218: Soup

Dinner was a good idea. It was a great opportunity to use the skill. I’d also been missing Crisplet, so I was looking forward to spending some time cooking with him.

“Crisplet, ready to help me out?” I asked, getting a burst of sparks immediately.

“I’m coming, too!” Liane said, jumping out of her chair.

As we entered the kitchen, I had a good idea of what I needed, and it required some prep work. The first thing I did was pull out two onions. My first dish required onion powder, and to do that seemed fairly simple. I had to cut the onions into very thin slices and then dry them out.

The book said it would take several days to dry properly, but I suspected with Crisplet’s help it wouldn’t take much time at all. That, in combination with the super-sharp knife allowing me to have parchment-thin slices, this should be perfect.

Another thing I noticed onions used to burn my eyes, but now with the new knife, there was nothing. No burn at all.

“Crisplet, we need to dry these slices of onion out, so there is no moisture in it at all, but not cook it,” I instructed, again getting a burst of sparks as Crisplet got to work, pushing across a feeling of joy through the mana.

Once that was ready, I started to prepare the stock. First, was to roast off some bones I had in storage. I wasn’t overly picky about which ones I used for this, so it was a mixture of Buvul, boar, Skywolf, and perhaps a drake or baelvryn one slipped in there.

When they were roasted, I set aside the excess fat that had rendered out. I could use that later. Placing the bones in my largest pot, I covered it with water, along with an assortment of vegetables like onions, carrots, and verdant bulbs, slowly bringing it to a simmer as I skimmed off the scum on top.

The next thing to prepare was ground meat. There were two versions of this dish I was going to do. One had ground Buvul, but I was thinking about mixing it up and using different meat. The other had finely diced mushrooms.

I needed something that had some fat content, so meats like Chironid and Grarok were out, which left one obvious option: Grumfel!

I already had the meat broken down, too. I’d just need to remove the bones before grinding it, as the bones were not large, I put them into the stock. A bit more flavour couldn’t hurt, right?

I chuckled at that thought. I’d definitely check the buffs of this before I tried it. It could absolutely hurt.

“What are you laughing at?” Liane broke me out of my thoughts.

“Nothing!” I tried to wave it off, realising just how guilty that sounded.

“Trevor, don’t do anything silly. It would be best that you experience leaving a city without being paralysed or on the run at least once,” Liane laughed.

I couldn’t help but shudder at that. Being paralysed for that week was horrible, and something I had no intention of reliving.

“Don’t worry. No plans on it,” I snorted.

I went back to grinding the meat. It wouldn’t hurt to have a little extra, as this filling could be used again.

Soon it was done, and in front of me I had all the prepared ingredients. The onions had been dried, and I used the grinding stone to turn them into a fine powder. The meat had been ground, and the stock was giving off a rich, meaty aroma. I’d need to pull out all the chunks and it would be done. And lastly, I had started to bake several dozen bread rolls.

So it was time to work on the first dish. They were called Crispy Flames, which just made me smile and think of Crisplet, but they were little flame-shaped pastries that were filled with meat or mushroom filling. These in themselves wouldn’t create a complete meal, but they’d be amazing to share.

For the pastry, I’d mix grain flour, dried onion powder, salt, and a pinch of sugar together as the dried goods, then I’d add some suet and a couple of eggs to it, and then work it into a dough. I could add a touch of water if required.

Once it had formed together, I pulled it out of the bowl, and as the recipe instructed, I kneaded it lightly. It was important not to overwork it, or it would become too dense. Right now, the suet would melt during the cooking process and create a flaky pastry, and if I wanted to use this for a dessert, I’d just increase the sugar, swap suet for butter, and remove the onion powder, which gave this a real savoury kick.

Before that, I would need to cook off the filling, starting with the ground meat. To that I’d also add diced onions, thinly cut tubers, garlic grass, a pinch of the dried herb mixture I got, and to give it a little kick, some fire salt. For the mushroom filling, it was exactly the same except you’d be using the mushrooms instead of meat, just with a bit more seasoning.

As it cooked off, I formed the pastry shapes, following the recipe and forming them into the shape of little flames, with the centre hollowed out like a pie. These were small enough that I didn’t need to blind bake the pastry first.

It didn’t take long before everything was ready to go. The meat and mushroom mixture was cooling off. The pastry flames were all formed and ready to go. And I had an egg wash mixture to brush over the top to give it a really golden-brown colour.

I had a thought, though. Since I was going with a flame design like this, it would be a good time to use an item the princess gave me to test, pulling out the Ignel flower petals, which were surprisingly white with a glowing red base.

Crisplet let off a burst of sparks immediately as I pulled it out, clearly excited to use these fire-based items.

“I’ll put a single petal on top of each one,” I said, using my purify on it, just in case.

Crisplet let off a burst of sparks and pushed across joy again.

I got to work, scooping a small amount of filling and placing it in the middle of the pastry, adding a petal on top and laying it out on a tray I found that was usually used to bake bread. And finally, I started to bake them. They wouldn’t need long since the meat was already cooked. It was just a matter of getting the pastry cooked and golden brown.

So while Crisplet worked on that, I started the second dish. For this, I was going to go super basic, something that was truly a shared meal and something that would be perfect for the chill that was still in the air.

Tuber and Li-kye soup.

Li-kye was a vegetable I found fairly recently. Its colour caught my eye, with its red leaves and pale orange stem. The flavour was very onion-like, but with a hint of spice to it. The recipe itself came from Archie, who said it was his favourite dish, and it was the reason I was making the stock.

First, I melted some butter in a large pot while I sliced up the Li-kye. I made sure to use all of it, since each part provided a different flavour to the whole.

Adding it to the pot, I slowly started to mix it. I’d need to cook it down until it was soft and translucent. While that was happening, I took out some tubers. I used a mixture of regular ones and some uncommon marbled tubers, dicing them up into small cubes. The last thing I needed was a small amount of garlic grass.

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As soon as the Li-kye was soft, I added the tubers, half the garlic grass I had set aside, and poured in the stock until it covered the vegetables, storing the rest away for later.

From here, I would just need to bring it to a low simmer and cook it until the tubers were cooked through and just about to fall apart.

“That one smells good. I don’t know how to describe it. Something comforting about it,” Liane said, shuffling a bit closer.

“I got this recipe from Archie when he saw me buy the Li-kye. I’m going to put aside some for him tonight,” I said.

“Good idea. Archie has been a lifesaver since we came here. We’ve not had to deal with the horses once,” Liane chuckled.

I felt my blood chill. How could I have been so heartless? Since arriving in the city, I’d not once checked where Sable was, or how she was doing.

“What’s wrong?” Liane frowned.

I tried to wave her off, but she wouldn’t have any of it.

“It’s just that I realised I’ve not checked on Sable once, or even asked how she’s doing.” I felt incredibly guilty.

Liane laughed. “Yeah, Jen’s been doing that for you, as well as Archie.”

I needed to apologise to both of them and try to figure out a food that Sable would really like before we hit the road. How could I have been so forgetful and heartless?

“I won’t forget again,” I vowed, mostly to myself.

The dinner quickly came together as the smell of sweet onion and pastries filled the room. Crisplet let me know the pastries were ready to remove, and what surprised me the most was the petal I placed on top had not changed at all. The pastry itself was a deep golden brown, and you could see it flaking at the edges, while the mixture in the middle was still bubbling, giving off an incredible aroma of herbs and mushrooms.

The petal, though, looked exactly as if I had just pulled it out of storage.

The soup was easy to finish. When the tubers were cooked through, using a large spoon, you just crushed the tubers, turning the soup into a thick mixture as the starches allowed the soup to thicken up. I then infused it, going for the longest duration, in the hope that I could start working on my quests.