Frikadel

We keep walking along the valley path. Silvie basket also already full of herbs that she collected along the way. Too bad we find nothing that similar to the cave during this journey. At the end of the valley, our walk stopped by a high cliff that impossible to pass without climbing it.

"Master Ikki, it seems here is our stop. We can't go further unless we climb this cliff and that may be dangerous. Moreover, we also don't bring much rope to climb up" Matius spoke to me about our situation.

"Oh yeah, I can see that mister Matius. I think this is the end of our journey today. Since we can't go further mean we can only back. Why don't we take a rest for a while? It's already past noon"

"That's right! We can rest and have lunch. We expecting master Ikki will make something delicious like yesterday"

"Yeah, the taste is so unforgettable in our mouth. I'm still drooling when remembering its taste"

"Okay, let's find a good spot to rest first".

We search for a place that has water and spacey. We found it near a small spring that made from water that leaked from the cliff. Like yesterday, mister Matius skinned a wild boar that they hunt before and mister Marius make a fireplace from nearby stones. I and Silvie are looking for the dry woods and big leaves for plates together. But before I'm going to look for firewood, I leave a request to Matius to keep the meat lards for me and not throw that away. Although a little confused by my request, Matius didn't reject it.

After we done with our respective job, it's time to cook now. When I'm still thinking what should I cook, Silvie handed me the bag that she carried from home.

"Ikki, can be this used too?"

When I see what the bag, its contain boiled potato and in a considerable amount that can feed four peoples. It seems she carry that as her lunch since yesterday she didn't bring anything for lunch, now she seems already prepared.

"Oh, this can be used, but the skin must be peeled first. Can you do that?"

"Yes, I can do that"

I handed her a small knife to peel the potato skin and she does it right away.

"Hmmm…if I have egg, I can make that" I murmuring while seeing the ingredient I have in front of me.

"Master Ikki, do you need an egg?" suddenly Marius interrupt my thinking, maybe he heard what I'm murmuring.

"Ugh yeah, but not egg in birds size. Egg-like chicken egg size"

"I think I saw a nest with egg back there. We hunter usually not disturb nest with egg to preserve the nature but if only just one egg is alright I guess"

"Really? I don't need much, just one is enough"

"Okay, I'll get it for master Ikki"

Matius leave us to get the egg from the nest he saw before, while I start to do the ingredient. First I remove the bones from the meat. After that, I battering the meat with a stone until the meat becomes minced meat and wash it in water to remove the dirt. After the meat was clean, I change to the potato that already peeled by Silvie. I put them on my pan and crushed into mashed potato. Put the minced meat and potato together, pour some salt and pepper then knead them to make them mix together. When I doing this, Matius return with an egg in his hands. The egg's size is quite big as a chicken egg.

"Mister Matius, what egg is this?"

"It's wild turkey egg master Ikki"

Oh, it's edible egg, so I can use it with ease. I'm already afraid if Matius take a crocodile egg or snake egg and will causing the egg's owner searching for its egg here, that would be troublesome.

"Oh thank you mister Matius. Please leave here and I will use it later"

I continue to knead the meat and potato together. After that I'm heating the fats in the frying pan, I'm intended to get some oil lards from there. That why I ask Matius not to throw them away. While waiting for the frying pan hot enough, I break the egg in my bowl and stirring it like to make an omelet. Yeah, my bowl, I have it in my backpack since I want to have lunch in the mountain when I gather ingredient at first place. I also have my chopstick too.

After the frying pan seems ready, I take a lump of the meat-potato mixture and rolled it in my hand to make it have round shape and soak it in the eggs before fried that in frying pan. Yeah, what I cook right now is an old recipe from Dutch that called Frikadel. This dish a bit different with its 'brother' recipe called Frikandel. If Frikadel shape is like petty hamburger, Frikandel is more like sausage although the ingredient that used for this two recipe is not much different. This dish also famous in European and Asian countries and can be made from many ingredients even there's Frikadel version for vegetarian which only use potato as the main ingredient. It's a simple dish that can be modified from many ingredients, chicken meat, beef, pork, or even horse meats, all can be used to make Frikandel.

The meat aroma from lard's oil combined with eggs from the Frikadel brings rich flavor in the forest. Since there's a lot of meat and potato to make, I can fry many Frikadel for them. After the color of Frikadel in the frying pan changes into shining brownish, I take them off from pan and put on four leaves plates according to our portion. And they immediately gobbled it although still hot.

"Fuuuh…I don't know what is this but it's smell good" Matius eat it while blowing it to make cooler.

"It's different from yesterday but delicious too" Marius already eaten one bite although still hot.

Too bad I don't have ingredient to make mayonnaise sauce, I can make chili sauce from the chili that I pick up earlier but since they already afraid to eat it, I wipe away that thought.

Silvie prefers to wait for her Frikadel portion to be cooler first while helping me fried the Frikadel. Since it can be eaten again later, I decided to make many Frikadel to bring home for chief Harvard.

Mister Matius and Marius eat the Frikadel like people who haven't eat for weeks. After eating about 20s Frikadel, I must remind them to hold their appetite.

"Mister Marius, this food can be eaten later too, you don't have to eat them all here. I make this many so you can bring it home for dinner too"

"Oh is it? I just feel it would be a waste if this delicious food left uneaten here hahaha" he laugh wryly.

"It can be eaten tomorrow too. Just re-heat it in frying pan with a little oil will do"

"Really? That's wonderful. This food can be carried as provisions when traveling" (Matius)

"It's really practical and easy to eat. Master Ikki really unrivaled in cooking" (Marius)

I just smile hearing their praise. This world cooking level is not advanced yet. They only consider what can directly be eaten as food. There's no understanding of the use of spices like chili or lime.