After return from Mr. Taylor house, I'm continuing my plan to make soap. For making the soap it's simply composing amino acids from fats with some alkali that can be extracted from ashes. So, I make a preparation to extract alkali from ashes first because I already have the fats from Mr. Matius and Marius.
From an empty barrel, I make a hole in the bottom of the barrel, then fill gravel to cover that hole for about quarter of the barrel, and put some straws to cover that gravels until reach half of the barrel. So half of the barrel now consists of gravel and straw. After that, I put the ashes over the straw layer and pour some water over the ashes. The alkali extraction will be dripped from the hole in the bottom of the barrel, so I put an earthenware jar under the barrel to contain the extracted alkali later.
This preparation for the alkali extraction process takes my time until dusk and I do not realize that I haven't take bath at all. Geez, I'm forgetting to have a bath with Silvie. But she's here with me helping me making this extraction barrel without complaining at all. So, I say to her with apologetic looks
"Silvie, sorry I forget our appointment to go to ponds this afternoon"
"Um, it's okay. I like to see Ikki making something like this. We still can go there tomorrow after all. Besides, I'm curious with what Ikki made, what is this?"
"I make something to get ingredient to make soap"
"Soap? What is that?"
"Soap is something to clean up our body and clothes. With this soap, washing will be easier and faster and not too tiring"
"Really? Ikki, that's great and very helpful. I can't wait until Ikki make that soap"
"Haha, not that fast, maybe I will start to make soap tomorrow and the soap need some time before it can be used later"
"Um, Ikki always make something interesting and delicious food too"
"I just see you washing clothes this morning and find it's a tiring work, so I try to make it easier for you Silvie"
"You make that for me, Ikki? Aww thank you, Ikki is so sweet"
After saying that, Silvie hug me tightly. She only let it loose after a cough heard from the back door and her father appears.
"Silvie, aren't you should make dinner now?"
"Oh yeah, I'd be prepared dinner soon father"
"Let me help you make dinner, Silvie, because you also help me make this extraction barrel"
"Um, let's go to the kitchen Ikki"
We go to the kitchen together to see what ingredient available there to make dinner. There're only some fishes left from lunch and vegetables, which make me think what I should do with this fishes. I want to make something different from fish tortilla that we eat for lunch. If I have rice maybe I can make some sushi with the rice, but cooking rice need times and we not have much time for that.
Suddenly an idea comes crossing my mind. Yes! There's a dish that makes made from this fish and vegetables, Tempura!. So I ask Silvie to take flour, egg, potato starch, water, and some cooking oil.
I also take some bowl, chopping board and knife to cut the fish. When I get the ingredient from Silvie, I already clean the fishes from its scales, tail, and head, I also ask Silvie prepared the stove to fry the fish. Since the fish already clean, I only cut them into fillet and remove the bones.
And for the tempura batter, I mix 100 g plain flour, a bit salt, and 2 tablespoon potato starch together. After those ingredient mixed, I separated from the rest. Then I crack the egg into the bowl and beat the egg roughly until the white of egg and yolk mixed after that I add one cup water into the egg bowl and stir the mixture until they mixed evenly. Then I put one-third of the mixed flour into egg mixture and stir it gently using a fork. After all mix together, I add another one-third mixed flour again and stir until mixed with egg mixture. When it already mixed together, I add the last one-third mixed flour and mixed it again until between egg and flour all mixed together.
During I'm preparing the batter, I ask Silvie to heating the frying pan and pour cooking oil into it. I wait until the temperature is high enough for frying tempura. I'm testing the temperature by drop a batter into the pan, and wait until it floating in the pan without makes any crackling sound or sink into the bottom of the cooking pan.
After coating the fish fillet with the batter, I put them into the pan and frying it for 1-2 minutes only to keep the fish meat stay fresh and not overcooked.
With only 1-2 minutes frying time, not take for a long time before all coated fish fillet finished to fry and become tempura. I also do the same for the vegetables and make it as vegetable tempura.
With Silvie help me, it makes the dinner preparation become faster and we can bring this tempura dish to dining table just in time for dinner.