The lively voices of children resounded in the plaza.
「Heave-ho! Heave-ho!」
Wappa, Sara, Miri, Lala, Colette, Shirona, Melanie, and Malorie alternated pounding the mochi rice.
Of course, it was only enough to experience it.
As Vanga-san, Golan-san, Doganbo-san and I took turns, the rice slowly started turning into mochi.
It wasn’t terribly cold, but steam emitted from the mochi as we aggressively pounded with pestles outside in winter.
Once it started coming together, we started pounding it lightly.
How many batches have we done now? Because of my high status level, this much wasn’t enough to tire me.
The freshly pounded mochi was rolled into small mochi balls by Sophia, Maria, and Marnie.
Akane made the red bean paste mochi with Lulu-chan.The slightly hardened red bean mochi were delicious roasted on a grill.
It reminded me of the filling my grandma used to make.
Surprisingly, Madam Rosary, Madam Elizabeth, Madam Lumia, ate the freshly made mochi with grated daikon, roasted soybean flour, and sweet soy sauce.
So she eats grated daikon. It might just be me who thought that the image of Madam Lumia, an elf, eating grated daikon didn’t fit. The person in question was enjoying it, after all.
Miss Mimir and the priests from the church were helping as well.
Today, our three aides were having fun pounding mochi too.
I believe that people need days like this to unwind otherwise they’d become too stifled.
Near where the mochi was being rolled into small balls, there was a wooden box fileld with noshimochi[1. Also known as Kanmochi – a type of mochi served in winter.] in flour.
Seeing the freshly made rice cakes, the Cat Sith Miri was astonished.
「Woahnya! It’s red nya!」
「Miri, that mochi has little dried shrimp mixed into it. It’s a bit salty, so it’s delicious even as is.」
「Miri wants to eat it nya!」
「Lala too! Lala too!!」
「Ah! Cheater! I also want one!」
Lala and Wappa started causing a ruckus, so even though I was planning on rolling all of the shrimp filled mochi into flat ones, I decided to roll a few into small portions for them to eat.
「Can you help me with this?」
「Yes. Everyone! Make sure you wash your hands properly! We’re all going to start rolling it!」
「「「「Yay!」」」」
Maria led the children to a work table.
This time, aside from the normal white mochi with no filling, we have shrimp-filled mochi, and bean-filled mochi for three types of it.
In my childhood days in my previous life, we made mochi at home because my dad was great at making kagami mochi[1. Kagami mochi is a traditional Japanese New Year decoration consisting of two round mochi (rice cakes) stacked on top of each other, with a daidai (a type of bitter orange) placed on top. It symbolizes a wish for a happy and prosperous new year.].
Back then, it was common to decorate the house with kagami mochi.
Well, even so, the only ones to steam glutenous rice in wood fire in the neighborhood was my family.
「Takumi-san, we’ve brought the nori..」
「Oh, Fluna-san.」
The one to bring the nori was the Mermaid Fluna-san.
I had asked the mermaids for various sea-related things.
They, of course, fish, but I also built making facilities for salt production, and the person in charge of that industry was a member of the mermaids. People other than the mermaids work there now, but the supervision was left to the merfolk.
And since I was originally Japanese, I was able to have rice in the Sanctuary because of Dryas. Seasonings like soy sauce and miso were also accepted by the Sanctuary residents, so a stable supply chain was established.
And so, if there’s a sea, I’ll want nori too.
Cultivating laver needed a lot of trial and error, but Fluna-san didn’t make a single reluctant face and cooperated.
And the nori we somehow produced was also accepted by the residents of the Sanctuary.
Nori is essential for onigiri, after all.
Fluna-san and the others began challenging themselves with nori tsukudani.
「You’ve come at the perfect time. It’s just been freshly pounded, so please eat it with soy sauce and nori.」
「Yes. Thank you for the meal.」
The nori that Fluna-san brought was brought to the table that Madam Rosary, Madam Elizabeth and Madam Lumia were seated at.
The sharp-eared trio overheard me talk about another way of eating it by wrapping it in nori and dipping in soy sauce, and so they beckoned Fluna-san over.
Vanga-san, Golan-san, and Doganbo-san continued to steam glutenous rice.
They felt awkward about it at first, but after a few times, they had gotten used to it, and had built up a good swinging tempo.
Well, the one who pounded most of it was me though.
In the end, we made more mochi than I expected.
And it makes me happy that the Sanctuary people liked mochi more than I expected too.
It would be nice to make it a winter tradition.
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