Cooking in the wild

*** Chen Murong's point of view. ***

We returned about three hours later from the time we left. At first, we were walking leisurely with a barking deer resting on Dawei's shoulder until we spotted all remaining family members waiting for us around the campfire. We then sped up our pacing and greeted them. After we met the remaining family members at the camp, we briefly filled each other in on what was happened and prepared to cook the dinner with our catch.

We divided our tasks into two groups. The men would be responsible for cutting the barking deer into several large portions, and the women would be responsible for cooking. This was not a gender bias. It had just already been proven in the past that the men in Chen's family were usually sucked at cooking.

Following a debate, we decide to cook three kinds of dish, stir-fry with holy basil, herbal soup, and, finally, fermented meat on skewers for BBQ.

After the barking deer was cut and washed into several big chunks, Chen Yiren and Chen Yilin continued to chop them into smaller pieces while Chen Yawen sliced onions and garlic.

"Oh, your knife skill is really improving," Chen Yiren praised Chen Yilin when she saw how proficient her daughter was when using a knife.

"She really handles the knife really well," Chen Yawen glanced at the couple and immediately agreed.

"Thank you for the praise, mom…grandma," Chen Yilin responded with a smile on her face.

Ordinary people might think that only getting a polished and sharp knife was enough. However, every good cook knew that not only the knife's quality was the matter, but the process of how you dealt with the knife was even more critical. The knife was not something that ended simply by moving it. You had to understand the ingredients and feel them. The final result of the cooking could vary greatly. If you failed to control your strength while cutting the meat, it could end up like a torn rag.

After finished dicing the meat, Chen Yilin also trimmed the green peppers and the garlic that Chen Yawen prepared by the side. After that, she began crushing the garlic with the knife's side and put them separate from the green peppers in the two small bowls.

When the ingredients' preparation was over, Chen Yilin spread the vegetable cooking oil on the pan. After waiting for a brief moment to get the oil to be sufficiently hot, she put in the garlic and the green peppers to fry. When these ingredients met with the oil, it made frying noises. The sizzling sound and the intriguing smell made me wondered how tasty the food would be.

We men stared at them more closely. Though not because we were interested in cooking, we were so hungry and suffering from our stomach's protest. When I looked at my sister, sometimes, I saw that she flinched because some of the oil got to her. However, that was unavoidable. I guess.

Besides the frying work, my mother started to boil some water for the soup. She mixed the minced deer with garlic and sprinkled salt and made them into several small balls. After that, the next step was simple. She put them together with all kinds of herbs into the pot and waited for the soup to be ready.

Switching back to Yilin's cooking, it seemed the garlic and peppers were ready. She then began putting in several pieces of barking deer, oyster sauce, soy source, sea salt, and sugar over them. She also poured red wine to raise the flames a little bit and slightly flambé it. Then she placed the holy basil after the barking deer meat was nearly cooked.

The aroma that the holy basil and the garlic gave tickled everyone's nose.

"I think it is going to be extremely delicious," Huilong unceremonious said with a grin on his face.

"I guess," I replied while shrugging both of my shoulders. I also smelled the pleasant smokiness of grilled food while I was listening to the bird crisping and fire-cracking sound. Damn…I was starving, and drinking mineral water did not help me anymore. In fact, it was getting worse. It was only made me hungrier.

"I am so hungry," Huilong murmured.

Mom, are they nearly finished?" Huilong noisily asked. It turned out this guy was even hungrier than I was, and he was running out of patience.

"Soon."

We then continued to chat until the sky darkened and the women had finished their cooking.

15 minutes later. Chen Yiren loudly announced.

"It is almost ready!"

As she finished speaking, the smell of the meat had already filled up the camp, causing everybody's mouth to water. The family then assembled together around the campfire and tasting Yilin's special BBQ source skewers and stir-fried meat.

Even though the other dishes were ready, the BBQ skewers would take a little more time since they had just been placed on the fire. After a few more minutes, the meat was finally cooked. However, as Huilong reaching out to grasp one of the BBQ skewers, Yinlin interruptedly said.

"Wait. Let me take a picture first," Huilong's right hand reluctantly paused the movement, and he rolled his eyes, signaling the irritation of his sister's annoying social media posting habit.

Despite everyone's craving for food, Chen Yilin still insisted on taking a photo by her cell phone.

"I will upload it on my profile page," she proudly said.

"Done?" Huilong impatiently asked. Actually, not just this little guy. We were also all hungry. In fact, you definitely could tell how hungry we were. Even Dawei gulped at the sight of the meat. We had had nothing solid to eat for at least twelve hours! However, we still spoiled her. I thought it was a little thing that you could tolerate for the people you love.

"All done. Now, we can eat," Chen Yilin put her phone back into the purse. Huilong heard what his sister said and grabbed one of the streaky skewers.

Then, immediately, Huilong gave it a bite, and he started chewing the meat on his mouth.

"WOW! This is so delicious!" Huilong let out a gasp as he started biting his meat.

"Hey, do you take cooking classes in secret?" The confused feelings were transmitted from his voice. Chen Yilin smirked without saying anything.

It was at that moment that I also yelled with my eyes round.

"Tasty! It can't be. How could big sis make something like this?"

"Murong, don't you already know the future?" Sister Yilin teasingly asked me with a laugh.

"Only important stuff, evidently."

"You mean I am not important?" She pouted. "If that is the case, you don't get to eat them."

She then was trying to grab the BBQ stick from my hand, but I quickly moved it away from her.

"Just kidding. Hahaha. But, honestly, you have never brought this up in the past life. I guess because we didn't have a camping trip in the past life." I quickly added before I lost the BBQ stick.

She seemed to be calmer with my answer.

Chen Yiren added. "Your sister took a cooking class at the king's palace. I don't know why either. She asked me to use my connections in order to be there and learned with other princesses."

"Oh, that's not a typical you. Sis, be honest. Why you go to the cooking class?"

"Secret," Chen Yilin briefly answered. Instead of telling her real reasons, she continued to click her tongue and zip her lip.

"Never mind," I said.

I then continued to focus on eating the BBQ meat on my stick. The feeling I got when I chewed the meat was superb. Yilin's BBQ source's unique flavor seemed to touch my heart. I savored the hot meat juices in my mouth slowly.

The softness of deer meat seems to come from baking soda and white eggs that my sister used for resting the meat. I also saw her put ginger, chopped garlic, soy sauce, red wine, sugar, celery, tomatoes, and lemon juice in there, from what I could tell.

Her stir-fry barking deer with holy basil was also exceptional. On top of the basil's distinctive flavor, the meat on my mouth produced the Maillard Reaction, creating a sweet aroma that enhanced the feeling. Simply said, this dish was also very well done.

I looked around and saw that everyone had cheerful expressions as they enjoyed the meal.

This was the perfect meal!