My Husband, a Marshal: Conquering the Stars with My Culinary Arts-Chapter 609 - 205: Off to a Good Start_3

successfully secured this opportunity and happily made a "V" sign with its fingers—a gesture it had learned from Du Xixi. It took the large bowl of red beans, washed them, and poured them into a big pot, adding a suitable amount of water to start simmering.

After washing, the red beans looked smooth and beautiful, their surface gleaming with a bright red color. As they slowly simmered in the boiling water, they gradually turned into a mushy red color. With each large boiling bubble rising, the red beans danced along, almost simmering until their skins were about to break. 2569 then strained them and took them out.

The bean paste filling method taught by Du Xixi to 2569 was very simple. You only need to finely grind the well-simmered red beans into bean paste on a sieve, then stir in an adequate amount of white sugar to give it the right sweetness, and the bean paste filling is done.

has always adhered to Du Xixi’s teachings, even though in Star Era, there are many tools that could make the bean paste filling quicker. It was very serious about grinding by hand, bit by bit.

Previously, Du Xixi had asked 2569 to help make a batch of bean paste filling—2569 spent a full three hours completing it, with one hour dedicated to simmering and mixing, and the remaining two hours focused earnestly on hand grinding.

Today, 2569 clearly intended to hand grind, as it’s its consistent tradition. However, although Du Xixi inherited the craftsmanship of hand techniques, she didn’t reject the appropriate use of tools. For instance, this time, as she saw 2569 about to spend another two hours grinding, she hurriedly stopped it and fetched a custom-made machine.

"Let’s use this instead, our livestream time is limited," Du Xixi gently said to 2569, taking the sieve from its hand and gently pushing the machine toward it, "You can scoop the red beans one spoonful at a time into it."

The livestream time was only for an afternoon, and Du Xixi didn’t plan on delaying the pastry-making until tomorrow. Besides, she’s resting today, and she has to return to the Food Department for classes tomorrow. She can’t have everyone waiting for her off work, right?

At such times, using the tool to grind bean paste is the best method.

was a bit disappointed not to showcase its bean paste grinding skills, but it knew Du Xixi’s decision was correct. After briefly considering the process, it cheerfully began pouring the red beans into the machine.

This was a machine custom-made specifically for times when bean paste needs to be made urgently, so the opening at the top is for placing the red beans, while the bottom opening is where the bean paste comes out.

And there’s a small opening in the machine where you can pour in the desired white sugar, allowing the sugar to be ground in mid-process, resulting in ready-made bean paste as it comes out.

murmured, "This is bean paste without a soul," while its hands didn’t stop working, quickly pouring more than half of the red beans in. This machine was indeed powerful, with beans still being poured in at the top while bean paste came out from the bottom. Du Xixi looked at the bean paste collected in a bowl and nodded in satisfaction.

Though she hadn’t tasted how the bean paste turned out yet, she wasn’t a culinary novice. As an experienced bean paste mixer, she could judge the quality of the bean paste based on its color and consistency, including its sweetness and whether water was needed.

This is also a skill mastered by pastry chefs through practice.

The red beans were fully poured in, and the bean paste was almost completely outputted, the remaining bit would slowly come out, without needing much concern from Du Xixi and 2569. So Du Xixi picked up a nearby mold and some rice flour that had been sitting for a while and spoke to the livestream room, "Next is the official part of making Victory Cake! Earlier was merely preparation, so everyone should pay close attention to my actions, noting the amounts of rice flour and bean paste I use."

The mold had several shaped openings with patterns for Victory Cake. Du Xixi used a spoon to scoop a spoonful of pale red rice flour, pouring it into one of the openings, gently shaking it to cover the bottom fully, and then added several more spoonfuls. Once it reached about two-thirds full, she pinched up two small bean paste balls, placing them atop the rice flour and pressing them down.

"You don’t need much force, or else the filling will push the rice flour underneath up, causing the final Victory Cake to lose corners or not set properly." What Du Xixi was telling the livestream viewers were all mistakes she had previously made herself. She hoped the viewers would avoid detours, hence her serious advice at the moment.

In the remaining openings, she placed the rice flour and bean paste balls just like the first one. Once everything was set, Du Xixi generously poured a large handful of rice flour over the mold, shaking it to fill any remaining gaps in the openings, then used a chopstick to scrape off the excess rice flour from the mold surface. 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

What had filled the openings was now the Victory Cake.

"The mold is made of wood, so steaming directly in the pot makes it difficult to get air through; we need to invert the mold and get the Victory Cake out," Du Xixi took a flat wooden board, pressed it against the mold openings, and tightened it. She then had 2569 help her flip the mold over and carefully lift it off, leaving the exquisite and neat Victory Cake on the wooden board.