The prep work for the meat zongzi is done. Now, let’s start on the Crystal Zongzi. Though we call them Crystal Zongzi, they could also be called fruit zongzi.
Gan Lan lightly moistened the prepared West Valley Rice, allowing the sago to expand to twice its size, then drained the water. West Valley Rice didn’t need to be soaked; just moistening it so it swelled slightly was enough.
She used a high-tech absorbent paper to dry off the remaining moisture from the moistened sago. Next, she added an appropriate amount of corn oil and white sugar, mixed it evenly, and set it aside.
“You can choose whatever fruit fillings you like for the Crystal Zongzi. However, fruits with liquid insides, like the Golden Liquid Fruit, won’t work. Anything else is fine,” Gan Lan said to the audience as she chopped the fruit.
She had prepared six types of fruit. They were all special fruits unique to this era, exceptionally delicious and sporting incredibly vibrant colors.
Number Nine Is My Dream Lover: [I really love the fruit tangyuan! Can the host just deduce all other variations after making one type of food? This is more than just learning by analogy—she’s simply a genius!]
Who Else But You: [After watching the host’s trending video on the Star Network yesterday, I originally thought it was just a publicity stunt, or that the recipes were incomplete. How could anyone really be stupid enough to make their recipes public? But as it turns out, there really is a host this foolish.]
Sky Blue: [Who are you calling stupid upstairs? It’s one thing if you don’t secretly chuckle over getting a freebie, but you actually dare to call my goddess stupid? Heh! Admins, kick him out!]
My Life Is So Hard: [Goddess, these look really difficult. I can’t learn this. WAAAH! Can I just eat without cooking? T_T]
Surprised Beggar Chicken: [What if I’m totally useless with my hands? I think it’s hard too. I even cut the fruit into uneven chunks. I’m such a failure. I’ve let down my junior schoolmate’s careful teaching. I want to bang my head against a wall! It’s just way, way, way too hard. I just want to sit here and wait for good food without doing anything!]
[…]
Gan Lan chopped a portion of each fruit and let the robot assistant handle the rest. She started wrapping the crystal zongzi first to get the easiest one out of the way because she was getting hungry.
She took two zongzi leaves, overlapped them, and curled them into a cone shape. She placed a suitable amount of sago at the bottom, added the diced fruit, and covered it with another layer of sago.
Using a spiral technique, she slowly rolled it up from the other end of the leaves. She left a little tail at the end, folded it over completely, and pressed it down with her thumb. Finally, she tied the bottom with cotton string in a crisscross pattern, ensuring it was tied tightly so it wouldn’t unravel.
Gan Lan intentionally wrapped the first one very slowly, explaining the process to the audience in the livestream room as she worked. She was afraid that if she went too fast, they wouldn’t be able to learn it. If they wrapped it haphazardly and threw it in the pot to boil, the whole thing would fall apart.
I’m Here To Learn: [Even though the host wrapped it very slowly and explained it carefully, my attempt was a total disaster! The sago spilled everywhere. I just can’t wrap it properly. I’m completely clumsy. It’s too hard! Wrapping this is really, really hard. I want to cry. WOO HOO HOO…]
Number Nine Is Life: [I didn’t even buy the ingredients because I was afraid of wasting food. I have a lot of self-awareness! Please, you clumsy people, stop posting pictures to burn my eyes! The ones you wrapped are worlds apart from what our junior schoolmate made!]
Handsome Mingyu: [If you’re so capable, you do it! You piece of trash, you don’t even have the courage to learn, so what are you so smug about?! I’ll post it if I want to! At least I have the heart to learn!] [Image]
Feiran: [Image] [That’s right, at least I put my heart into learning it. Junior schoolmate, I tried my best, although… the results might not be great.]
Sky Blue: [HAHAHAHA, Captain, you really dared to post that! What on earth did you post? What have you done to that Ruo Bamboo Leaf!? Oh my god, even the sago has turned to mush and mixed with the fruit! Hahaha, where did you find the courage!?]
Feiran: [Just you wait. ^^]
[…]
Seeing the zongzi wrapped by these friends, Gan Lan couldn’t help but let out a burst of laughter. It was a good thing she was wearing a mask, or she really would have sprayed spit everywhere.
“Hahaha! I don’t want to deal a blow to your confidence, but I can’t believe you guys failed at wrapping such simple zongzi, and so terribly at that!” Gan Lan was practically dying of laughter at the various bizarre shapes they had managed to create. They were just too talented.
“However, I did see some deft hands! To be able to wrap it so well on your first try means you’re truly a genius!” With a smile in her eyes, she praised, “It’s understandable if you don’t wrap it well the first time. You can try a few more times. Once you get the hang of it, they’ll look beautiful!”
Gan Lan wrapped the zongzi at a rapid pace. She let the robots scan the finished zongzi so they could help wrap the rest. The prerequisite for scanning was having a physical object.
The audience in the livestream room couldn’t use their assistant robots to scan the zongzi she wrapped because hers were virtual to them. Their robot assistants could only scan the food once they successfully wrapped a physical one themselves.
Gan Lan took a batch of the wrapped crystal zongzi, placed them in a pot of cold water, and set them to boil for about forty minutes.
Since they were on a zongzi-wrapping roll, they could now start wrapping the meat zongzi.
She drained the water from the soaked glutinous rice, added an appropriate amount of salt, and mixed it evenly. The peeled mung beans had also softened from soaking. She drained them slightly, took out the pork belly she had been marinating, and started wrapping.
The method was the same as wrapping the crystal zongzi. The only difference was when adding the filling: a layer of glutinous rice, a layer of mung beans, the pork belly, another layer of mung beans, and finally, another layer of glutinous rice. She tried to stuff the filling and rice as fully as possible, pressing it down firmly and wrapping it tightly.
Unlike crystal zongzi, meat zongzi needed to be packed solidly. This way, the boiled meat zongzi would be firm and delicious. Crystal zongzi didn’t need to be packed tightly because the sago would expand when cooked.
Gan Lan called over Gulu, who was idling around with nothing to do. “Gulu, come help me out! Wrapping these is super easy. You’ll be done in a few minutes! I’ll go make you a drink—a sparkly, pretty, and tasty drink!”
Gulu, who had been sitting with crossed legs playing video games, was visibly intrigued by this. He put down his console and ambled over to Gan Lan. “If it weren’t for you saying you’d make a sparkly drink, I wouldn’t do this! This is the last time! How could the great Sir Gulu do such menial labor!”
With a face full of reluctance, Gulu sat down anyway and glanced at the zongzi in Gan Lan’s hands. “This is so simple. I can’t believe people are actually stupid enough to fail at this. Too stupid! Watch me!”
Gulu rapidly wrapped a zongzi. It looked almost identical to the ones Gan Lan made, and his hand speed was even faster than hers.
The majority of the livestream audience, who couldn’t wrap it properly no matter how they tried despite it being “so simple”: […] You’re a robot! We are humans! What should we do now that we’re suddenly a bit jealous of a robot?
Seeing how efficient Gulu was, Gan Lan prepared to make the starry sky yokan and starry sky drinks. These two recipes were simple, and since she had high-tech tools at her disposal, they wouldn’t take much time.
She scooped out the soaked red beans. When she soaked the glutinous rice and mung beans earlier, she had conveniently soaked the red beans as well.
She placed the red beans into a pot, added double the amount of water, and boiled them over high heat until they were mashed and the water dried up.
Since the red beans weren’t ready yet, it was time to start making the dreamy starry sky drink!