The start of the third arc, The New Girl
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teaser: (only available at p.a.t.r.e.o.n)
A warm hand caressing my face wakes me up from my sleep in the next morning. When I open my eyes, It was Clara's hand that tracing my face. I was about to open my mouth and greet her good morning when her index finger moves to my mouth as a sign for me not to speak.
....
Under a dim morning light, she looks very alluring in there. Claire smiles at me and watches my back disappears as I walk out from the door and close it again.
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After leaving my girls' room, I return to my own room to change clothes. I see Carina still sleeping in my bed and I don't want to disturb her sleep. After changing my pajama into simple clothes, I leave my room and heading to the castle kitchen. There're so many things to prepare this morning, not just breakfast but also for lunch later and the amount for the lunch will be more than usual because earl Stamfort will arrive before lunchtime.
I'm not planning many dishes for breakfast since there will be many dishes served during lunch. The most important thing about this breakfast is giving enough carbohydrate to make people have enough energy during the welcoming event. One menu for breakfast that I already decided is making corn soup since we got a lot of corn yesterday.
When I arrive at the kitchen, the cooks there like already waiting for my arrival and eager to learn another recipe from me. Some basic ingredients already prepared like dough, broth, peeled potato, and stocks from beef and chicken meats. So without speak any nonsense words, I immediately said my goal for today's menu
"Alright, guys, start from today I will make you very busy for several days later. For today's breakfast, you don't have to make many dishes, just 2-3 kind of dishes is enough but you will make preparation for many dishes in larger quantity than usual. Are you ready to work?"
"Yes! Young master Henry please tell me what we should do now"
"I see you already prepare dough and broth, so today's breakfast will be corn soup and meat bun. You already see how to make meat bun yesterday, so I only told you how to make corn soup today. As for lunch, prepare ingredients for frikadel and croquette for the appetizer, prepare ingredients for consommé soup, you know this soup need hours to prepare, so start preparing it since now, also make meat bun and noodles too. Take some seaweeds from the storage room to make wakame salads for the dessert. That's the menu for lunch today"
I deliberately not make grandeur menu for lunch because I prepare to make it for the banquet tomorrow, so there's no need to make it for lunch today.
"Okay, let's start to make the corn soup first. Give me the ingredients as I mention"
Corn soup ingredients :
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 small red-skinned potato, peeled and chopped (2/3 cup)
• 1 small carrot, chopped (1/3 cup)
• 1 small onion, chopped (1/3 cup)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 6 cups corn
• salt and pepper
• 2-3 tablespoons fresh parsley or thyme
• 2 limes
• hot tomato sauce
A cook immediately goes to the storage room to take ingredients which isn't available in the kitchen and after he returns with the ingredients I needed, I start to teach them the corn soup recipe and the cooking instructions.
Cooking instruction:
1. Heat a medium/large pot over medium heat. Add the olive oil along with the potato, carrot, and onion. Cook until the onion is tender, about 6-7 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
2. Pour the in the chicken stock and stir. Add salt and pepper – about 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon each depending on saltiness of your stock. Bring to a boil then cover and reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.
3. Add 3 cups of the corn and cook, covered, for 10-15 minutes until vegetables are tender. Transfer the mixture and blend until smooth.
4. Pour the soup back into the pot. Add the remaining 3 cups corn, parsley and salt, and pepper to taste. Serve with a squeeze of lime and hot sauce.
With those amounts, I can make corn soup for 8 serving which enough for my father, my step-mother, four sisters and my uncle. And this simple corn soup can be prepared within around 30 minutes only. The next dish I want to make is spaghetti dish since the appearance of spaghetti and noodles is not much different, it would be easier for me to teach the cooks how to make spaghetti noodles.
"Guys, I will show you another modification of noodles, this time we don't use any soup for the noodles but we will use the sauce to bring flavor to the noodles"
I start making the spaghetti noodles dough after explaining my intention. It only requires little ingredients to make spaghetti noodles, but for the sauce will be more ingredients needed. For three spaghetti serving dough only need:
1 egg, beaten, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1 cup flour, 2 tablespoons water
Cooking instruction:
1. In a medium-sized bowl, combine flour and salt. Make a well in the flour, add the slightly beaten egg, and mix. The mixture should form a stiff dough. If needed, stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons water.
2. On a lightly floured surface, knead dough for about 3 to 4 minutes. With a pasta machine or by hand roll dough out to desired thinness. Use a knife to cut into strips of the desired width.
After making the spaghetti noodles, the next step is preparing the sauce. And for the sauce it would need these ingredients, which I ask a cook to get me from the storage:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 small onion, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
2 teaspoons crushed garlic
28 ounce peeled and diced tomatoes
4 teaspoons dried basil
4 teaspoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon sugar
Cooking instruction:
In a large saucepan heat oil over medium heat. Saute onion, green onion, and garlic. When onions are clear, stir in tomatoes, basil, oregano, and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 20 minutes.
The making of meat bun is already handled by other cooks since I teach the recipe yesterday. after these three dishes are ready, I call Mrs. Martina to inform my father that breakfast is ready to send the dishes to the dining hall.