WHOSE CUISINE REIGNS SUPREME? [OPEN]

[tidesnpc]

Characters: Cooks, judges, spectators, and of course the MC
Content: WHO WILL BE THE NEXT LIGHTNING CHEF REIAL?
Setting: A field just outside of town, scattered with pavilions.
Time: Around mid-morning
Notes: As was mentioned in the OOC post here, each cook and assistant team will have a thread for food preparation. If your assistant is ICly

Comments

[bustybentobabe]

Angel was ready to start as well, but that MC was still jabbering away. Still, this gave her more of an opportunity to see what was available and settle on her plan.

First, it should be noted, there was a great deal of sweet, confectionery ingredients that would allow a master to create a gorgeous cake. She barely glanced at these. While there was a great deal of room for creativity and artistry in cake decorating, it did not fit her idea of the Hanami Festival.

Instead, her attention was focused on the fresh, natural ingredients that had been provided. Ripe fruits, fresh spices, a jar of golden honey. On one shelf there was a large, gnarled ginger root was begging to be peeled and grated. She couldn't look in the ice box, but she could be certain the contest had provided plenty of milk and eggs.

But what really brought her idea together was turning her attention to the equipment: they had been provided with an ice-cream maker. That was going straight to the top of their list of priorities. They would need all three hours to get that ready, and they still might find themselves in a rush near the end. But oh, would it be worth it.

Satisfied, she returned to Anthy. Just in time for the MC to finally finish his spiel.

"For starters, we need to grate that ginger and separate a few egg yolks." She gave a pleased smile to her partner. "We'll be making plum tart with ginger ice cream."

[anthypants]

"I see," Anthy said. "It sounds delicious."

Her voice was low and relaxed. That kind of prep work she could easily manage. It wasn't her ability to chop or grate that ended in disaster, it was her attempts to 'get creative' or cook to her own tastes that left other people making faces and trying to be polite. Well, unless they were one of the jagers...

She was determined to do her best though, she didn't want to be the thing that held Angel back. Angel's plan seemed like a good one, the ice cream would take a long time to set, but the ingredients were simple and there would be plenty of time between the start and finish to make the tarts.

Anthy wondered what she should start with, and decided it was the eggs. She might have to separate them by hand, in which case she didn't want to have any ginger juice on her hands if Angel wanted to use the whites for an egg wash on the tarts. She could wash her hands of course...well, she hoped? There had to be a sink, but still she should be as fast as possible. Although, a little ginger might be tasty in the tarts as well...but Anthy stopped that line of thought. She should know to leave well enough alone with her ideas.

[bustybentobabe]

There was a sink, and Angel was already heading to it with the ginger root to give it a quick rinse before she peeled and grated it. "Remember to wash those eggs before you crack them open," she advised. "Hopefully everything here is washed already, but better safe than sorry." After all, if any team ended up giving the judges food poisoning, she would rather it not be them.

With that, she set to work peeling the ginger. The skin was thin and fragile, meaning there was no need to use a knife or peeler. Instead, she pulled out a spoon and used the tip of it to scrape off the skin, leaving the flesh of the root almost perfectly untouched.

The skin was discarded, and Angel set to work grating the actual ginger root. There was probably more than she needed here, but better to have too much than too little prepared for this. Besides, the rest could be worked into something else, if they had enough time. Tea, perhaps.

[anthypants]

"Yes, Miss Starr," Anthy said, as she followed Angel to wait her turn.

When Angel had washed her ginger she washed her eggs carefully. It wasn't mentionable in polite society, but Anthy did know what could be on a freshly laid egg from time to time. While she was no country girl, Ohtori Academy did have agricultural classes, and Anthy had participated in some of the livestock ones as well as the horticultural ones. After all, gentry should know how to instruct their laborers. Theoretically.

Finding what she needed, she cracked the eggs and separated them, yolks in one bowl, whites in another. Fortunately, the eggs were fresh and of the best quality, the yolks firm and more orange than yellow. On the 4423 Anthy had been exposed to cheap factory-farmed eggs. The yolks of those were pale and watery, and broke much more easily. As the cities became more crowded, apparently they were becoming more popular.

Now she waited for Angel's next instruction.

[bustybentobabe]

She was still working on the ginger when Anthy finished. "Good. That should be enough yolks. Store the whites in the icebox. We won't be needing them for this, but no sense in wasting them." Perhaps they could take them afterward, even. Besides, they would need to separate just a few more eggs later for the tart.

"Now, we'll be needing... let's see... six cups of cream and two cups of milk. Get those together in a saucepan. I'll be adding this ginger as soon as I'm finished with it."

Which hopefully wouldn't take too much longer. It wasn't difficult to grate ginger, but she needed at least half of a cup of it, which took a bit of time to prepare.