Solo Simmering Soups in Summer

[Okara]

Summer 26, 516 The gentle glow of dawn was just beginning to creep in through the windows as Okara dumped a bucket of water into a large cooking pot hung over a hearth fire. A few small candles softly lit the room so she did not have to strain her eyes in the early morning darkness. Her days as a chef started early, meals needed to be served promptly and appropriately warm so prep work had to happen in the early morning hours. Okara was alone in the Opal Temple kitchens at that hour but activity bustled elsewhere in the building. The Opal Temple hospital always had healers and doctors wandering around to check on patients. The medical staff were the stars of the Opal Temple but Okara was content to contribute her small part. Patients and students of the Temple needed to eat and she was happy to provide meals for them. The Opal Temple had a well stocked kitchen which Okara could spend all her days and nights in if they did not make her go home at the end of her shift. The hearth in the kitchens was large, big enough to accommodate the large cooking vessels needed to serve the resident population of the Temple. Thick, wooden shelves above clean counters were packed with clay jars of dried foodstuffs and seasonings. Bunches of drying and dried herbs were hung around the kitchen away from the licking flames of the hearth. Raw ingredients were purchased each day to ensure the freshest meals. Okara surveyed the cooking pot and judged that it contained a sufficient amount of water. She had been assigned to cook a stock to go with breakfast. She was glad to be done filling it, her arms were beginning to ache from hauling in buckets of water. The fire in the hearth had already been started for her and the flames were licking around the bottom of the metal pot. Okara set down her water bucket and walked slowly across the kitchen, scanning the shelves for needed ingredients. The slender Konti found the correct shelf and carefully slid a large clay jar off and onto the counter below it. She removed the top to ensure it was the correct ingredient. As she removed the top Okara’s nose was assailed with the earthy scent of dried and chopped mushrooms, her eyes struggled to see the brown, dried fungus pieces covering the bottom of the jar. With a frown she realized the stock of dried mushrooms was getting low. She would be sure to note it for the other kitchen workers so they did not plan a meal and find themselves lacking. Okara picked up the jar delicately with both hands and carefully dumped the contents into the pot of water over the fire. The dried mushrooms made ripples as they hit the water with a soft pth. Setting the empty container on a counter, Okara scanned the shelves for her second ingredient. She found the correct clay jar on a different shelf from the first and set it on the counter to check its contents. This one contained dried kelp leaves. Okara drew one of the dried leaves out and inspected it. The leaf was paper thin and shriveled in its dried state, white salt crystals speckled the dark greenish brown surface.

[Okara]

Okara drew out nineteen more leaves and was careful not to smash or break the other leaves as she did so. She gathered the delicate dried kelp and tossed it into the cooking pot. The Konti cook grasped a long handled wooden spoon that had a small loop of leather around the end that hung from row of hooks beside the hearth. She stirred the pot gently, swirling the dried mushrooms and kelp around to encourage them to soak up the water. She hung the spoon back on its hook and turned to gaze across the large kitchen with hands loosely on her hips. She walked softly across the expanse of the kitchen to a small counter near the door where a small sheet of paper lay. On the paper was a hastily scrawled menu and assignment. She had read it when she first came in that morning but needed to check her next task. Breakfast Kelp and mushroom stock (mushrooms in) - Okara Fresh Fruit - Okara Lunch Mussel and seaweed soup - Okara Other names were written beside other dishes but she ignored those. She had plenty to concentrate on as it was. She had only been assigned dishes at breakfast and lunch, being the first one in to prep the kitchen in the morning gave her reprieve from helping with dinner and the final kitchen cleanup. She prefered to work during the early morning hours anyways. Okara turned at the sound of footsteps and nodded in greeting as two of other kitchen workers walked through the door. Both of the newly arrived Konti carried armloads of that day’s chosen fresh ingredients. Okara traded small talk with the two briefly before they left to retrieve the rest of the ingredients they could not carry. Two of the baskets that were brought in held fruit. One was filled with dark red cherries and the other with early summer berries. Okara lifted the basket with cherries and carried them to the counter that was her working space. She reasoned that the brightly sweet flavors of the cherries would be a nice finish after the flavors of the stock Okara was making and the grilled fish another worker had been assigned for breakfast. She tipped the basket over gently and used her hands to guide the cherries softly to the countertops so that they did not bruise upon landing. Spreading them out into one layer she set the basket aside and inspected the small fruit. She removed the ones that looked wrinkled or cracked and placed them back inside the basket. They were not fit to be served on any plate she prepared. The remaining plump cherries would need to be pitted. Realizing this, Okara let out a long sigh. She had forgotten what a tiresome process pitting cherries was and began to regret not choosing the berries. Turning, Okara lifted a hand to her cheek and brushed back a strand of hair that had escaped the braid of faded flaxen down her neck. Her green eyes observed the other two cooks moving around the kitchen, storing ingredients and beginning their own prep work. Syna’s fingers began to reach more deeply through the windows and the extinguished candle wicks’ smoke dwindled. Okara retrieved a slender knife and returned to her work space. She set the knife aside carefully so she would not cut her hand while she destemmed the cherries.

[Okara]

Okara rolled her shoulders a few times to loosen her muscles and picked up a cherry. She held the round fruit between her fingers gently and popped the stem off. She tossed the stem into the basket with the picked over cherries and set down the destemmed cherry. She picked up the next cherry and popped its stem off. She repeated the process quickly with each cherry, one by one. The destemming process was not arduous at least. Once all of the cherries had their stems removed Okara picked up the kitchen knife and a cherry. She pressed the blade of the knife into the long side of the cherry until she felt the resistance of the pit inside. Careful of her fingers positioned around the small fruit, she slid the blade in a circle around the fruit. Holding the knife in her palm she pried open the two side of the cherry and popped out the pit clinging to one of the halves. She tossed the pit into the basket with her other discards and set down the cherry halves. Okara settled into the task of pitting cherries, sliding the knife around one and then other. She tuned out the sounds of her fellow workers bustling around the kitchen until it was a mindless hum in her ear. Her thoughts drifted away as she focused on the repetitive motions of pressing in the blade, swinging it around and prying the cherry open. Sinking into a meditative work flow she hardly noticed as her fingers became stained red with cherry juices and the pile of cherries slowly dwindled and became a pile of cherry halves. Cut the cherry, pry it open, pop out the pip. The sound of a metal pot dropping and hitting the floor snapped Okara out of her meditation with a jump. Fingers slippery with juices, the knife bit into the webbing between her thumb and index finger. Biting her lip she dropped the knife and cherry in her hand to inspect her hand. The red of her blood was almost indistinguishable from the cherry juices as they mingled together on her skin. Okara stepped back from the counter and pressed her fingers against the cut. Okara glanced down at her gnosis and her heart fluttered as the bit of magic she borrowed from Rak’keli was felt within her body and quickly worked to close the cut on her hand. She lifted her fingers from her hand and inspected the area where the cut had been. What once was open to the elements had been sealed with pink new skin. “Thank you Rak’keli for your gift, for the healing it brings myself and others.” Okara whispered her prayer of gratitude quietly so the other workers would not hear. She walked swiftly over to a small bucket of water and a stack of ripped bits of cloth. Soaking one of the cloths she wiped her hands carefully, she did not want any patient to get a bowl of cherries soaked in blood. Once her hands were thoroughly cleaned she checked on the kelp and mushroom stock over the hearth fire. The bubbles from the bottom of the pot rose through the water to pop at the surface. The water was beginning to take on a light brown color and the vegetables looked like they had rehydrated. The kelp leaves fluttered in the water as Okara stirred the stock and the mushrooms looked soft and spongy.

[Okara]

After a few gentle stirs Okara returned to her workspace to resume pitting the cherries. She went about the task more cautiously now, more alert to possible harm after the earlier accident. She was absorbed in the work and time passed quickly. When she had only a few cherries remaining her fingers were stained red with juices again and one of the kitchen staff announced the warning that breakfast should be prepared to leave the kitchen in a half bell. Once all the cherries were pitted Okara rolled her aching shoulders a few times to stretch them. She considered using her gnosis again to relieve the tension but chose not too. She valued Rak’keli’s magic but did not want to use it as a crutch to relieve herself of every minor discomfort. A little stretching would have the same effect anyways. Okara cleaned her hands again and found a stack of small, white glazed bowls that fit comfortably within her palm. One of the other kitchen workers was already laying out rows of wooden trays on top of the long counter that presided over the center of the kitchen. Okara filled each bowl with a handful of cherry halves and set one in the upper right corner of each tray that was laid out. Once all the trays had a small bowl of cherries on them Okara turned to the task of dealing with the stock. Time was beginning to tick down to when breakfast needed to be served and Okara began to feel rushed. Grabbing the long handled spoon she tried to quickly remove the kelp from the pot of stock. Delicate after having been dried and rehydrated the kelp leaves began to shred from the force of her spoon. With a deep inhale she forced herself to slow down and more carefully fish out the kelp leaves. She managed to get most of the kelp except for a few small shreds that floated around the surface. Once that task was complete Okara spooned up a small amount of the stock and lifted it to her lips. She sipped at the steaming liquid and was pleased at the taste. The earthy flavors of the mushrooms paired wonderfully with the more salty, fishy flavor of the kelp. Okara found a stack of larger bowls that she set down on the counter near the hearth. The bowls were mostly glazed in white but at the inner bottom of the bowl Rak’keli’s rakavina symbol was stamped and covered in a smear of green glaze. The Konti cook lifted a ladle down from the row of hooks beside the hearth and ladled a helping of stock into the first soup bowl. The stock in the bowl was light brown and had two chunks of mushroom floating in it. She placed the bowl in the center of a tray and turned to repeat the process with the next bowl. Okara hurried to get the bowls filled and placed in time. She was setting a bowl of stock on the last tray when orderlies from the Temple hospital began to file in to take trays and deliver them to patients. Okara admired the simplistic beauty of each filled tray. Each wooden tray had Okara’s bowl of stock in the center, cherries in the upper right corner, and a palm sized piece of grilled fish in the upper left all on white glazed dishes. A fork and a spoon carved of wood lay neatly beside the bowl of stock. Even at meal times aesthetic was a consideration on Konti Isle.

[Okara]

With breakfast out of the way, all of the kitchen staff breathed a sigh of relief. Okara checked the menu for her next task, mussel and seaweed soup. The woman chewed her lip thoughtfully. Mussel and seaweed soup was easy to put together but timing it was a pain. Mussels did not need to be cooked very long but were best served immediately afterwards or they were at risk of turning into rubbery overcooked lumps. She would need to time the soup exactly so it did not overcook but also did not grow cold waiting in the serving dishes. In the meantime, before she need to begin the soup prep, she intended to clean up her workspace before the cherry juices stained it. Okara gathered her basket of discarded cherry bits and the wet kelp she had fished out of the stock and dumped them into a large bucket of vegetable discards that would be given to the Temple gardeners for their compost needs. The Konti woman picked up spare chunks of cherry off her workspace and those too were put in the discard bucket. Then she soaked a cloth in water and scrubbed the counter. The rag was soon a dark pink with cherry juices and required several rinses in the water bucket but the counter was eventually back to its original wood color. Okara ladled the remnants of the kelp and mushroom stock out of the large pot over the fire and dumped in a small bucket of water. She used the long handled spoon to swish the water around the sides of the pot before ladling out the now brownish water. That was sufficient cleaning for the pot. Since the lunch soup was using a similar flavor profile harder cleaning was not needed and could be done after the dinner meal was served at the end of the day. Pleased with the cleanliness of her workspace, Okara decided it was time to prep the ingredients for the soup. By this time bright sunlight streamed in through the windows and filled the Temple kitchen with warmth and friendliness. Okara cut off two bulbs of garlic from a column of braided garlic hanging from the corner of a shelf then gathered a dozen green onions from the baskets of fresh ingredients from the market and laid them out on her counter workspace. Starting with the garlic, she peeled apart the cloves from each bulb and carefully peeled off the papery skin encasing the fragrant cloves. Her fingers sticky with garlic juices, Okara gathered the cloves neatly into a pile pushed them away from the center of the counter. Taking one clove, she cut it neatly into slices lengthwise then turned the slices and cut them into small strips. She repeated the process with three more cloves until she had a sizeable pile of garlic chunks. Holding the tip of the knife down onto the counter with the flat of her palm Okara began to mince the garlic chunks with just the heel of the knife. The knife rose and fell quickly, moving in each direction to evenly chop the garlic into a pile of small chunks, sticky from their own juices. Okara repeated this process with groups of four cloves until both bulbs had been thoroughly chopped. Using the knife blade to push away the sticky garlic into one large pile, Okara placed three of the green onions onto the center of the counter where she did her cutting. She chopped off the hairy roots from one end of the onions and cut an inch and a half off the green leafy end where the leaves were thinnest. Those pieces she set aside for the discard bucket. The remaining green onion she chopped across to make a pile of rings of onion. This pile she chopped coarsely a few times, she intended only to break up the rings of onion into strips. Pushing the pile of cut green onions away she grabbed three more long stems and prepared them in the same fashion.

[Okara]

Garlic and green onions out of the way, the cooking pot needed to be refilled with water for soup. Seeking out her water bucket from the morning, Okara filled it with clean water and dumped it into the cooking pot. This she repeated a dozen times, the bucket feeling heavier each time she carried it back to the cooking pot. Okara set down the water bucket gratefully once the pot was full enough. Okara walked to a corner of the kitchen where a small spiral staircase was tucked. She followed the staircase down to the flooded levels of the Temple complex. The staircase led to a room that was flooded several feet with ocean water. The room was used as a pantry for the kitchen’s seafood. Against the walls were hung several nets filled with fish, freshly harvested sea vegetables, and various shellfish. Keeping things stored this way allowed the chefs to serve the freshest meals. Trudging through water up to her chest, she found a net full of sea mustard, a dark green seaweed. Sea mustard had a sweeter flavor than kelp and would pair with the mussels in the soup far better. Okara took down the net stuffed with sea mustard and dragged it through the storeroom water to the stairs. Walking up the steps salt water streamed down from the nets and Okara’s soaking clothes. She stepped carefully to avoid slipping on the stone steps. Once she was back in the kitchen Okara gratefully set the net down near the counter she worked at. Opening the net she grabbed an armful of sea mustard and set it on the counter. Using the large kitchen knife she had been working with, she chopped the seaweed a few time to break it up into bite size pieces. She gathered the pieces into a pile and tossed them into the steaming water of the cooking pot. She worked her way through the net in armfuls. Mussel and seaweed soup was supposed to be thick with seaweed so a large amount was necessary to achieve the desired proportions. The sea mustard had been inspected and washed by its harvesters but Okara still kept an eye out for the odd small crab or bug that might have gotten caught in the frond-like leaves of the plant. She did not wash the seawater off the plant with fresh water as some might, she preferred the salty taste that it added to dishes. Tossing the last armful of sea mustard into the pot, she used the long handled spoon to stir the leaves around in the water. Next she tossed the garlic she had minced earlier into the pot and stirred it again. The last ingredient she had to prepare was the mussels. She made her way carefully down the slick steps of the spiral staircase back down into the flooded storeroom. She found the net containing mussels and dragged the heavy load back up to the kitchen. Okara reached her hand into the net and pulled out a mussel. The shell was tightly closed which was a good sign. Okara grasped the coarse hairs attached to the bottom of the shell and with a firm tug pulled them off. A mussel’s beard did not make for good eating and debearding was an essential step in preparing mussels for cooking.

[Okara]

Debearding was a long process but it gave Okara a chance to inspect each mussel. The next mussel she chose was slightly open so she knocked it lightly against the counter. It closed its shell tightly upon impact which satisfied Okara so she debearded it and placed it on the counter next to the first prepared mussel. The third mussel was also slightly open but did not close upon being knocked down on the counter. Okara set this one aside for discarding. Mussels that did not close were likely dead and not fit for eating. Mussels should be alive and their shells tightly closed to be good candidates for ingredients. Once she finished the debearding she was left with a large pile of clean and debearded mussels. A kitchen worker noted that less than a half bell was left before lunch needed to be served. That left her with just enough time. Okara checked how the soup was coming along. The water in the pot was turning a nice, healthy green from the sea mustard simmering in it. Okara noted the water was lightly bubbling but not fully boiling, perfect for cooking mussels. If she tried to boil the mussels they would overcook almost immediately and she would be serving tough, chewy balls of meat in her soup. Okara dumped the mussels in by the arm load and walked quickly to find serving bowls. The mussels would not need to cook very long and she needed to be ready to begin dishing out the soup as soon as they were ready. The soup bowls she had used at breakfast had been washed and set back in their place so Okara picked up a stack and began moving them closer to the hearth. Once she had a few stacks moved over she checked the soup and stirred it thoroughly to ensure the mussels were being evenly heated. She stood over the pot and stirred slowly, her green eyes intent on the mussels. One of the tightly closed mussels relaxed softly and its shell parted open. Then another mussel opened, then another. Okara smiled and reached for a bowl. The mussels opening was the sign she was looking for that they had cooked. She waited for a few more mussels to open then began ladling the soup into bowls. The soup looked delicious in each bowl, heaping with green seaweed and mussels in their shells. She worked quickly to ladle the soup and place it on the trays waiting on the center counter. The other kitchen workers had almost completed laying out their assigned dish as Okara began. Trying to pick up the pace without spilling the soup, Okara rushed to fill the bowls. Once she had enough filled to lay out on each tray she grabbed the chopped green onions from earlier and tossed a small handful on top of each steaming bowl as a bright garnish. Orderlies began to file in to collect the trays and Okara had to hurriedly toss the green onion on top of the last two bowls. Smiling in relief that she didn’t hold up lunch, Okara watched the orderlies collect the trays one by one and file out to deliver them to patients. The mussel and seaweed soup she had prepared was simple but the timing had almost gotten her. She turned towards the soup pot and realized she had not tasted the soup before serving it, a faux paus for any chef. There was a little left in the bottom of the pot she gathered it in the ladle and tasted it. The broth was salty and tangy with ocean flavors but held a subtle sweetness that was delightful for the afternoon hour. Okara nodded her head at a job well done and began to clean up her counter space.

[Tap]

Your Grades Have Come

Okara

Grades:
Endurance 3
Observation 3
Cooking 5

Lores:
Cooking: Mussels and Timing
Food Preparation: Pitting Cherries
Healing: Respect the Gnosis
Kelp: Delicate when Boiled
Food Preparation: De-cloving Garlic
Food Preparation: Mincing Garlic
Food Preparation Green Onions
Cooking: Kelp and Mushroom Stock
Food Preparation Sea Mustard
Food Preparation: De-bearding Mussels
Cooking: Mussel and Seaweed Soup

Comments:
Honestly I don't even like fish but I swear I can smell that seaweed soup. You did awesome. Fantastic ob thread and I loved every bit of it, very detailed! I added a 'dummy' skill called Food Preparation as well as gave you a few lores pertaining to it. I did this because cooking specifically notes 'adding heat' and so a lot of what you were doing (pitting cherries, preparing the mussels, etc.) did not count as cooking. But I still felt it merited a skill. I made up Food Preparation. Since this is a 'dummy' skill other graders probably won't award it. So if you like the skill be sure to ask for it specifically next time. As always, let me know how I did!