Basic Cooking (Vers, Private, Lyssoryl) - Page 2

Lyssoryl · May 24, 2008, 09:06 AM

Lyssoryl watched Sera's retreating back, and blew out her cheeks, a sign that she was thinking. Hmm...a bit of a puzzle- one oven and 5 different temperatures require. Well, the oven is cold now, I suppose I should start with the meat that is to be rare.

Lyssoryl started the fire, and waited until the oven seemed to just warm enough to be useful for cooking meat, then inserted the steaks that were to be cooked rare. As it grew hotter, she added more cuts of meat, and began to remove the previous ones. Soon she was in a whirl of frantic activity, there were so many cuts of meat to keep track of.

When it was over, she considered her finished products. She was moderately pleased with what she'd done, although with all the juggling she'd done the meats that were supposed to be cooked to the same degree were not entirely uniform. After considering a moment, she slid a steak that was supposed to have been rare into the medium-rare tray, then went to find Sera.

Fish Stick · May 25, 2008, 02:50 AM

Sera was found easily, having been across the kitchen working upon chopping up vegetables, mainly cabbage. When she heard the little hobbits footsteps, she turned around and asked, "Finished?" Upon recieving a satisfactory answer, she followed Lyssoryl back to the oven and the tray of meat. Looking down towards the different meats, she finally smiled, and then said, "Not bad for a beginner... Now, seeing as to how it is getting darker outside, i'd say it's about time for you to head home, and we'll pick up where we left off tomorrow..." After she said that, she went about her business of cleaning up utensils, and fixing up the rest of the food for the banquet that had been happening that night.

The next midday when Lyssoryl arrived, she would find Sera sitting upon a chair slicing up more cuts of meat so that she could explain and show Lyssoryl the next type of meat cooking method there was. "Are you ready?" she asked when Lyssoryl showed herself...

Lyssoryl · May 25, 2008, 09:23 AM

Lyssoryl, seemingly as always, was in fine spirits that morning, although she winced a bit when she put her apron on. She had taken her apron home the night before and washed the blood out of it, and it was still somewhat damp, having resisted drying in the cold winter air. The cold cloth on the back of her neck made her give a little shudder, and she moved closer to the oven.

"Yes maam, I am ready to cook! Excepting only if our new method of cookery is to hold the cuts in front of a dragon whilst shouting out insults, in which case today I am indisposed. Shall I help you make those cuts?"

Fish Stick · May 28, 2008, 05:32 PM

"Sure, i'd be glad if you could help me finish these cuts, for practice makes perfect, and the more you practice, the better you will be at it!" exclaimed Sera, whom then continued to cut. After they finished cutting up the beef into the variety of cuts there were to cut, she then took the tray over to a cauldron which was sitting over and open flame. "The other method for cooking beef is stewing it. This will be your first real recipe. What you do is boil the water. And then we shall add the beef into it, and leave it there for about 30 minutes. As it cooks, it will get to about medium well, so long as we keep the temperature level by either blowing on the fire, or letting it burn out a little... any questions?"

Lindy Ravenswing · May 28, 2008, 10:13 PM

Lyssoryl grabbed a knife and pitched in with the meat cutting. She tried to cut the meat into steaks for practice, then cut the large pieces into the required size for stewing. She hummed merrily to herself as she worked.

"I do have a few questions. What else do we put in our stew? Also, I've heard that water boils differently in cities up on mountains. Is this true? How do I account for that? I hope to have a life of traveling, so I may have need of this information. Also, how to you get stew to have that nice thick body to it? I never could get the hang of that."

With the two of them working, the meat was cut in no time. Lyssoryl went over to check on the fire. It seemed about right to her, but she thought she'd better check. "Is this the right amount of flames, or have I got it built up too much?"

OOC: OOPS! I accidently posted from my secondary PC account. This was supposed to be Lyssoryl.

Fish Stick · May 30, 2008, 02:42 AM

OOC: Tis okay, i do that sometimes.

"For right now, we'll just stew the beef, tomorrow we shall work on learning vegetables, and how to place them in the stews to make it taste better, or for different flavors. As for water boiling different upon various altitudes, that's a bit out of the range of basic cooking... you'll learn that if you continue to persue cooking. As for the stew having a thick body, we'll learn about that when we start to work on breads and how to use flour... but if you want, we can learn how to thicken up the stew today..." she said. In response to her question, Sera looked down towards the flames, and then smiled. "You're doing fine, just try to hold it at that period for a little longer. As be sure to stir the stew a wee bit to make sure the beef doesn't stick to the sides of the cauldron..."

Lyssoryl · May 30, 2008, 09:12 AM

"OK then, I believe I have the hang of this." Lyssoryl pushed a stool up next to the cauldron for a better vantage point, and after checking the fire, hopped up on it and began to stir the soup. She was a naturally energetic person and enjoyed having something to do with her hands. Occasionally she hopped down to tend the fire, a thing she did with great care.

"Well, I don't want to rush things. If tarting up this stew requires advanced techniques then I will make an attempt at patience and learn them at the proper time. But I do hope we're not going to try to serve the student populace boiled cubes of beef in a sauce of water! There would be a mutiny in the cafeteria, and I for one would not like to have to explain that everyone was eatting poorly because of my personal lack of training."

Fish Stick · June 1, 2008, 10:06 AM

"Oh no, don't worry about it, we can learn how to do that today," she said, and laughed a little at the next comment. "One of the ways to make the soup thicker is by adding flour and milk to it. This will form a cream, and we can call the recipe Cream of Beef Stew if you wish. It's a basic technique. Now, i'll take care of the fire, and you go fetch the flour over there. When you do, pour it into the stew, and keep mixing. After you pour enough to make it frothy, then take the milk and pour that in. Keep mixing it until it has a creamy texture to it. Now that the meat is almost done boiling. This should come out decent if it's done right, and will taste fairly delicious. Something good to serve for either lunch or dinner."

Lyssoryl · June 1, 2008, 05:20 PM

Lyssoryl ran and got the flour. "Shall I sift it?" she asked, bringing along a sieve to run the the flour through. She carefully added the flour to the boiling mixture, stirring quickly as she went to keep there from being any lumps.

"I'm not sure exactly what I'm looking for in terms of "froth," so be sure to call out if I'm starting to over do."

Soon, the soup began to thicken, and Lyssoryl went to get the milk. She poured with great care, her brow knit in concentration.

Fish Stick · June 2, 2008, 11:04 PM

As she worked with the flour and the milk, the soup began to become more thicker, and looked fairly delicious, to those who liked beef stew, such as Sera. "Very good so far, it looks delicious... Now, tell me, although we won't do it today, what do you think you could add to give the stew even more flavor?" she asked.

Lyssoryl · June 2, 2008, 11:36 PM

Lyssoryl considered, her finger on her chin in a thinking pose. "Well, I suppose if it were just me eating it with no risk of inflicting my experiment on other people, I I should be tempted to add some potatoes. Beef and potatoes seem like a classic and therefore safe combination. I might consider a bit of pepper as well, although I should want to taste it first and see if I think it would fight with the milk."

"Or hey! Carrots! It seems to me that where potatoes go, carrots are nearly always welcome. I don't know that I would add both pepper and carrots though, or it might harm the carrot's sweetness."

Fish Stick · June 3, 2008, 02:22 PM

"Those are some great ideas, so lets start with the first one, obviously you already know how to peel potatoes, so lets let the stew settle a bit, and make it so that the fire is just coals to keep the stew warm, but not really cook it anymore..." she said, and then waited with Lyssoryl til the fire was coals so that it would warm the stew. Then she went over and grabbed a bowl of peeled potatoes. "to add potatoes to a stew, it's best to cut them up into small chunks about a half an inch to and inch cubed... So let's do that, and then we can taste the stew as it is to decide if we should put in the potatoes, or whatnot... it's always better to prepare food before using it, so that even if you decide not to use it, it's always ready for you when you do decide to use it..." she finished saying, and then awaited a response from Lyssoryl...

Lyssoryl · June 3, 2008, 06:40 PM

Lyssoryl was pleased her teacher had liked her ideas. Though she had not had the opportunity to engage in a lot of fine eating for most of her past, she certainly did enjoy it. Lying in bed hungry at nights meant spending a lot of time thinking about food, and what sorts of food a person would want if they could get it.

She grabbed a poker and separated the logs under the cauldron to lower the level of the flames, and let the coals start to form, then went to get a cutting board and some potatos.

"You know, I've never had the luxury of cutting up food and then not using it before. It feels quite decadent, even though I'm quite sure we'll end up using them. I may be baised towards potatoes though. There's been many times I've made stew using only the potato skins. A lot of restaurants will give them to you for free because they don't use them. They're really not so bad, or at least a lot better than going hungry.

Fish Stick · June 4, 2008, 01:46 PM

"Very true lyssoryl," said Sera, agreeing with her student. Smiling, she took out a ladle, and scooped up some of the soup after they had put the potatoes in, and stirred it for a bit longer. Pouring them each a bowl, she said, "Shall we try the stew we've just made, and created?" As she asked the question, she handed the bowl to lyssoryl, and then gave her a spoon and fork to use with the stew...

Lyssoryl · June 4, 2008, 11:18 PM

"Oh yes, that would be terrific. For a fact, I'm famished. Oh, wait a second."

She ran to the window and returned with a candle thrust into an old wine bottle.

"Candlelight always makes stew taste better, or so I believe." she said. She sat down crosslegged on the floor, with the bowl of stew in her lap. She scooped out a spoonful of stew and tasted it carefully.

"Not bad, though I do say so myself," She said. "What is your opinion of the amount of milk I added? I am wondering if perhaps it should have been a little more."