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.