The canna starch had settled to the bottom. After carefully decanting the yellowish-brown water on top, the pristine white starch layer was immediately revealed.
If they had more time, they could filter it and let it settle again; the finished vermicelli would be clearer and chewier. But time was extremely tight, so they could only filter it once. The vermicelli-making tasks had to be completed before winter, because when winter arrived, drying the vermicelli would be very difficult.
The canna starch was scraped from the bottom of the basin and placed onto a wooden tray. Next, they crumbled the lumps of starch, then poured in boiling water and stirred it evenly, creating a thick paste layer (half-raw, half-cooked starch). The characteristic of canna starch at this point was that when stationary, its surface was quite hard, but when scooped up by hand, the starch immediately liquefied and flowed like a stream. This was exactly the effect Kaelen wanted.
Putting a moderate amount of dough into a wooden mold pre-drilled with tiny holes, they pressed down firmly. Under the pressure, the dough was squeezed through the small holes, flowing in strands into the boiling water pot below. When the vermicelli strands were cooked, they would float to the surface. The person in charge of scooping the vermicelli would immediately transfer them to a pot of cold spring water right next to it, then scoop them out again to drape over wooden poles, taking them to a shaded area to dry.
Kaelen demonstrated about two times, then let the vermicelli-making group practice themselves while he stood by to guide their operations.
After a few times of over-kneading the dough or pressing too hard causing the vermicelli strands to break, this group of five became much more proficient. What surprised Kaelen was that with just over 100kg of canna tubers, they managed to make nearly a hundred poles of drying vermicelli. Kaelen calculated that once dried, the vermicelli on these poles would weigh about 30kg of dry vermicelli.
Don't think 30kg of dry vermicelli is a small amount; when cooked and expanded, they would yield 100 to 120kg of wet vermicelli, enough for the whole tribe to eat to their hearts' content for half a month. The ruined portions of vermicelli Kaelen also didn't waste, immediately scooping them out separately, preparing to cook lunch for everyone to enjoy. He decided to cook the chicken vermicelli dish he had been craving for so long. As luck would have it, the patrol team caught a nest of wild chickens today and brought them back as a gift for Jaxon.
The chicken was cleaned. Kaelen kept the innards, using salt and a wooden stick to wash them thoroughly, and marinated them with some wild ginger to remove the fishy smell. What overjoyed him was that this chicken still had unlaid eggs inside.
The chicken and unlaid eggs were put into a separate pot to boil. Kaelen crushed dried purple onions, heated fat in a pan, and sautéed the onions until fragrant. Next, he added the chicken innards, dried Sima fruit, shiitake mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, salt, and mushroom extract, stirring evenly. Once the chicken innards were thoroughly cooked, he scooped them out and set them aside on a plate.
The group of tribesmen smelled the aroma of the stir-fried chicken innards and their mouths watered, secretly wondering how one chicken could be enough for so many people to eat.
At this time, the pot of boiled chicken had been boiling for about two minutes. Kaelen ladled a small portion of the chicken broth into the pan where he just stir-fried the innards, added fresh water, sprinkled a little salt, and brought it to a rolling boil.
Then, he put the vermicelli into the holed mold from earlier, using it like a blanching basket, quickly blanched the vermicelli, and portioned it into large wooden bowls. The amount of vermicelli only filled half a bowl.
After blanching the vermicelli, he started scooping spoonfuls of the stir-fried chicken innards and mushrooms to spread on top, chopped some coriander, and sprinkled a little in each bowl. While waiting for the chicken in the pot to fully cook, Kaelen took out chopsticks and taught everyone how to use them, lest they wouldn't be able to eat the vermicelli later.
Actually, he only needed to tell them to use the chopsticks to pinch the vermicelli strands and twirl them around to lift and eat, but Kaelen wanted to spread the proper way of using chopsticks to them even more, hoping that in the future he wouldn't see tribesmen reaching in with their hands to grab food anymore.
The native people here usually didn't pay attention to personal hygiene; no matter how strong a beastman was, every year a few people would die from parasitic infections. Later, under Kaelen's silent influence and Jaxon's frequent reminders, people gradually changed their lifestyle habits, always keeping in mind the principle of eating cooked food and drinking boiled water. However, they might still use the hands they just wiped their butts with to grab food and stuff it into their mouths.
For example, right now, a beastman grumbled: "How are these two tiny sticks so hard to control? It's even harder than hunting beasts!"
They really wanted to throw away the chopsticks in their hands, but being stared down by Jaxon, they didn't dare. They could only grimace and maneuver their hands to pick up the round berries in the bowl.
The Sub-Beast group was more dexterous. Initially, they also struggled greatly, but after a few tries to find the pattern, they reluctantly managed to pick up two berries. Sane secretly felt lucky that he had previously seen Kaelen and his friends using chopsticks to pick up food and had secretly practiced. Now his hands controlled the chopsticks nimbly, and his speed of picking up berries was even faster than Jaxon's.
By this time, the chicken in the pot was cooked. Kaelen scooped the chicken out, chopped it into small pieces, and arranged them evenly into each bowl of vermicelli. Adding salt to the chicken broth pot to taste, he immediately poured the broth until it filled the bowls to the brim.
When the hot broth was poured in, the aroma of the chicken innards and coriander wafted up together, entering the noses of the people present and making their stomachs growl loudly.
[You can eat now.]
Just waiting for that, the group immediately lunged forward, each grabbing a bowl, using the clumsy chopstick skills they just learned to pick up a chopstick-full of vermicelli and put it in their mouths. They were anxious to see if the thing that had tormented them since yesterday could actually fill their stomachs as Jaxon had said.
As soon as the vermicelli strands entered their mouths, the slippery sensation carrying a rich flavor instantly exploded in their oral cavities. Chewing, this chewy and crunchy texture made people want to stop but couldn't. For a moment, only slurping sounds surrounded them.
The Sub-Beast group ate more calmly. Because there were few unlaid eggs, Kaelen didn't share them with the beastmen; all of them fell into the bowls of their four Sub-Beasts. The other three Sub-Beasts ate very little; after finishing only half, they already felt very full. They turned to look at Kaelen, admiration flashing in their eyes.
This sub-beast really has a huge appetite!
The three of them felt it was a waste of delicious food and forced down two more bites, but ultimately had to surrender in defeat. Seeing this, Kaelen offered to eat for them, because vermicelli soaked in water for too long would become mushy and lose its good taste.
Jaxon tilted his head back, slurped up the last mouthful of broth, and satisfyingly belched loudly towards the sky. Jaxon rubbed his belly and marveled:
"How strange, there were clearly only a few pieces of chicken and some yellow tuber starch strands, but I feel as if I just devoured a whole wild boar."
The beastmen set their empty bowls down, wiped their mouths, and nodded vigorously in agreement with Jaxon's words.
Sane, however, kept glancing at Kaelen, who was pouring the leftover vermicelli from another Sub-Beast's bowl into his own, and then looked down at Kaelen's stomach, his eyes full of worry. He had eaten a late breakfast this morning, putting down three bowls of porridge, and now eating so many yellow tuber starch strands, wouldn't he overeat?
Jaxon also subtly glanced at Kaelen's stomach, secretly feeling puzzled. When Jaxon's mate was pregnant, he couldn't eat this much; could it be that being pregnant with a snake tribe child made one eat more?
Kaelen, of course, was not overeating. He felt that right now, even if another roasted pig was placed in front of him, he would eat it all. Since becoming pregnant, his appetite had doubled, and even showed signs of tripling. It could also be due to the consumption of his special ability, but Kaelen felt the reason didn't matter.
The important thing was that from now on, he could bid farewell to those incredibly bitter white starchy tubers!