Today, because Po went to pick up Bell-mère and the others, most of the dishes were prepared by Tom.
Since it was prepared by Tom, the dishes were naturally mainly Western cuisine.
For example, the main dish Tom prepared today was black pepper beef tenderloin pasta. As for the cooking method, you could essentially treat it as sophisticated fried noodles.
Cut the beef into strips and marinate with light soy sauce, black pepper, salt, olive oil and starch.
While the beef was marinating, cook the pasta and chop the onion, garlic, and green and red peppers.
Heat the oil in a pan and add the beef, stir-frying until the beef changes color and set aside.
Then repeat the same operation. Add onions, garlic, and green and red peppers to the hot oil in the pan and stir-fry until cooked. Then add the previously stir-fried beef.
After stir-frying everything evenly, add the cooked pasta and then add the prepared sauce and stir-fry again.
The sauce was a conventional combination of: oyster sauce, light soy sauce, sugar, black pepper, starch and water. More black pepper could be added for intensity. This was a versatile sauce that could be used not only when making black pepper beef tenderloin pasta, but also when preparing other dishes.
The second dish Tom made was vegetable salad. There was nothing particularly complex to say about this. The method was very simple. Just mix various fresh vegetables with high-quality salad dressing.
The third dish was grilled steak, which was also a common dish with straightforward preparation. Whether the steak was delicious depended on the quality of the meat and the chef's ability to control the heat.
The meat was M5 Wagyu beef that Tom had asked Chu Zihang to purchase from Shin-chan's World. Like Gustave, Tom didn't like meat that was too fatty. M5 was just right, with a little fat, so it didn't taste too dry or greasy.
As for Tom's ability to control the heat, there was no need to say more. As long as Jerry didn't interfere and mess things up, Tom was a perfect chef.
The fourth dish was German sauerkraut beef shank. Since the latitude of Germany was similar to that of Northeast China, the pickled sauerkraut was also very similar. In order to save time, Tom directly used the Northeastern sauerkraut that Gustave had pickled before.
The difficulty in making sauerkraut beef shank lay not in the sauerkraut, but in the beef shank preparation.
First, use a toothpick to poke several holes in the processed beef shank to facilitate the absorption of flavor.
Add water to the pot, add white pepper, bay leaves, juniper berries, salt, garlic, onion, beer, and finally add beef shank and cook everything together.
When the beef shank was cooked until it could be pierced through with chopsticks, you could take it out. Wait for the beef shank to cool down slightly, and evenly spread fruit vinegar or white vinegar on the surface. This would allow for a crispy skin when it was baked later.
While the beef shank was roasting, prepare the sauerkraut.
Take out the sauerkraut and wash it to remove the dirt on the surface. If you didn't like it too sour, you could wash it a few more times.
Cut the washed sauerkraut into shreds, then add water and put them into the pot and cook until the soup became thick. During this process, you could adjust the flavor to your preference. Tom liked the original flavor, so he didn't add anything, just pure sauerkraut.
The reason why sauerkraut was used with beef shank was that beef shank alone was too greasy, so sauerkraut was used to balance it out.
The fifth and final dish was Russian red vegetable soup, also known as borscht.
Cut the fresh beef ribs into small pieces and put them into the pot to stew.
While the beef ribs were stewing, cut the onion into shreds, the carrot into strips, and the beetroot into strips. The reason it was called beetroot soup was because the beetroot dyed the soup red.
Heat oil in a pan, add onion shreds and stir-fry. After they were cooked, add carrot strips and beetroot strips and stir-fry together. Add some tomato sauce and apple cider vinegar for seasoning, and continue to stir-fry.
When the ingredients were almost done, add enough water to cover them and cook until the soup became thick.
While stewing, prepare two other vegetables, namely: cabbage and potatoes. Cut the cabbage into shreds and the potatoes into strips.
When the soup in the pot became thick, add the soup from cooking the beef ribs on the other side. You could add more soup this time.
Next add salt and sugar to season and balance the sour taste in the pot.
After seasoning, add shredded cabbage and stew. At this time, you could remove the cooked beef ribs and cut them into small pieces for later use.
After the shredded cabbage had been cooked for a while, add the potato strips and stew. During the stewing process, chop the parsley leaves and garlic into fine pieces. When the potatoes were almost cooked, add the chopped beef ribs, chopped parsley and minced garlic.
Finally, add some cooked red beans to add some layers of texture. Borscht could be regarded as a hearty hot pot stew.
Of course, borscht without sour cream was soulless.
Tom would serve the prepared dishes, top them with some fresh fruit, perhaps oranges from Bell-mère's orange grove, and then the meal would begin.
"Help yourself with whatever you want to eat. You're welcome."
After reaching the Bamboo Staff, Po noticed that Nami and Nojiko were a little reserved, so he took a plate and handed it to them and said warmly.
"Yeah, eat whatever you want. There aren't many rules for eating at Bamboo Staff!"
Luffy was holding a massive beef shank and talking while enthusiastically chewing it.
Nami and Nojiko looked at the other people in Bamboo Staff. No matter whether it was Ace, Luffy, Chu Zihang who was younger than them, or the internet-addicted old man Lord of Morality, they were all very casual when eating. So, the two of them were no longer restrained. They picked up the plates, served themselves some dishes and started eating.
"It's so incredibly delicious, no wonder they can open a restaurant on the sea!"
Nami couldn't stop eating the black pepper beef tenderloin pasta after taking a single bite. Bell-mère's cooking skills were no match for Bamboo Staff's culinary excellence.
"It's okay. If Uncle Gustave hadn't been injured and was still unconscious, the food he cooked would have been even more delicious."
Luffy bit off most of the steak as soon as he opened his mouth, and while eating he complained that Tom's cooking skills were not as good as Gustave's.
Hearing Luffy's thoughtless words, Tom sharpened his claws menacingly. If he doesn't get beaten for three days, he will tear the roof off the house. This was definitely referring to Luffy.
"What's wrong with you guys?"
Luffy, whose cheeks were bulging from eating, felt confused when he saw the people around him slowly moving away from him.
Suddenly, Luffy felt a strong murderous aura emanating from behind him, and he realized that he seemed to have said something terribly wrong just now.
Luffy swallowed hard, finished the remaining food in his hand in one bite, and then closed his eyes. Even if he died, he wanted to die with a full stomach.
"Meow!"
Tom roared sharply and moved his claws with lightning speed. Everyone saw that all of Luffy's clothes were blown off, leaving only a small pair of underwear. Apart from that, there were two bloody claw marks on his face.
"Pervert!"
At this time, Nami had not yet opened up to such displays. She shouted "pervert" and covered her eyes. Although everyone could see that Nami still left a small gap between her fingers.
Luffy smiled awkwardly, then ran to the fourth floor as fast as he could possibly move. Tom let Luffy know that he could eat whatever he wanted but he absolutely couldn't talk nonsense.
"It's okay, it's okay, everyone continue eating!"
At this time, Po stepped forward and told Nami and the others not to worry about Luffy and just focus on enjoying their meal.
"Bell-mère, Bamboo Staff would like to purchase oranges from your orange orchard on a long-term basis. Is that acceptable?"
After everyone finished eating, Po told Bell-mère the idea he and Ace had thought of yesterday.
"Really?"
Before Bell-mère could answer, Nami looked at Po with shining, hopeful eyes.
"We all genuinely like the oranges that Bell-mère gave us yesterday, and we also want to share these delicious oranges with more people, so we all unanimously decided to purchase the oranges you grow."
Po nodded with sincere enthusiasm.
"Bell-mère?"
Nami looked at Bell-mère with longing, hopeful eyes.
"But what will Bamboo Staff do after leaving Cocoyasi Village? The ocean is so vast that long-term purchases seem impossible."
Bell-mère shook her head pragmatically. She had no problem selling oranges when the Bamboo Staff stopped at Cocoyasi Village, but long-term purchases seemed impossible to her. After all, the Bamboo Staff could not stay in Cocoyasi Village permanently.
"This one..."
Po was about to explain when he was interrupted by a sudden voice.
"Uncle Gustave is awake!"
Luffy's excited shouts echoed from the fourth floor down to the deck.