We went out for shopping. Aalto regains his energy after filling his tummy with the egg bacon toast. The whole time he was excited like a kid. It's been a while since I went out with somebody.
I'm not an introvert. Sadly I don't have many friends. It's just me and my cafe. I spend most of my time there. Sometimes I go out to watch movies, all by myself.
Yep, that's how it's been after my college ended. Not only that, I have zero luck in dating also. My dates were never good enough for me to continue. Another reason why I am still single.
Ha ha.... no seriously it's not funny. I do wanna get a boyfriend. Screw my luck!
I told Aalto to tie back his long hair and tuck it inside the baseball cap. That way it won't make him stand out in the public. His hair colour isn't a big problem although his whole appearance is a bit too much for the normal citizens.
We looked around the stores where the sale was going on. Honestly I don't have that much money to spend on him. So, it'll be nice to get some cheap clothes for now. Fun fact, he looked good in everything. I brought all the basic needs. Then we went to have lunch.
Aalto may not be aware of this world but he knows few things. Just like that he knew about ice cream. When I gave him the ice cream, his eyes glinted with joy. It was the first time he was trying it.
Oh god! he's just like a kid.
We ate our lunch at a restaurant then roamed around for a bit. I found out that Aalto is not fond of spicy food. But it's South Korea honey! Most of the people here loves spicy food. He's gonna have a tough time adjusting with our food, I guess. When the sun sets off, we retuned home. It was still early for me to prepare the dinner. On my way back home I purchased some fresh tofu and pork belly. I decided to make stew tonight.
Cooking with fresh ingredients is truly satisfying.
" Come one Aalto. Help me with the dinner." Since Aalto is going to be working at my cafe I need to teach him everything, step by step.
" What will I have to do?" He asked me with a smile.
" First chop the veggies. I'll show you one." I grabbed an onion and begun to cut it. " You gotta peal the skin then dice it into small pieces. Easy! Now do the rest." After showing him the process I went to look for the other ingredients.
" Hyeon, the skin is not pealing off." My head turns around to see him. I can't help but laugh at his silly mistake.
" Jeez! You're not supposed to peal the skin of tomatoes!" I laughed harder at his bleak expression.
" Oh... so we can eat the skin?" Scratching his neck, Aalto asked giving me a half made smile.
" Yes. Actually it's my fault for not telling you about it. You don't have to peal the skin of all the veggies. Some can be eaten with the skin. Uhh.... you'll probably learn it after some experience." Patting on his shoulder I replied.
" Okay Hyeon. Then I'll chop it now."
" Yup. I'll give you instructions next time." Aalto is a quick learner. He chopped all the ingredients as I told him. Finally it's time to cook.
" Now pay attention, okay? We will make kimchi stew."
" How does it tastes?"
" Good and spicy." His smile flatten as he heard the word spicy. Don't worry Aalto I will make it less spicy for you.
" Put the onions and tomatoes in the pot." He drops the chopped onions and tomatoes into the pot. As soon they touched the heated oil, they begun to fry nicely.
" Now sauté it." Aalto was sautéing, meanwhile I begun to make the base for my soup.
It's made with five ingredients —— gochugaru which is basically chilly flakes, gochujang which is chilly paste, soy sauce, minced garlic, black pepper. The ratio is very important. Everyone has their own style and taste according to the spicy level. Sometimes I add shrimp paste too. It can be done in many ways. But for Aalto I'll have to reduce the amount heat which I normally use for my stew.
I grabbed a bowl to mix the ingredients.
Half tablespoon gochugaru
Half tablespoon gochujang
Half tablespoon soy sauce
Half tablespoon minced garlic
And one tablespoon ground black paper.
I also added one tablespoon of sugar only for Aalto.
" Now add the pork belly." I instructed him while mixing the base of the soup.
" This?" He points at the bowl where the pork belly is kept.
" Yep." Making an ' O ' shape with his mouth, Aalto puts the pork belly in the pot which I previously cut into small pieces. That way it'll cook fast. I then added the the rice wine and fish sauce. The pork belly is soft now.
" Add the kimchi in the pot." He drops the chopped kimchi into the pot and sauté it. Then I add the sliced mushrooms, tofu, water along with the base sauce which I prepared.
Now we have to boil the whole thing on medium high heat. When the soup starts to boil we gotta reduce the heat to medium. It'll probably take 10 to 15 minutes.
" Aalto, keep on mixing the soup. Make sure the sauce is blending with the ingredients."
" Okay."
He follows my lead and gently mixes the sauce around the soup with a small spoon. We can't stir it too much or the tofu will break. Best way is to splash the soup gently over the ingredients. Looks like the meat is cooked. I sprinkled the finely sliced green onion over the stew.
It's finally done.
" It looks delicious." Aalto said with great enthusiasm. He's no longer afraid of spicy food.
" I know right? You'll like it. Trust me. Now let's make the side dishes. Grab a pan from there."
I turned on the gas to heat up the pan with some water. I drained it into two separated bowls. In one bowl I added baby spinach and on the other bowl I added bean sprouts. I'll be blanching them later in cold water.
Now let's make the egg roll.
" Crack two eggs— no three." I told Aalto while blanching the spinach in cold water.
" Oh no! The shell fell in."
" Relax, pass me the bowl." I picked up egg shell. " Done."
The eggs were sieved through a strainer for a nice smooth texture. As it was done I gave it back to Aalto.
" Put the carrots and green onions. Then beat them with a pinch of salt." The carrot and green onion is chopped very thinly so that it'll cook fast along with the eggs.
The skillet is preheated and grease well. I poured half of the beaten eggs into the pan. The gas is on low heat because I don't want it to burn. My eggs are set enough to flip. I gently rolled the omelette over itself twice. The whole roll slides to one end of the pan. Then I pour half of the eggs mixture on the other end and continued it until there's no more mixture left. The egg roll is done.
Ah! Back in those day, I used to mesh it up a lot. But practice makes it perfect, right? Over the time I learned to make awesome egg rolls.
Now let's prepare the spinach and bean sprouts.
Both of them are blanched in cold water and drained neatly. I put the spinach in a different bowl. Then added thinly sliced green onion, minced garlic, a dash of soy sauce, and toasted sesame oil in the bowl, mixing them nicely. Lastly I put some salt and finished it by sprinkling some sesame seeds on top for garnish.
In the same way I mixed the blanched bean sprouts with soy sauce, finely chopped red chilly and scallion, sesame oil, black toasted sesame seeds, salt, crushed black paper in a bowl. Stir the ingredients nicely and it's done. Easy right?
When the cooking was done, I served all the food on the dining table. I gave Aalto a bowl of rice and all the dishes we just cooked together.
" Take some stew and eat it with the rice, just like this." I showed him the proper way to eat kimchi stew. " You can either use spoon or chopsticks."
He takes a mouthful of the stew and rice, chewing it gently.
" It's delicious!"
" Hahaha... of course. Finish this up, I still have some vanilla mouse for you."
" Yay!"
Never thought I would have someone living with me like this. Someone who will light up my world with his bright smile. Let's see how long it will last.
~ to be continued