basic_powers | Hungry people need to eat...

Entry tags:

Hungry people need to eat...

It took a little bit of bribing amid the waitrats and kitchen staff to arrange for four hours of uninterrupted time. Half an hour of that was spent checking over the entire kitchen for listening devices, scrying spells or astral anchors. Once that was done, everything was about getting all the bits and bobs for teaching someone cooking basics out and at the ready. Spices were arranged, the espresso machine was warmed and primed. Coffer of various types was set out in jars, ranging from the dreaded SANKA to Civet Cat to the special blend that the people on Security drank (It was always nice to have a coffee that doubled as a liquid to exorcise ghosts, spells and what not).

For what's he's worth, Beauford is standing calmly next to one of the polished steel prep tables of the kitchen, wearing a battered plain denim apron that may have a few char marks at the shoulder. At least that's how things appear to Quentin when the young man shows up at for lessons.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Alrighty."

Cheap take out doesn't always mean....good food, in his opinion. Then again this man did grow up in a Firehouse so he knows how to halve the costs in his list within a week.

When Quentin comes back, the phone has been set to the side as Beauford starts writing out a long list of ideas.

Premade meals->Do they have the freezer space?

The Fifteen Easy Twenty -> Kitchen Basics Skills need evaluation

Basic Starches 10 different ways -> Low nutrition, could be better but it's fast.

Milliways Instants -> Keep section of freezer HERE stocked with premade meals if no freezer space available

Nocturnal? -> See about making contacts at Farmers' Markets and CSA's.

Once the coffee's in the thermos, he looks over at what Beauford, "Any questions?"

He hopes their food choices aren't too awful, he knows they could be better.

"A few, I didn't see a freezer listed in your items at home..." Beauford murmurs, before looking up from his list and directly at Quentin. "I'm guessing you've got a fridge at least, otherwise your family group would be having a dickens of a time just making sandwiches...I think my main ones right now are about how much experience you've had with making things in a kitchen. Chopping prep, cleaning veggies, cleaning meat, grunt work."

"Our fridge has a freezer, the ice cream's in there. I have some since I've spent time in the kitchens of knowes and all. Mainly I know how to chop things and stuff like that,"

The cooks do the real work, but he knows how to follow directions.

"Alright, so it's probably a standard sized one...you might have the option of about three days worth of premade meal storage in there, going at four meals a day for six people, if you're good at playing Tetris. It's an option where you only spend a day or two evey three weeks cooking like a mad man." He's not entirely sure of Quentin's skills in that regard, or of Toby's patience in regards to that organization. "Showing you how to make mix and match staples would be another option. Instead of full meals you could have the supplies and sauces ready to mash up meals together on hand at any given time. That one has your time put at about 6 hours spent prepping things every week or so."

"So most of our lessons for this are obviously going to be flavor pairings and meal creation. What goes with what, how long it can keep in a fridge or without and why molecular gastronomy is not for beginners."

"Mix and match would work would better as I don't know if I'd be able to have a day or two free. That sounds good, show me what to do,"

He has a lot of responsibilities but he wants to help feed everyone.

"Right, we'll start with pesto. You can put that sauce on just about any protein or starch and have something delicious." It also has the advantage of being easy to make with the technology level present in Quentin's current life. It only takes a few minutes for Beauford to get out the ingredients to show how it's done. 3 cups of basil leaves packed down, two cloves of garlic, half a handful of pine nuts, a good shake or three of grated parmesan cheese and at least two cups of olive oil into the food processor until it's a fine green paste with a few pale chunks. BAM! Pesto.

"You can spread this into an ice cube tray and freeze it for easy to snag portions too. We'll work on making roux next, it's the base for all of your cream sauces. You can use walnuts or pecans if pine nuts are too expensive in your area."

"An ice cube tray, that's clever and a good use for them. Its San Francisco, everything's kind of expensive but I can make it work,"

Through his parents and the Duke, there's money when needed and his mother would approve of him learning to cook. They're not a house that drinks that many cold drinks, being mainly nocturnal helps.

"Well if you can grow your own basil, which isn't hard if you've got an actual house, you'll be saving yourself a great deal of fuss right there. Now roux has less ingredients, so while it's a simple thing to make... it's also really easy to fuck up." This time Beauford's going into the walk-in fridge for butter, milk and four different cheeses. "With this one, we've actually got to melt butter in a pan to start... then slowly add in your flour...and keep the heat steady while you stir it around until you get a nice toasted golden brown colour to it."

This also happens to take a bit longer than the pesto. So the squire may be getting a long talk about the virtues of roux. "It's the base for ALL of your milk or cream sauces and you can use it in making a few of the wine sauces thicker too."

Quentin's quiet and focused, he's unconsciously fallen into the version of rest that squires and pages use in Shadowed Hills when Sir Etienne is being useful but long,

"Those would go over well and I could ask May to buy the wine."

There's a smell just before the edges of the floury butter mixture start to turn almost too brown. The pan is yanked off immediately and pulled over so Quentin can see and smell exactly what's going on. "Right here is almost too done, what I call the Windmill Point."

There's a few flecks of too-dark-brown in the stuff Beauford is displaying, but those are neatly getting flicked out of the pan and perfectly landing into the wastebasket with a metal spoon.

"Now you can pot this in the fridge for a month and a half, or right next to the stove for two weeks at this point."

"What does it need before being ready to use for a good cheese sauce?"

Where he grew up, those mattered and roux and grating so much cheese.

"Heating in a pan and milk," Beauford says grinning, after scraping most of the roux into a ceramic dish and grabbing the milk jug. "You start getting those cheeses grated."

There's good hard aged cheddar, gouda, parmesan and romano cheese waiting right there. About a cup of each should be good.

"Grate however much of which cheese you'd like this sauce to be. Four cheese macaroni might win everyone's heart back in your house... orrrrr we could make cheeseburger shephard's pie."

"How tricky would both be?"

Quentin's hungry a lot and could eat huge amounts of both of those but there needs to be enough for bringing home. When he starts grating, he aims for about the same amount of each cheese.

"Doing both would fall into the category of "Getting another pan for sauce and grating triple that amount of cheddar" tricky." Beauford answers after a few moments of intense contemplation. Two pans for making the sauces, one pot for pasta, one pot for potatoes...oh right, going to need another pan to fry the bacon, ground beef, ground pork, onions and ketchup. "Also, grab some sliced bacon and a few ground meats from inside of the walk-in.. make sure it's meats you're familiar with. Headcrab meat makes terrible shephard's pie."

"I can do that,"

He nods and heads into the freezer, its daunting but he's been in the pantries of big knowes. Some of the meats are weird but he comes back with everything asked for.

By the time Quentin gets back, he's going to find a quart container of four-cheese sauce standing next to the roux and pesto on the table. Beauford's working on that second sauce for the bacon cheeseburger shephard's pie. "Great...dice up an onion and we can get started on the filling..."

There may be a quick glance up towards the kitchen clock just then, because he did only get them 4 hours of uninterrupted time. "We've got two hours left...debating if we should use instant potatoes for the topping of the pie, or from scratch...."

"What's the difference in time?"

Chopping an onion is something he's actually pretty good at and he follows Beauford's gaze up to the clock.

"An hour of cooking time." Beauford replies, doing the math in his head. If they did it from scratch it would taste better..but it wouldn't be baked and finished.

Then again... Quentin could take it home, unbaked and save it for later this week. Cook it when needed.

"This is going to be your choice. We use instant mashed potatoes and bake the pie here, or we go the long route and make em from scratch and you bake it at home."

"Let's do from scratch. I want it to taste as good as it can and I can surprise everyone with it,"

Also he'll understand better how to make it.

"Right, you're going to need to get a hop on washing and scouring about..." There's another measuring glance towards the ground meat Quentin brought out. "I'd say two pounds of red potatoes should do nicely. Get one of the large pots of water going on the stove so it can get heated up while you scrub em'."

He's still got this cheese sauce to finish up. "You want to taste test the first sauce, just grab a spoon. Actually grab two."

"Two spoons and two pounds of potatoes,"

He grabs the spoons, looks for a big pot to fill with water. Following directions is something that he's good at and Beauford gives helpful ones.

Once Quentin has the large pot half-filled with water, Beauford is waving him to the stove to get it on the heat.

"Good, now come here quick and give the sauce for the pie a taste." And Quentin tries dipping into the sauce with his dirty spoon, there is going to be such a look and a thwap. Probably not going to happen, but sometimes one has to test students for their good sense.

Quentin has two spoons and he gives Beauford a considering look, "Is the second spoon for you?"

Quentin's question is answered with a very pleased grin. About time this boy started asking some questions!

"No it is no., It's for you. You don't want to contaminate something you're cooking with your saliva by double dipping it."

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject