Completed Seashells By The Seashore II

[Tazrae]

85th of Summer, 522 A.V.

Tazrae tapped the quill against her chin, thoughtful. Salads were easy, especially with lightly seared scallops. The fruit was abundant and that was easy to throw together in a salad form along with greens she now propagated frequently. Taz jotted down some notes, indicating the type of greens and dressings she’d add. It took just a small section of her notes under the heading of scallops, and then she got into the actual recipe development.

What she needed more of were hearty meals that filled her guests' stomachs and comforted her. She wanted rich food that soothed the soul as well as the body. Scallops were fantastic for bites of bliss, and they’d be great paired with rice dishes in a risotto, maybe with basil or oregano. Taz got up abruptly, with the stove still stoked, pulled out rice to cook, and took out another saucepan to start on some different sauces. Taz caramelized a few more scallops in a frying pan of butter and munched on them, delighted by their taste, as she waited for inspiration to set in. Almost immediately, she decided they needed nothing more than salt and pepper to flavor them.

But the risotto…. needed to be made with pineapple juice and vegetable stock, not water. Taz had found out throughout her life that the little things made huge differences. She started with a couple of cups of pineapple juice then added about half that amount of vegetable broth she got from opening a jar she’d canned.

The vegetable broth was something Tazrae routinely made … vegetable, meat, and even fish or shrimp stock… and canned in big jars so she always had some available. It seemed she was always putting up stock because she always had ingredients to make stock with. Taz stirred the mixture a bit, hummed under her breath, and when it was simmering nicely, she pulled it off the heat.

Then she put a large saucepan on the heat, diced an onion fairly quickly, smashed clove of garlic, and added both things to the saucepan. She stirred the onions, added in a big scoop of butter, and waited for the onions to go translucent. When they were there, she added rice and stirred the mixture for a chime. Taking a ladle, she added a bit of the hot pineapple vegetable stock mixture to the rice, stirred until the liquid was fully absorbed, and kept ladling hot liquid into the saucepan until the rice itself cooked. She stirred slowly while she did this, and then set the ladle aside to grate some pale pungent cheese.

Once the rice was cooked, she stirred the cheese into the rice, added salt and pepper, and chopped a bit of basil to add to the mixture as well. When she was done, she covered the mixture and let it simmer while she carefully seared the scallops. She dished up a small plate of risotto, added scallops, and garnished it with more chopped basil. Then, on a whim, she walked out to the deck.

She left the plate with a tall glass of water over ice… and left the food out. If she did have a secret shadow, best feed it to be safe. Creatures were in a far better mood with a full belly than they were empty-handed and empty of the stomach. Once that was done, Tazrae walked inside, dished herself up a plate, and sampled the cuisine. It was good… good enough to add a more traditional recipe to her recipe book and put it on the menu.

[Tazrae]

Tazrae did that, writing it up neatly, and adding it to her slowly growing book of recipes.

Seared Scallops With Basil Risotto

2 cups pineapple juice
1½ cups vegetable broth
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
⅓ cup minced yellow onion
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1¼ cups uncooked Arborio rice
¾ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
¼ teaspoon black pepper, plus more for seasoning
3 tablespoons minced fresh basil
1 pound sea scallops
2 tablespoons vegetable oil, plus more as needed
½ cup micro greens, for serving

Step 1
Combine the pineapple juice and broth in a medium saucepan. Bring the mixture to a simmer, then cover with a lid and remove from the heat.

Step 2
Heat the butter in a large saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent, about 5 chimes. Add the rice and cook, stirring, for 1 chimes.

Step 3
Add a ladle of the hot juice mixture to the saucepan and cook, stirring, until the liquid is fully absorbed. Continue adding the hot liquid to the saucepan, one ladle at a time and stirring intermittently, until the rice is no longer crunchy, about 30 chimes.

Step 4
Stir in the sharp white cheese, salt, and pepper, then turn off the heat and stir in the basil. Set aside, covered, while you cook the scallops.

Step 5
Pat the scallops dry, then season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a medium skillet. Once the oil is hot, add half the scallops and cook undisturbed for 2 chimes. Flip the scallops once, then tilt the skillet and baste them with the oil. Continue cooking the scallops an additional 1 chime, until no longer translucent. Transfer to a plate and repeat with the remaining scallops, adding more oil as needed.

Step 6
Divide the risotto among serving plates and top with the scallops.

Step 7
Garnish with microgreens and serve.

With that, she decided to start on the next recipe. It needed to be even more hearty, and perhaps something easy for her to make on short notice when she found the Inn fuller than expected for the dinner crowd. Taz tapped her quill against her chin again, thoughtful, trying to decide which culinary direction to head in with this next plate… or rather bowl. A stew would be good, she decided immediately.

They were often one-pot dishes that included whatever the fresh catch of the day was. Taz wasn’t above putting crab, shrimp, scallops, clams, and even freshwater mussels in the mix. The recipe she planned to write was going to be a general guide only, with this stew and its contents, the recipe actually turned out to be far more than that. But hearty meant more than just meats. It meant dense vegetables that satisfied the appetite and pleased the palate. Taz liked pairing bell peppers, onions, and garlic… and she decided instantly on potatoes and celery.

With that on her mind, Taz began putting the pieces together.

[Tazrae]

Taz got out a big pot, deciding whatever she made up would be the dinner offering today since she had so many scallops. She hung the pot over the fire, and put a skillet on the stove, and drizzled garlic oil over the pan. Then quickly she diced up onions, crushed garlic cloves, and added pepper flakes into the skillet.

Checking to make sure the stew kettle pot was hot, she added the skillet mixture to the bottom of the kettle and then added vinegar. She brought that to a boil until the vinegar all evaporated. She added to wine, oregano, and bay leaf just by feeling. Then she opened a jar of tomato puree and tomato paste and brought that to a boil.

In a second pot, she added quartered potatoes, celery, and a few parsnips. Then she took a dozen ears of corn and cut them into corn wheel slices and added them to that pot as well. She topped it with water, a healthy measure of salt, and set it to boil. Once the potatoes were done and the celery was soft without being soggy, she drained that pot and added the contents to the seafood feast starting to come together in the first far larger kettle.

While that was happening, Tazrae ran down to the dock, pulled her crab and shrimp traps, cleaned everything out, and came back up to the kitchen in time to stir the pot. Cleaning the things down at the dock took far less time and far less mess than it would haul the catch-up to the Inn. Taz make quick work of the task, but something in her kept glancing around as if she expected to see a shadow in the sky.

It was the oddest feeling, like the feeling that had made her set the plate of risotto and scallops for some invisible onlooker earlier. There seemingly was no one about, but that didn’t stop Taz from checking the place setting she’d left on the deck earlier. The plate had been devoured clean and there was a beautiful conch shell left sitting on the now-clean plate.

Taz turned a circle, saw nothing, but smiled anyhow. “You are welcome. I hope you liked it.” She said softly, then picked up the plate, shells, and the empty water glass and carried them inside with the rest of her burden from the dock.

She had fresh clams in the icebox she’d gathered the previous day and those too went into the kettle. She let the pot simmer for twenty chimes when she pulled the crabs and clams out. She sorted the clams, tossing the ones that hadn’t opened, but setting aside the ones that had. The ones not open were dead and not fit to eat.

The crabs she simply moved to her large cutting board and removed the top shells, then quartering the crabs, she reserved them in a bowl beside the bowl of clams. She pulled two huge whitefish from the ice box, skinned them, and cut them into large bite-sized bits. She added them along with shrimp she deveined and deshelled into the red sauce that was still cooking in the kettle. Then Tazrae plucked scallops from the bowl of freshly cleaned scallop meat and added a large portion of what remained in the bowl into the pot.

She let the pot bubble for a while, adding a bit of fish stock to smooth out the extra thick paste, then once it looked done and taste-tested finished, she pulled the kettle back off the fire to where it would stay warm. She taste-tested the recipe, smiled to herself, and added a bit more salt. Then, once she tasted again, added more, and tasted a third time, she sat down to take a few quick notes.

[Tazrae]

Studying the recipe book, so like the one she thought of as her ‘Fathers’ recipe book… Taz couldn’t help wondering who she was making the book for. Was it for herself? She’d remember the recipes all on her own. Would she someday have a daughter or son that would thumb through the pages and recreate her culinary work? Taz couldn’t picture a child, but suddenly she had a deep longing for one.

Maybe, just maybe, because there was no one in her life that would even remotely want to sire a child with her, she could adopt someone. Weren’t there kids that needed homes at the new youth pavilion? Taz thought that perhaps she should take a walk down there. Maybe one of them liked to cook and would spend time in the Inn if she asked. Tazrae wanted her own children and knew she was getting older and should have them sooner rather than later. But a father was always an issue.

Hearty Seafood Stew

garlic cloves, minced
olive oil
onions, chopped fine
dried hot red pepper flakes
green bell peppers, chopped
potatoes – pre-cooked and diced into bite-sized pieces
red-wine vinegar
white wine
dried oregano, crumbled
bay leaves
whole tomatoes including juice, puréed coarse
tomato paste
live hard-shelled crabs
small hard-shelled clams scrubbed well
medium shrimp, shelled, leaving tails and first joint intact
sea scallops
scrod or another white fish fillet, cut into 1-inch pieces
fennel to taste
minced fresh parsley leaves

Step 1
In a heavy kettle (at least 5 quarts) cook garlic in oil, stirring, until pale golden. Add onion and cook, stirring, until softened. Add pepper flakes and bell pepper and cook, stirring, until softened. Add vinegar and boil until evaporated. Add wine, oregano, and bay leaf and simmer 5 chimes. Stir in tomato purée and tomato paste and bring to a boil.

Step 2
Add crabs and clams and simmer, covered, 15 to 20 chimes, checking often and transferring clams as they open with tongs to a bowl (discard unopened ones).

Step 3
Transfer crabs with tongs to a cutting board and remove top shells, adding any crab liquid to the soup. Halve or quarter crabs (depending on size) and reserve, with any additional liquid, in a bowl.

Step 4
Add shrimp, scallops, and fish to soup and simmer, covered, 5 chimes, or until seafood is just cooked through. Stir in gently crabs, their liquid, and clams and sprinkle with parsley.

Tazrae loved developing recipes. This was one of her more entertaining doings as well since it had been fun capturing the scallops in the wild. There was something so satisfying about actually hunting or foraging for the food and then turning it into a feast.

Not wanting to dip into the Seafood Stew for a meal, Tazrae decided on a simple recipe for herself. She was going to cook the rest of the scallops in a light butter sauce and eat them for lunch. She pulled out three lemons, and a handful of chives dried off the two dozen scallops left in the meat bowl and got salt, pepper, and olive oil out.

Then she added a large glob of butter to her still hot skillet so it could melt down. She juiced two of the lemons leaving herself about a quart of a cup of juice. She then took the remaining lemon, segmented it, and set it aside. She diced the chives, leaving them in a small bowl on the side.

[Tazrae]

She took the scallops, seasoned both sides with salt and pepper. She added the oil to the butter, lifted and tilted the pan until the whole bottom was evenly coated. Then quickly placed all the scallops into the skillet, flat side down, without any of them touching. She cooked them three or four chimes, turning them over, and then cooking them another full chime.

Taz cooked the scallops until the top and bottom were crispy and opaque, and there was a faintly translucent strip in the middle where the meat never touched the skillet. She then transferred the cooked scallops to a plate, poured off the oil butter mixture, and added more butter to the skillet. She cooked the butter, swirling it in the skillet until it foamed then turned brown. She added the lemon juice, and the lemon segments, and let the sauce emulsify.

She poured the sauce over the scallops, then sprinkled them with the chives. Smiling, she poured herself a glass of cold cistern water which she added ice to and walked to her counter where she sat down with a fork and began to feast. The meat was tender, delicious, and some of the best seafood she’d ever eaten.

Taz finished the meal in almost no time, but the food was rich enough that she felt satiated and full. She walked to her little writing station where her journal was still open on the seafood stew, and carefully wrote down notes for the Seared Scallops With Brown Butter and Lemon Pan Sauce. Then she added notes as to how well the seared scallops would taste over salad and just as an addition to pasta sauce.

Happy with her endeavors for the day, Tazrae cleaned up the kitchen thoroughly and then when she was finished headed to Garden Beach to take her afternoon nap. The lunch crowd would be left with a sign that said ‘help yourself’ and bowls that were left out for the seafood stew as well as a big pile of sliced bread with a crock of fresh butter to go with it.

Words: 2660

[Tazrae]

Grading!

Tazrae-


Planning +3, Cooking +5, Hostessing +1, Investigation +3, Writing +2

Cooking: Developing New Recipes, Risotto: How To Make It, Cooking: Experimenting With Meals To Develop Recipes, Investigation: Trying To Catch Invisible Spies With Food, Cooking: Developing Stew Recipes, Cooking: Developing Scallop Recipes