The long-silent mecha spoke now, though a mecha, its voice was quite human-like, as if a real person were speaking: "Dear Miss Du Xixi, by my master's command, I bring you this gift..."
As it spoke, amidst the cautious or curious gazes of the three, the mecha stepped forward, placing the unconscious little pig it held on the ground in front of the door.
It did not step inside; after placing the pig down, it nodded respectfully towards Du Xixi, then resumed its mecha form, flew skyward, and disappeared.
"Rob..." Mo Ying's expression grew heavier, muttering three words in a low voice, looked up at the mecha's disappearing direction, not noticing the shock on Du Xixi's face after hearing "Rob."