He reached out, grabbed a large Elfin Saddle Mushroom, and gave it a few hard tugs, snapping it off at the base.

The cluster of mushrooms, bigger than his palm, felt heavy in his hand, lifting his spirits.

"What a great day! King’s Down Ducks, a porcupine, and I even found cilantro and Elfin Saddle Mushrooms. It’s a huge haul!"

Most importantly, he had recruited a strong, able-bodied laborer to help him upgrade his shelter for free, and the only cost was a meal.

He’d never imagined something this good could happen to him.

If he could successfully win over Andre’s stomach, then he would surely come looking for a good meal every seven days.

With his extensive wilderness survival experience and hunting skills, their chances of successfully capturing large prey would definitely increase dramatically if they worked together.

When he returned to the shelter with his arms full of spoils, Andre had already gone outside to chop down trees.

Lin Chen felt the two King’s Down Ducks lying limp on the ground. Their bodies were still warm, but they were almost completely unresponsive.

He poured some water and salt into the flat-bottomed pan and mixed it. After draining the blood from the two ducks into the pan, he gave it a quick stir and set it aside to coagulate.

He put water on to boil in the stockpot. He plucked the ducks, then gutted and cleaned them, setting them aside for later.

He then made some wild apple puree, smeared it over the skin of the male King’s Down Duck, and hung it outside to air-dry.

"Hey, starting already? What’s that you’re spreading on the duck’s skin?"

Just as he finished hanging the duck, Andre walked in from outside, shouldering a thick log, a curious look on his face.

"Wild apple puree," Lin Chen answered, not intending to keep it a secret. "This is how we make roast duck in Great Xia. It’s a bit more complicated, but I just wanted to let you try it. I’ll teach you a simpler way to cook the other duck later."

"There’s no vinegar out in the wild, and no lemons around here either. I can only use the acidity from the wild apples to speed up the moisture loss from the duck’s skin, which will make it crispy when it’s roasted."

"So, spreading vinegar or lemon juice on the skin makes it crispier when roasted?"

Andre nodded thoughtfully, silently committing it to memory.

’If I hadn’t met a real chef, I probably would’ve gone my whole life without ever knowing you could do this.’

Since they were building a second floor, it wasn’t safe to stay inside. Lin Chen had to move all his ingredients out into the yard, setting up his prep station right next to the parachute-turned-water-cistern.

The duck skin needed to air-dry for at least three to four hours, though six or more was ideal.

Lin Chen spent about ten minutes re-prepping all the ingredients. He separated all the clustered wild mushrooms, tore any oversized ones into smaller pieces, and washed each one clean.

"Normally, if you’re using mushrooms for soup, it’s best to wash them thoroughly first. But if you’re going to stir-fry or roast them, especially in Western cooking, you usually don’t need to wash them."

"Mushrooms have a sponge-like structure. The moment they touch liquid, including water and oil, they absorb and store it. This causes them to release water constantly while you’re stir-frying or roasting, which affects the final result."

"We don’t really have that rule in Chinese cooking, though. That’s because the heat from a Chinese stove is intense enough that any moisture seeping out of the mushrooms evaporates in seconds, so it doesn’t affect the quality of the dish."

After prepping the various mushrooms, the duck blood had also mostly coagulated.

He gently shook the pan’s handle, and the contents wobbled back and forth with a distinct, jelly-like texture.

He brought half a pot of water to a boil, then removed it from the heat source. Using his combat knife, he scored a crosshatch pattern onto the surface of the blood tofu, cutting it into regular tofu-sized cubes, and slid them all into the hot water.

"There’s a key point to cooking animal blood: the water can’t be boiling. That can easily break apart the set blood tofu and make the whole pot cloudy. You have to keep the water temperature just below a boil and let the blood tofu cook through slowly."

While the duck blood was steeping, he cut off two slices of porcupine meat, pan-fried them, and took a taste. The tender texture and faint, fatty aroma immediately reminded him of pork belly.

’It’s called a porcupine, and it actually tastes like pork?’

This pleasant surprise instantly sparked a torrent of inspiration in his mind. Many ideas that had previously felt restricted now came together seamlessly.

He spent a few minutes butchering all the meat from the porcupine. The leg meat was diced, the breast meat was flattened with the back of his knife into the shape of a cutlet, and all the remaining scraps were sliced into thin pieces or fine strips.

"You really are a chef! That knife work is incredible!" 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

Andre’s applause came from above. Having already set up two main beams, he leaped down from mid-air and came over to get a closer look at Lin Chen’s handiwork.

"To separate all the meat from the bones in such a short time, and prep it in three different ways... You even handled the mushrooms and duck blood. If it were me, it would have taken at least an hour."

"Well, cooking is all I’m good for," Lin Chen said with a modest smile, pointing at the two logs. "If you asked me to build the shelter, I probably wouldn’t even be half as efficient as you."

"Here’s my plan. We’ll save the main course for tonight. Since we have limited tools, we’ll have to cook and eat as we go. Otherwise, once the ingredients are prepped, we’ll have nowhere to put them."

"Sounds good, sounds good. I’m starving. Is there anything we can eat right now to tide me over? I’ll have more energy to work that way."

"Yep. Give me five minutes."

Lin Chen stood up, his gaze sweeping over the ingredients around him, and an idea quickly formed.

He set the flat-bottomed pan on a rock next to the fire and tossed in the fatty slices of porcupine belly first.

Accompanied by the wonderful sound of sizzling, visible fat began to render out, quickly forming a small pool at the bottom of the pan.

Lin Chen held the pan handle in his left hand, shaking it quickly and lightly, while his right hand used a pair of branch chopsticks to flip each slice of belly, ensuring they cooked evenly.

In just a few dozen seconds, a rich, fatty aroma filled the air.

Smelling this, Andre lost all interest in working. He waited eagerly nearby, wanting to see what kind of special dish Lin Chen would whip up.

When the slices of porcupine belly in the pan were seared until slightly charred all over, Lin Chen grabbed a handful of Elfin Saddle Mushrooms and honey mushrooms and tossed them in. He poured in a tiny bit of the liquid from the stockpot where the duck blood was steeping, then gave the pan a hard toss.

WHOOSH—

An orange-red flame shot up into the air without warning. The aroma of meat and fat exploded in that instant as plumes of steam rose.

Aided by the duck blood broth, the torn Elfin Saddle Mushrooms and honey mushrooms were quickly softened by the scalding steam. Their surfaces were evenly coated in glistening fat, and as he continued to stir-fry them, they released a rich, mushroomy fragrance.

"Whoa~"

Andre’s eyes shone with amazement, and he instinctively started to applaud.

He had never imagined that a chef from Great Xia cooked like this. It was completely different from what he’d pictured a chef to be.

While Andre was still marveling, Lin Chen grabbed a small handful of chopped wild leeks and tossed them into the pan. He added a sprinkle of salt, stir-fried it a few more times, and held the pan out directly in front of him.

"Here, it’s ready. Stir-fried porcupine belly with wild mushrooms. Eat up."