Chapter 35 - Cooking

After picking enough chilies, Abraham was satisfied with the trip.

Then he hurried back with Mary, heading to his house.

He thought that Wall and Gros must have returned, so he quickened his pace.

And sure enough when he approached his house, he saw Wall and Gros who were already in his yard, looking sheltered under a tree

"Have you returned?" Abraham asked both of them.

"Yes, we came almost at the same time," Wall replied.

"These are the fish that I managed to harvest" Gros showed 7 large fish of the carp and gourami type that had been caught in the river.

Each fish looked quite large, if it was estimated that they weighed at least 4-5 kg ​​each.

Which was considered enough for their lunch, of course there had to be additional staple foods if they wanted to make them full.

Because if they only relied on the fish, Abraham knew that they all would definitely not be satisfied, if only he and Mary might still be able to provide enough.

But with the addition of Wall and Gros it was clear that was impossible.

"I have also finished the bamboo you asked for," Wall said, pointing to some bamboo lying on the edge of Abraham's yard fence.

"Thank you for your help, then let's make the food" replied Abraham again happily and prepared to start cooking the steamed fish menu in the bamboo.

"Wall I have to bother you again, please cut some of this bamboo with a length of 1 M, but please remember to leave one side of the bamboo stick closed and the other open." Abraham then gave Wall another instruction.

"You mean to only make this bamboo stick have one mouth right?" Wall asked again.

"Yes that's what I mean, make the bamboo stick only have one open mouth" replied Abraham again after he understood what Abraham meant.

"Okay then" replied Wall again.

"Mary please clean this fish, including the scales and the insides" Abraham then gave Mary another instruction.

"Okay," Mary answered, understanding what Abraham meant, as a note in their orcs tribe, eating fish can only be said by simply grilling it with the addition of a few grains of salt to make it taste better.

Abraham, who knew this, was shocked by what he had seen when Gros and Wall made grilled fish.

The grilled fish made by these orcs was a very rough grilled fish, they did not peel the scales of the fish and did not even remove the entrails.

They just skewered the fish and then placed it on the fire to cook.

And after it was cooked they would sprinkle enough salt, and immediately start eating it with gusto.

Thinking about this, Abraham felt very sad although on the other hand, he also realized that with the strength of the mouth and stomach possessed by these orcs, it seemed that those worries could be forgotten.

Because he realized, in the modern society where he came from, fish scales and also the entrails of fish were mostly just thrown away and not used as food ingredients.

Although he knew that there were some places that still consumed this, but for Abraham he was clearly not used to it.

So then he gave them an example of how he could cook fish, and in this case enlivening the scales and the belly of the fish was also included in it.

"As for you, Gros, you can make a fire and I will prepare the spices to cook the fish pepes," replied Abraham again after he made arrangements for his friends.

So then with the clear division of tasks, Abraham was immediately able to complete the preparations to make the fish pepes dish.

To replace the banana leaves as a natural wrapper, he took some leaves that were on the tree in his yard.

From its size he estimated that the leaves on the tree could wrap the fish.

So after the fish was cleaned by Mary, Abraham then took over by starting to cut the fish into several parts.

After the fish was cut, Abraham then began to pound the turmeric and galangal that were there, plus salt.

Abraham then began to coat the fish with the mixture of spices, from there it was seen that the color of the fish became slightly yellowish.

And after that, Abram then wrapped the fish in the leaves that had been prepared.

After wrapping the fish, Abraham then began to put the fish into the bamboo that had been prepared.

And from there, he made other fish pepes with additional different spices. How about this time after washing the red cayenne pepper, then putting in some of the chili into the leaf package that he had prepared.

And after that put the fish package back into the bamboo stick that was there.

While not forgetting then, Abraham asked Mary to wash the forest rice that he had processed by pounding it first, to separate the shell from the contents.

And then put the washed rice back into the large pottery used for cooking rice.

Then together with the pepes fish that had been put into the bamboo tube to be burned together under a medium-temperature fire.

As a note, each bamboo tube containing fish on the top has been covered with leaves to speed up the cooking process.

The cooking process is estimated to take about half an hour to 40 minutes, as for the process of cooking the rice that is in the pottery container.

It takes less time, because the type of rice that is cooked has a much faster rate of maturity than the rice that Abraham knows in general.

As for how Abraham could find this wild rice, Abraham had to say that the orcs, especially the tribe where he was currently, were very ignorant of how to process the food.

Like this wild rice, which turned out to grow well near the riverbank in the eastern part of the tribe, where the wild rice plants were used as additional food for the livestock on the tribe's farm.

Abraham , who found this by accident, immediately became happy especially after he learned that wild rice was a food that was not in demand by the tribe members, because it tasted bitter and hard.

( Abraham , who then asked Mary how they processed rice to eat, became silent after he learned how they processed it.

In the tribe, rice is not pounded to separate the rice shell from the rice grains, they just boil it and after it is considered soft enough they will eat it just like that.

What is clear is that the taste will definitely not be good, let alone if it enters the throat, it is really unimaginable to think about it, so then Abraham told Mary, Wall, and Gros how to properly process rice to make it into decent rice)

And from there they began to like the taste of the cooked rice.