Chương 178: She Makes Chocolate
Robin blinked. "He's back? Already? Didn't you say..."
"Ah said anywayer from two weeks to a month, Deary. It must've been uneventful, as it's only been a week, but isn't that good news?" Queen Ayva asked.
"Hmmm, well, I suppose now is as good a time as ever." Robin sighed. She had almost forgotten why she had come, these last seven days had been so eventful.
"What do ya mean? Do you think I'd allow him to cause any harm to mah new nephew?"Ayva asked.
Robin shook her head.
"It's not that....It's just....how is he gonna handle the news about his brother?...Not everyone can take....such news...well." Robin's darkest memories began to surface.
The betrayal of her uncle's family...
The greed of her cousins...
The indifference of those she once considered her friends....
Robin's breath shuddered as she clutched at the clothing above her heart. Her eyes stared emptily at the ground. She once again felt as if she were drowning in emotions, and unable to breathe.
"Oy! Robin!" A hand smacked her flat on back, startling her out of the shadows of her mind.
"Ow! What was that for!?" Robin glared at Christian, who then ruffled her hair.
"The past is in the past." Christian said.
"Thorn was foolish enough to be poisoned, played around, and petty enough to choose his own route. It's not your fault. That kind of person, even if it's you that's meddling, he will stubbornly follow his own path. Unless they require our help, we have no real reason to butt in. Leave the dwarves' matters up to the dwarves, okay?" He smiled at Robin, and patted her shoulder.
"Trust me, they're a stubborn lot. And it's gonna take more than a betrayal to shake the mighty Throm, that's for sure!"
"Aye, he be right about that, he be." Ayva laughed, patting Robin's hand. "More importantly, Ah'm glad yer safe, deary."
"You two..." Robin sighed and smiled again. "Okay then! To celebrate a special occasion, I'm gonna go all out to make the best chocolate ever! Count on it!"
Christian just smiled, watching Robin cheer up again.
"About that, you should probably get started on that chocolate as soon as possible. I don't think you can be late to the king's summons, after all." Quinn pointed out.
"Ah! You're right! See you later, Aunty! I'll come by later with some snacks!" Robin raised her hand in farewell while Quinn transported the both of them back to the tavern.
Ayva chuckled as she watched them leave.
"Queen Ayva?" The stonemason boss asked.
She turned to look at him. "The work here is nae so urgent now. Ya kin go an' check on yer second cousin if'n ya want."
"Thank you, Queen Ayva!" The dwarf boss bowed before hurrying off.
By this time, the hot noon day sun had burned a hole in the steam, showing a patch of blue sky overhead. Ayva looked up at that patch and sighed.
'Robin, I hope you can find some way to open up to yer friends. Otherwise, that darkness you carry might destroy you one day.' She sighed, and continued towards her carriage. It was time to meet with her husband to talk about their new niece-er....nephew for now. She chuckled.
-------
Robin knew that Christian wanted to ask about earlier. But, she didn't give him that opportunity. Instead, she dragged Ponzu off to the kitchen to get started on making chocolate.
"Do you know what is necessary to make a good chocolate?" Robin asked Ponzu.
"Well, I honestly don't understand what chocolate is, so, no." Ponzu replied.
Robin smiled. "Actually, chocolate only uses two ingredients to make."
"What? Really?" Ponzu asked.
"Mhmm! But, it takes a lot of work. Here, try tasting a raw one." Robin smiled.
Ponzu nodded and tasted it. His back shuddered, as his mouth puckered.
"It's bitter, right?" Robin asked.
"Um, I think this is better off as a spice than a sweet, to be honest." Ponzu softly suggested.
"Yet, making a sweet out of that is exactly what we are going to do." Robin replied. "It'll take a few processes, but after we're done, you will agree that it is one of the best ingredients for a sweet."
"So, how are we going to do that?" Ponzu asked.
"First, we're gonna separate the good ones from the bad ones. if it looks shriveled or bug-bitten, we're tossing it. If it looks good and whole, we're keeping it. The rejects get thrown in the trash. The keepers we'll put in this bowl."
It took them about half an hour to finish going through the beans.
"Next, we're gonna roast them. Do you want to know why?" Robin asked.
"Why?" Ponzu clenched his pen.
"There's a very interesting phenomenon called the Maillard reaction, which will stave off the acridness of the beans and give it a more complex flavor." Robin said, as she poured the beans into an already heated pan.
"I like to think that it's similar to caramelization. This can also be done to the coffee beans I grabbed earlier, but those are better used in a drink, as they are a bit more acrid than cacao beans.
So, what we are going to do is roast these, and stir them until they become a nice dark brown, but not burnt, okay?" She asked, waiting for Ponzu's pen to catch up.
"Er, got it. What was that reaction called again? Male-urd?" Ponzu asked.
"Maillard. Spelt M-A-I-L-L-A-R-D. It's basically the reason why browned things taste good, like toast or roasted steaks or the skin of roast chicken, even caramel. Due to prolonged exposure to low yet constant heat, it triggers a natural change in the food that makes it taste better. It's called that because a guy named Maillard was the person to find out why."
"So, we're basically caramelizing the beans?" Ponzu asked.
"Of a sort, I suppose. The end product will act somewhat similar to caramel." Robin replied as she stirred the beans about in the pan.
"I get that the first ingredient is this bean, but, what is the other ingredient?" Ponzu asked. Robin looked at him, a pitying expression on her face.
"Ponzu, what are we making right now?" she asked.
"A sweet." He replied.
"That's right, a sweet. And what do sweet things have in them?" She asked.
"...It's sugar, isn't it." Ponzu felt like smacking himself in the face when he realized.
"Mnn! It's good that you know." Robin smiled.
It took an hour to fully roast the beans. And Robin explained that it could take more or less time depending on how fresh they were, and how long they'd been drying. Then they removed the shells from the beans.
"And this is the part where your kitchen magic comes to play!" Robin grinned.
"Oh? How?" Ponzu asked.
"We're gonna use your kitchen magic to grind the beans down until it liquifies." Robin explained.
"Huh? Um...Teacher, we just spent an hour toasting all liquid out of these beans. How on earth are they gonna liquify?" Ponzu asked.
"Huhuhu~ I guess you'll just have to see it, won't you?" Robin replied as she stuck the hot beans and sugar together in a bowl.
"We need to work quick before it cools down too much!" She warned.
"In that case...time to use supplementary kitchen spell number 5: Gari gari grinder!" Ponzu called playfully as the cacao beans were ground together with the sugar into a somewhat granulated coffee ground texture.
"Again!" Robin ordered.
The coffee grounds seemed to stick together a bit.
"Again!" Robin ordered.
.....
"Again!"
.....
After several more grindings, the beans had indeed become like melted chocolate. Moreover, Pedro was exhausted.
'So this is why it can be detrimental to my health, huh?' He wondered as he rested nearby, watching Robin conch the chocolate.
"Hey, I already grinded it up into a liquid. Why are you putting it through a heated mortar and pestle?" He asked.
"This is called conching." Robin explained. "While the chocolate could already be eaten after the first grinding, I said I'll make the best batch that I can, so I will. Conching is a process which further helps to mellow the flavor of the chocolate."
After about fifteen minutes she stopped. "While I could do this for hours, I don't have too much time. I need to finish up the last step." She sighed.
"Last step? You mean it's still not done?" Pedro asked, in surprise.
"See? Troublesome, right? But the pursuit of the best flavor isn't that troublesome, especially for the people who are special to you. To be honest, this is mostly a step to make sure that this sweet stores well."
Robin chuckled as she brought the mortar over to the stone slab countertop that had been warmed with a hot pan. Then she began the long process of folding, chopping, and spreading the chocolate around-a process known as tempering.
After yet another half-hour, the chocolate was finally ready. Robin poured the sludgy liquid into some molds and put them in the cold room to cool while she cleaned up.
And by 'clean up' obviously she was tasting the remains of the product.
"Here, Ponzu, try tasting these in sequence." She told him. Ponzu tried the scraps from the bowl where he ground the chocolate into liquid. Then he tried the scraps from the mortar. Then he tried the remaining bits from the stone slab.
"See? It might not seem like much in exchange for all that work, but it surely tastes the best after that last process, right?" Robin laughed, seeing a smudge of chocolate on Pozu's face.
"Come on, let's finish cleaning up. the chocolate should have cooled enough by the time we're done." She patted him on the back, slyly leaving a smudged chocolate hand print on him.
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BriarRose
BriarRose If I am late, please forgive me. If I am early, there's no need. I've been down with fever lately, so my sense of time is more like wibbly wobbly timey wimey.
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