Kiske
Kiske was in the kitchen of the ship cleaning off the stove when he received a low rumble from his stomach. He had been awful lazy about cooking fine meals for his crew in the past because he was forced to do it so much prior to joining. He wanted to save the true cuisine for special occasions but felt the need to break out of that habit. He never made the meal he promised after they got off of the hellish island of Crickhollow either. He went to a small cupboard in the kitchen and opened it. Inside he grabbed his apron hung on the door as well as examined the jars which had jams and jellies that he made fresh on the ship. 'They aren't too low yet I should probably see what kind people like rather than make as many as I can. Now what should be on the menu for today huh?' He looked through the ingredients noticing several things were fresher than they usually had. 'We have some fresh eggs that's kinda rare. Oh are these octopi fresh too?' He felt of the two small cephalopods for their texture and decided they must have been caught either today or yesterday. 'With everything we got we might as well have some polipo in umido as well as some squid ink pasta. Of course we will substitute some octopus ink but it should be just as good.' He got out several bowls as well as flour, four eggs, and the two octopi which he placed on the counter.
He got a small bowl on the counter and placed both of the octopi in it. He grabbed two limes and a lemon which he squeezed into a cup and added some water for dilution. 'This will tenderize the octopus while I start preparing the pasta. Have to take it out before the acid starts cooking it though.' He gingerly poured his concoction all over the octopi making sure that they were evenly coated and then built a small well with the flour. He made it deep enough to hold some liquid but not deep enough it would seep onto the counter. He got out his vial of olive oil and poured it into a pan with which the octopi would fit snugly as they cooked. He also took out 4 cloves of garlic which he chopped into fine segments that got poured in. He got out 4 olives from a jar in the refrigerator where he cut each olive into four quarters before putting them in the pan with the olive oil. He then added four anchovies as well as a teaspoon of capers to the pan which he then put on a low heat where he would glance over to check it looking for the garlic to begin sweating.
He went over to the bowl with the cephalopods in them where he noticed the tentacles had begun curling and then removed them from the bowl. He placed them on a cutting board where he swiftly cut them into three segments, the tentacles the body and the eyes. He threw the eyes away and then turned his attention to the eggs. He cracked each of the 4 eggs into the well of flour he made and made sure it didn't overflow. He grabbed both of the octopus heads and with his knife dissected them until he only had the ink sac left. He took the ink sac and squeezed the ink out into the eggs making sure not to get the kitchen covered in it. When he was done he threw away the heads and then began on the tentacles. He cut each tentacle apart until he had eight of them from each octopus separated. He looked over and noticed that the garlic hadn't begun to sweat yet so he could begin preparing more of the pasta and the next thing to go in the octopus pan. He took another bowl out and placed it on the counter. He grabbed ten cherry tomatoes from the refrigerator where he kept them to keep them fresh and began squashing each one of them and placing it in the bowl. When he had finished He turned to the flour well and began on it. He took a fork and slowly swirled in the ink and eggs. He took some flour from the sides into the egg as well wait till it dissolved into it and then repeated the process. by the end of it he had a ball of solid black on his counter that he would tend to after he had the octopi on heat. He noticed the garlic began to sweat and took a wooden spoon and began stirring the sauce. He put a tentacle in every so often as he stirred until he was stirring the sauce with sixteen octopus tentacles in it. He threw in a pinch of salt and then poured the ten cherry tomatoes into the pan as well and put a lid on it.
He went over to the ball of black goo that was on the counter and began slowly methodically kneading it. He put force into it so that it wouldn't be lumpy but instead smooth and easy to work with. He continued this for some time until he had a perfect smooth ball that was black. He let it rest for a little while and then got out his rolling pin. He just as methodically as he kneaded it began squashing it down with the rolling pin. He went back and forth for a long time until he had a thin black layer of dough before him. After it was rolled out he cut the dough into quarters and then kneaded it back into a ball where he then took the rolling pin and began rolling them out again. If anything was worth doing it was worth doing with love and cooking should always be done from the heart no shortcuts needed. He then folded each quarter in on itself and cut out the noodles of the pasta which still had their signature black color. He made them a reasonable size not to thick that they were too much to eat, but not to thin that you could eat them quickly. He put a pot on the stove which he took a pitcher of water out of the refrigerator. It was filled with seawater daily as it was useful for cooking. He poured the salty water into the pot and then added the noodles. He wouldn't cook it for too long just long enough for it to become al dente.
As both parts of the meal began getting ready he followed through on his other duty as the crews housewife, preparing the table and silverware. He saw that the table already had a fine cloth on it with not a blemish in sight. He set out a candelabra in the middle of the table and then brought out six wine glasses that were placed next to each other in twos. Next came six plates that were placed two per seat. He then placed a fork, spoon, and knife next to each place he had previously set as well. He had a small table with a bucket of ice that he wheeled out next to the table. In the ice was a very nice full-bodied wine as well as a decanter full of fresh water. He poured a half-full glass of wine and a full glass of water for each place. He returned pleased to see that both of the dishes were finished. He took a vial of chili oil with him and some parmesan cheese as he went out to the table for the last time. He plated the octopus dish in one plate which was finished as well as the squid ink pasta on the other plate which he then poured a little bit of chili oil over and then grated some parmesan over. When he was pleased with the presentation he placed the pot and pan at the bottom of the drink cart and then called out to the ship.
"Signor and Signoria dinner is served. Tonight we have a delicious squid ink pasta as well as polipo in umido. I hope you enjoy."
Submitted September 23, 2014 at 07:33AM by Yurthop http://ift.tt/Zby1BD GLRP_EastBlue
No comments:
Post a Comment