Gan Lan looked at the massive pile of sweet potatoes on the ground. They were truly huge!
Sweet potatoes in this era must be overflowing, she thought. Such a large pile barely cost any Credit Points. She had even discussed with the sweet potato vendor about sourcing them for her instant noodle factory in the future. The vendor lived on an Edge Star where more than half of the land was dedicated to farming sweet potatoes. It was considered an impoverished planet; if the sweet potato glass noodles turned out to be a success, they might just be able to pull themselves out of poverty.
She felt like a treasure hunter who had just struck gold, unearthing a massive sweet potato with a single thrust of her shovel. Sweet potatoes could be used to create a much wider variety of delicacies than pickled bamboo shoots. Once the competition was over, she planned to have a long talk with that vendor.
"Gulu, the workload today is huge. Come help out, or else you won’t even get to smell the food later—or next time for that matter!" Gan Lan threatened the idle robot.
"How dare you threaten me! I’ll eat what I want and smell what I want! Besides, you can’t even beat me in a fight!" After speaking, Gulu stood up and looked down at Gan Lan with an arrogant tone.
Gan Lan sneered. "Turn off—"
Before she could finish her sentence, the previously haughty Gulu hurriedly covered her mouth. "Okay, okay, fine! I’ll help, I’ll help! Don’t say the rest of it!"
Seeing the triumphant look in Gan Lan’s eyes, Gulu dropped his hands, unable to resist muttering, "Stinky Yan, I can’t believe he even told you about this!"
Gan Lan was feeling exceptionally smug because she had finally discovered Gulu’s weakness: turning off his olfactory system. This was even more unbearable for him than being dismantled. She wondered why a robot loved food so much.
She ordered two assistant robots to wash the sweet potatoes, shooing Gulu along to help them. Then, she turned on her stream, wearing a warm, spring-like smile, and delivered her daily greeting.
"Good morning, everyone! Have you eaten breakfast yet? Today’s breakfast might just turn into lunch because the ingredients we’re preparing today will take quite a bit of time."
*Number Nine My goddess:* [goddess, what is that pile of Honghong behind you? Oh my god, are you doing a massive giveaway today? With this pile... we could have so many lucky draws!]
*Braised Chicken Leg Smells So Good:* [I know! I know these are sweet potatoes! They come in lots of different colors and are delicious whether you steam, boil, or roast them! It’s just that after eating them, you’ll pass... you know what. Those who have eaten them understand!]
*Blooming Beauty, Moonlit Grace:* [So what are we making with sweet potatoes today? What else can they be made into? It looks like a huge project. Guess I can’t count on this for breakfast. I’ll just go to the South Gate Cafeteria to eat pig trotter noodles. It’s going to be wonderful!]
"Today, we’re making hot and sour noodles, which requires these sweet potatoes. We’ll turn them into glass noodles. The process is simple but quite time-consuming. You guys can try it too," Gan Lan replied, immediately hurrying to get to work.
She needed to boil a broth to serve as the base for the hot and sour noodles. A pork bone broth would do perfectly; it was simple and straightforward. With the broth simmering, she placed the washed sweet potatoes into a high-tech machine to crush them and extract their juice. Next, she dried the juice using specialized futuristic solar technology. The machine mimicked the sun’s heat, radiating it over the sweet potato juice to rapidly coagulate it into large blocks of sweet potato starch. She then crushed these large blocks of starch, spreading the pieces out to dry completely.
She left the rest of this task to Gulu while she started making the chili sauce.
"The sweet potato glass noodles will take quite a while to finish, so let’s make the seasoned chili sauce first. This sauce requires a lot of spices and ingredients, but if you don’t mind the hassle, you can make it along with me."
She poured oil into the wok. Once it was hot, she tossed in the chopped aromatics: onions, ginger slices, garlic, scallions, and cilantro. Next, she added an array of spices: star anise, cinnamon bark, bay leaves, fennel seeds, cloves, amomum villosum, tsaoko, sand ginger, and gromwell root. She slowly fried them over medium heat until the onion layers wrinkled and turned golden brown, then turned off the heat and strained out the aromatics and spices, leaving only the infused oil.
In a separate bowl, she mixed an appropriate amount of coarse and medium-coarse chili flakes, white sesame seeds, light soy sauce, and chicken bouillon powder until well blended. While the spiced oil was still piping hot, she poured a portion of it over the chili mixture, stirring it thoroughly. She then added thirteen-spice powder and fine chili powder, poured in more hot spiced oil, and stirred again. Finally, she poured in all the remaining oil, immediately followed by a dash of black vinegar, mixing everything evenly.
A rich, fiery, and bright red chili sauce was complete. Gan Lan transferred the large basin of sauce into several high-tech containers designed to rapidly infuse the spices into the oil, as the freshly made batch wasn’t quite aromatic enough yet.
*Immortal Barbecue:* [Holy crap! What kind of heavenly chili sauce is this? It smells way too good! It’s just that there are so many ingredients, and it looks super troublesome to make. Plus, there are lots of spices I don’t even recognize. Junior, are you selling this sauce? It would definitely be absolutely delicious mixed with rice! I want some!]
*Hot Pot Balls:* [Making it is impossible; I’ll never successfully make it in this lifetime! I could eat five bowls of rice with just this sauce alone! Junior~ I want some~]
*Feiran:* [You have some nerve. You think you can get it just because you want it?]
*Binbin:* [Boss, have you noticed your persona has been completely crumbling lately? Don’t you plan to hold back a little? Sister, I want some too... Just this sauce alone could sustain my life for a long, long time, hehe~]
"Woman! The sweet potato starch is all dried! What’s next?" Gulu dramatically shook out his hands, then muttered softly to himself, "Honestly, making me work like a horse while she slacks off over there!"
"I wasn’t slacking off! Couldn’t you see I was making the chili sauce?!" Gan Lan immediately retorted. She was a very hardworking person!
Walking over to the dried sweet potato starch, she rubbed a little between her fingers and nodded in satisfaction. "Good job, Gulu!"
"I don’t need you to tell me that!" Gulu huffed, arrogantly turning his head away from her.
Gan Lan prepared an oversized container, poured all the sweet potato starch in, and mixed it with water to form a paste.
"Gulu, come here." Gan Lan taught Gulu step-by-step how to mix the paste, how to load it into the machine for pressing, and how to extrude the noodles. She then showed him how to lift the noodles and hang them in a cool place to air-dry. Since there was no natural breeze inside the house, they had to rely on high-tech equipment, otherwise it would take days for the noodles to dry completely.
Buying all these machines had cost a hefty sum of Credit Points, making Gan Lan’s heart ache slightly.
"These are the main ingredients for the hot and sour noodles we’ll be making later. However, we still have to wait a while before we can start. For now, let’s get the chickens roasting."
Gan Lan removed the heads and claws from the Zhenzhen Chickens. "We’re making apple honey roasted chicken that bursts with juices in every bite! It’s incredibly delicious! If you like chicken, hurry up and make it with me!"
She used blood-absorbing patches to draw out the residual blood from the Zhenzhen Chickens. Then, she evenly coated the birds with salt, black pepper, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, and honey to marinate them. Gan Lan had prepared over a dozen chickens. Since she wasn’t just cooking for herself anymore, but for a whole crowd, she had to make over a dozen portions every time. Still, she was happy to do it!
She seasoned the Zhenzhen Chickens one by one, leaving the task of rubbing the marinade in evenly to the robots. This made the process exceptionally relaxing. If she had to do it all by herself, she would never have made so many.
"While these things are finishing up, let’s fry some fragrant, crispy peanuts to eat." Gan Lan had almost forgotten that the hot and sour noodles would require fried peanuts. She could also prepare some minced meat to top off the noodles. Just thinking about it made her heart swell with joy.