Bamboo Steamers and Cast Iron

Spoiler:

Haraka calmly walked through oak town, a smile on his face. This job will require him to do something he had a lot of experience with, so it didn't really scare him. Fighting was terrifying, battle was terrifying, but cooking food was not. Trying to do jobs and adjusting to his new guild ad been very stressful. No matter how much speed cooking required, stressful was never something he would describe it as. The restaurant being on the gourmet side wasn't really scary, it just was something he had avoided doing as it would have gotten him more attention. In the past, that would have terrified him and not made for a good way to hide from the world and hope it forgets you exist. One of the things about being in a guild though was that it meant no longer being in hiding. It no longer made sense to avoid certain things. He slipped into the restaurant, being ushered into the back as soon as a waiter found out why he was there. The demon had got enough of a look in the front to tell that the banquette hadn't started yet, which would be a good thing. He was dressed in all white, from his dress shirt and vest, down to even his shoes. Omaras put an apron on as soon as he entered the kitchen. The long locks of his were already tied up, thus needed no extra prepping. The young looking demon washed slate blue hands in a sink briskly before getting to work.

The best thing to do was to prepare certain ingredients before the rush could strike. It would make cooking everything easier to do quickly and in vast amounts without cutting on quality. The first thing he did was put lots of butter in a pan. While The butter melted, he peeled and cut the two ends of some large white onions after summoning them. During that process, there were pauses where he would stir the butter to make sure it was properly cooking. This way it would not burn anywhere before it was ready for use. With that done, he oiled a skillet a bit. The butter was almost ready, he had to get better at multitasking! He summoned some peppers, a small peach, and garlic. The butter was ready by the time he had the peppers and garlic cut up. The onions were dumped into the butter, then stirred a bit to make sure everything was well incorporated. What to do next? They had advanced food processors, but he opted to use a sizeable unused old mortar and pestle he had noticed at the back. What a shame to treat an item in such a way! But in any case, he put the peppers and garlic inside, crushing until there was only pulp. That 'pulp' was put in the skill, a little soy sauce and water being sprinkled on top after. That went into the oven, after that he filled a pot with water than started heating it.

He did this to one more pot before summoning garlic, ginger, chives, and a few other seasonings. They were all chopped up before he moved to mince some beef, pork, chicken, and fish. Of course, the knife was cleaned after being used on any meat to avoid contamination. Different meats were placed in different pans with different seasonings. He made some mushrooms, skinning and chopping those up before putting them in some of the sauces in the making. Next? Summon ripe and soft tomatoes, chop some of them up, and put the chopped pieces in some of the sauces. Some sauces had flour in it, one had coconut milk put in, another rice milk. Stir the onions, add beef bouillon and a little water. He needed to hurry, it felt. Some oil, soy sauce, and salt was put in one of the pots full of water after it had heated enough. One stir, poke a tiny hole in each egg, then carefully put it in. Watch them careful, only cook them enough to make it safe to remove their shells. He started summoning different kinds of grains of wheat- including rice, only without their outer skin. This avoided needing to shuck them. One modern tool he was willing to use he did so in order to get different flours from the different wheat. This wheat was quickly used by the others in the kitchen and himself. He summoned poured clean and bare rice into a rice maker. He added water before closing it then turning it on.

He continued to work on the sauces and cook the onions that where still caramelizing. Haraka looked into the oven, mixing than removing the seasoning blend. He placed it into a container, it would be a useful ingredient for today. The eggs were removed from the heat, gently taken out, than placed in icy cold water. He made the different bread dough for the different bread buns. He wasn't the only one in the kitchen, so he wasn't going to be making all the different foods. There was only one sauce left to make, it started with a butter base in a sizable sauce pan Once it was melted, he cracked open a few eggs, putting their yolks in a bowl, the whites in another. He started to stir them, adding a small bit of the hot butter while stirring. After it seemed ready, he added it to the butter, never pausing in the stirs. Once that was done, two thirds of the sauce were packed for use on its own. The remaining amount had thick cream added to it. Bit by bit, with work and stirring, it heated again. He grated a few of the kitchens different cheeses, going for a mix of the strong and sharp cheeses and the gentle and creamy ones. It needed to be good, but not overwhelming, but not too loud. It was already going to be strong. After that? He packed it up for use. Next was helping in washi9ng the dishes... but actually that looked covered already. It looked like most of the prep work was done in time.

His main task right then was making some stuff in advance. Most of the sauces were finished, he had started putting them in containers. The different bread bun dough's had started to rise. Now all he had to do was mostly wait and help with small things. It was the quiet before the approaching storm, a silence to concern and fret over.  Everything was going smoothly in the kitchen, an unlasting peace that ended when the banquet. The first course appetizers had started to be consumed, meaning it was time to get ready for the second course. Each one was small, but meant for a lot of people. The next one was french onion soup buns with crab cakes. For the vegetarians there was the option of the corn soup buns with a roasted vegetable salad. Someone else was making the crab cakes, the french onion soup was already done, as was the corn soup. So he decided to create some vegetables, chop them up, then cover them with a little of a ginger garlic soy sauce mix. After that, he helped in filling and closing the soup filled buns, glad they used different dough for the different soups. It wasn't just to compliment the soups flavor, but also to make them easier to tell apart. The made buns went into the bamboo steamers. People finished eating the first course sooner than expected.

The first courses empty plates soon filled the sinks, the second courses plates being quickly filled as soon as it was finished cooking before it was rushed out. There was no time to relax, the third course had to be prepared as soon as possible. The Fourth course was potato croquettes with cheese sauce, followed by steak and asparagus covered with hollandaise sauce. The vegetarian option was falafels with a tomato sauce and a spicy coconut curry covering vegetable tempura with fried rice next to it. While that wasn't up yet, it was still important to cut and cook the steak now. Someone else did that while He started getting ready to help with the third course. The BBQ pulled pork was already done, but someone had forgotten to chop up and cook some pineapple He did just that, summoning and cutting up pineapple before dropping the pieces in a pan. After that he Started cutting up the blocks of firm Tofu, coating them in the pepper garlic mix before tossing them on the grill. They fell to the grill one by one with satisfying sizzles coming from them. He summoned some eggplants, cutting them up then coating them in a ginger soy sauce. While waiting for the sauce to soak in he was told that they might run out of the snack breads for the tables soon if they don't prepare more for the ovens a bit faster.

So he spent a few minutes aiding with preparing and putting breads in the ovens for a few minutes before going back to the grill. Can't let the eggplant soak too long, so onto the grill they went. After that it was time to return to help with the breads. The tomatoes that had been left uncut were now cut up and tossed to the grill. The tofu was flipped, as well as the eggplants. The pineapples were stirred before they started to setup the third course plates. Pulled pork, rice seasoned and with crisp small pieces of seaweed on top, soft boiled eggs, and grilled tomatoes. For the vegetarian option it was sweet bread, spicy grilled firm peppery tofu, marinated and grilled eggplant, and some cooked soft pineapple. They were finished just in time, the second course plates starting to come in. Not all in yet, but enough to know that they were not falling behind. How they had the ability to better keep up with drinks, bread, or other small things they would be having besides the banquet. This was no time to relax now though, it only meant they actually had time to prepare dessert without falling all over each other. Now he had the task on making enough pie crusts... which was an important first step. Cocoa, flour, vegetable shortening, some corn oil, a little salt, and a small bit of apple sauce. Of course, all ingredients had to be put in at the right time and the right way.

If all goes according to plan, it should bake to be flaky and sweet. As if to solidify that, he added a little salt, a little cinnamon, and some star anise. With everything mixed, he wrapped all of the dough, separating each chunk that would make a pie. While those chilled, he worked on the filling. He summoned green sour apples, skinning and cutting them up before putting them in a pan. Cinnamon, orange zest, nutmeg, clove, star anise, some lemon, nutmeg, some of the pineapple, and hard apple cider had all been put in, along with some brown sugar. The second course was finished, the third course starting to leave the kitchen to be served. He gave it a small stir before leaving it to soften and cook down. The pie crusts were removed from the freezer, then rolled out one by one. Next, the pie tins he was going to use were prepared. With that done, he put small bags of beans in each of them before plopping them into the oven for a short time.  This was mainly to be sure that the pie would not fluffy up too much when it was fully baked. They were taken out of the oven after, the bags removed. Next? It was time to check on the apple. It wasn't exactly fully cooked when it was removed, but that was part of the point. The juices and alcohol had been cooked down so it would have the flavor, but not the extra liquid that would have made everything soggy.

On to the pie crust the apple filling was carefully placed before each pie was put into the oven.  Now he worked on making a caramel, and on making a thick rice milk. In one pan was the cooking sugar, in the other he was cooking and thickening up some rice milk with malted rice flour and malted barley flour. He took the milk off the oven and strained it as soon as it was thick enough, using some of it on the sugar once it had reached a dark enough hue in color. When it was completed, he added enough powdered ginger to give it a bite, but not so much that it took over the caramels flavor. With that mixed and made, he wanted for the pies to be completed. The third course was finished, out came the fourth course. The creamy caramel was added on top as soon as the pies came out. With that, he was done in the kitchen. There was nothing left for him to do. Still, Haraka remained around until the banquet was over just to be sure things worked out fine. Though... now he was feeling hungry himself from working so much, so he bid the chefs in the gourmet restaurant a farewell. All and all, this had been a very busy, but fun job.

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