Basic Cooking (Vers, Private, Lyssoryl)

[Fish Stick]

A smile widdened on Sera's face as Lyssoryl brought back the candle. "You read my mind exactly, it's always good to have some form of candlelight when enjoying a homemade stew..." she said, and then began to taste the stew that they had made.

"Excellent work!" she exclaimed after a first taste. "It could use a tad more milk to make it a bit more creamyier, but all and all it taster delicious! Now, i'll prepare this stew the rest of the way to serve to the students, after we finish eating, and you're free to go home. Tomorrow we'll start to learn about vegetables and how to prepare them, or to add them to certain dishes..." She then continued to eat her soup, and once they were done, she would allow Lyssoryl to leave as she finished preparing the food for the dinner in the cafeteria...

[Lyssoryl]

Lyssoryl was somewhat hestitant to leave when there was still work to be done, and lingered about the kitchen poking at things and washing dishes until Sera finally shoo'ed her away.

As usual, she was early the next day. She came in wearing her apron, which due to the shooing she had worn home with her. It was freshly washed now, but Lyssoryl had no iron so it was a bit wrinkly.

Lyssoryl struck a heroic pose. "I am ready to do brave battle against the wiley carrot and the skulking cucumber! Show me what to do, and I shall see that they never trouble you again!"

[Fish Stick]

"Well, the first thing that we shall be practicing is peeling. It is a very important skill, so let's use it wisely, and peel these potatoes, cucumbers, onions, and carrots that i have laying out here on the table..." she said, and then smiled, pointing to a table with four piles of different vegetables. She then left lyssoryl to do the peeling while she lit a fire, and started a cauldron of water.

Upon returning, she helped Lyssoryl peel the vegetables, and then said, "Well, i'll teach you how to cook vegetables, it's fairly easy, just boil them!" she said, smiling. "And then we can make some more beef stew, but add the vegetables to the stew, so as to give it more flavor..."

[Lyssoryl]

Since arriving at Vers, Lyssoryl had peeled many a potato and it was a skill she was fairly confident in. She started there, whisking off the peels with quick flicks of her knife, taking care to not waste too much of the meat of the potato. From there, she moved on to the carrots, which she processed in a simliar manner. The cucumbers were a slightly different matter, with tough skins and relatively weaker inner substance, and she had to be careful not to waste too much. The onions she saved for last, since they required no more than removing the outer papery layer.

As she cut the vegetables, she piled them onto a tray in neat piles. When she was about done she called out to Sera, "You know that trick people do where you mash garlic under the flat of your blade? Am I going to learn that? I think that would be fun to do."

[Fish Stick]

"Not right now, no, we'll save that for another day, for now, let's just focus on these four vegetables. They basically all cook the same way, and that is to boil them. This will kill any bugs on them, and clean them so that they are ready to add to say, a soup, or whatnot, so go over and make sure the water is boiling a a medium boil, not to many bubbles, but not to little..." she said. "And then we'll throw the vegetables in, and let them cook for a little while..." After she said this, she smiled, and then went on to do something else, leaving Lyssoryl with the task at hand...

[Lyssoryl]

Lyssoryl stood on tip-toes to examine the boiling water. She frowned deciding that it was running a bit too hot. Grabbing a poker, she spread the wood underneath it out a bit to reduce the flames. She considered adding a bit more water to cool the pot a bit, but decided against it. Watery stew wouldn't do.

She dumped the vegetables in one at a time, wincing and looking away as she brought the onions up near her face. "Are we going to put spices in today? I'm eager to learn about the various spices. They always look so elegant arranged on a rack."

[Fish Stick]

"Sure, we can put in spices today, do you know any of the various kinds of spices?" asked Sera, testing Lyssoryl's knowledge before they went on to spices.

[Lyssoryl]

"I'm afraid that I don't know a great deal of spices, nor have I traditionally been able to afford them. I do know that Rosemary is often matched with potatoes, and I believe that oregano is often added in tomato-based sauces. I know that salt preserves and smaller amounts can bring out flavor. That's about all I know, I'm afraid."

She gave the stew a few stirs with a wooden paddle and smelled it's aroma.

[Fish Stick]

"Then that's all we will work with, don't need to over do it. those are the basic spices anyways. So, your next recipe that you'll learn is a Cream of vegetable soup. This is basically the same as the cream of beef stew that we made, but we'll be adding in some rosemary, and perhaps a bit of salt and pepper. But first to make the soup creamy, Do what we did with the cream of beef stew," instructed Sera, whom then awaited for lyssoryl to get the flour and milk...

[Lyssoryl]

Lyssoryl ran and got the canister of flour, and a sifting sieve. She made sure to sift vigorously this time, and stir more quickly, so as to avoid the lumps that she had made last time. When she judged that enough flour had been mixed in, she began to pour in the milk. She used a somewhat more free hand this time, having skimped in the past.

She stirred the mixture carefully, being careful to scrape the bottom of the pot with the paddle, to keep the flour from accumulating there or the milk from scorching. Frowning, she again poked at the fire to disperse it somewhat.

"There we go, I believe that is a moderately good attempt at a creamy base," Lyssoryl said.

[Fish Stick]

The cream certainly did turn out better than it had last time, less clumps, and more creamy of a mixture. Actually, about the only clumps lyssoryl might have found within the mixture were those of the vegetables which were decently cooked, and made a fine dish in themselves. Sera watched as Lyssoryl worked, and then brought out three dishes. Each had a spice in them; one contained rosemary, another salt, and the final one contained a bit of organo. "Now, for the specific dish that we have here, which spices out of these three, Rosemary, organo, and salt would you think would fit this recipe the best?" she asked, and then awaited Lyssoryl's response patiently...

[Lyssoryl]

Lyssoryl considered the bowls presented to her, then put her nose close and sniffed them each.

"I believe I would rate them in this order: Salt, Rosemary, and Oregano. Although in all fairness, I should think that salt is a handy spice for most occasions as long as the food isn't sweet and you don't overdo. I am not certain about the combination of Oregano and a cream sauce, I should have to taste it before I could be easy about it."

[Fish Stick]

"Then we shall put two pinches of salt in to start off, and one pinch of Rosemary. We'll see how it tastes, after we stir for a few minutes, and decide if we want to add more or less..." she said to Lyssoryl, and then took out two spoons as well so that they were prepared to taste what it was like after the spices had been addeed. Once they had added the spices, and stirred for those few minutes, Sera would take two spoonfuls of the soup, and give one to Lyssoryl, and take one for herself. Once she drank it, she'd wait to see what Lyssoryl had to say about it...

[Lyssoryl]

Lyssoryl ate her spoonful and considered it gravely. "I believe I like the effect, and would perhaps add a bit more of each. A pinch is not a large amount of flavor for a cauldron of stew, I suspect that we can double this amount and still achieve a fairly subtle effect."

She considered the gently bubbling liquid. "Now I'm wondering if adding cheese to a stew is ever done. I believe it might go along with the creamy sort of character, and add a rich sort of flavor. Might that work, or would it do something horrible and unexpected?"

[Fish Stick]

"One never knows unless they try... Anyways, cheeses in stews are a bit beyond the scope of this training, but perhaps in the future!" she said smiling. "Now, let's just add ten more pinches of salt, and five of the rosemary, then test it out again." After they added that, she would stir it up a bit, and then taste it along with Lyssoryl. "More of each? or are we good yet?" she asked, and then awaited lyssoryl's opinion...