[Mrs. Wainthrop's|Private] The Food of the Gods - Steak and Ale Pie

[Shu Yi]

Timestamp: Evening, 5th Brightening of Cryxatum, Summer of Era II of the Celestine Mandate, Era XIV Post Fractum.

Being the summer months, the sun was still peeking out from between the rooftops as Shu made her way 'home' from her excursion into the city. As she walked in the door, the boarding house seemed deserted - apart from various bangs and clanks coming from the landlady's kitchen. Shu had been staying there long enough to know that the good Mrs. Wainthrop cooked a simple but hearty and filling fair, and the girl had enjoyed the food, though she found it very strange compared to the kemite-style cuisine that had been a staple of her homelife. Up to now she had very rarely encountered Medonian style food, and had certainly never cooked it.

Acting out of curiousity, she poked her head around the kitchen door, and witnessed Henrietta rooting noisily through a cupboard full of pans and dishes for what she needed. The landlady did not notice Shu, and the girl had no desire to make herself known, so she just watched until Mrs. Wainthrop stood up, large pie tin in hand, spotted the dark-eyed girl staring at her, and jumped half a foot in the air. Shu blinked, her face blank.

"Oh! Shu! You did give me a fright, hindeed! Such a quiet thing you hare!"

Little reaction was apparent on the girl's face, but her eyes had travelled to the pie tin, and she gazed at it curiously.

"What are you making?"

"Steak and hale pie, my dear. Have you hever tried it?" Shu shook her had to indicate she hadn't before her landlady continued. "hWell I don't husually hold with halcohol, you know, but in this case it all the halcoholic content just cooks right hout and leaves the taste."

It took a moment for the girl to react, though she stored the tidbit about cooking alcohol away in her memory. Eying the tin again, she raised her eyes to Henrietta, a slight hunger evident in them.

"Can I help?"

Mrs. Wainthrop practically beamed with consent.

"hOf course my dear! hI simply cannot remember the last time a boarder asked me that. How are you with carrots? hI need them peeled and sliced for the haccompaniment."

Shu nodded silently, and noiselessly slid over to wear the carrots lay on the work top, along with an old wooden chopping board and a knife as sharp as a razor.

[Shu Yi]

There were a total of twelve large carrots on the work surface - Shu counted them carefully before she started to work. Judging by the number there were a lot of boarders to cater for. She had been staying in the boarding house for only a couple of days, and had not seen all the residents yet, having been too busy to take the evening meal on occasion. Today she suspected that she would get to meet them all, and she wasn't sure if she was annoyed or intrigued at the prospect. Most people were annoying - but there was always the chance that some might not be.

Lining up the carrots, first six, then the other six, she deftly chopped off both ends with the sharpened knife, and transported the waste to the rubbish bin. She then carefully - so as not to cut her fingers - went about peeling the outer skin of the carrots off. For Shu's small but experienced hands it took all of five minutes to get all the carrots properly prepared. Finallys she sliced them all up, and placed them in the water-filled saucepan that Mrs. Wainthrop had placed beside the chopping board for the vegetables to be cooked in.

Once finished, the girl waited patiently for her landlady to notice that she had nothing more to do. However, Henrietta was busy at the stove, with her back turned away from the Kemite girl, so in the end Shu had to resort to words. She cleared her throat in a timid manner before speaking.

"I have prepared the carrots. Does anything else need my attention?"

Henrietta waved a hand in the air to indicate that she was busy, but would give further instruction in due course. Shu delicately stepped a couple of paces to her right to see what she was doing at the stove, and found her to be stirring vigorously at a pot full of a thick, brown gravy. The landlady sure Shu's curiousity out of the corner of her eye and began to regale the Kemite with the details of what the pot held.

"hIt's quite simple Shu my dear. hit is some fine dwarven ale, mixed with habout a third again of water. hI have also added some vegetable gravy." She glanced up at her protege. "Do hyou know how to make gravy?" Shu shook her head - it was not really a staple of the kemite cuisine she knew how to cook. Mrs Wainthrop bobbed her head. "Perhaps hi will have to teach you that hone evening."

Shu merely nodded her head. Henrietta continued with her instructions. "Then, hyou simply mix together some water and flour, and hadd it to the mixture, and stir hit vigoriously until it thickens. Like so." The landlady held up the wooden spoon she was using, and the gravy dripped off it with the perfect consistancy. She took the saucepan off the heat and set it on a wooden square on the work surface.

"Now, hI need to cube the meat for the pie. Can you prepare the sprouts, Shu?" Shu blinked and looked blank. She had never heard of sprouts before. Henrietta guessed this from her expression and elaborated. "Brussel sprouts, you know. They hare quite simple, hI hassure you. Simply chop off the stem, and remove the houter skin. Do you think you can do that?"

Shu nodded, lapsing into silence again. Henrietta retrieved a large chopping board and big slab of beef, which Shu made her way over to a small sack of brussel sprouts and began to prepare them as intructed. She wrinkled her nose at their smell, thinking that the odour didn't indicate they would be very tasty to eat.

[Shu Yi]

Shu dipped her hand into the big bad and pulled out the first sprout. She stared at it curiously for a few moments before remembering the instructions that Henrietta had given her. The girl was still mildly surprised that anyone would eat something that looked and smelt like a sprout did, but she obediently followed her orders. With her knife she sliced off the bottom, then carefully removed the outer layer of leaves. Shu sighed. Cutting vegetables was no where near as satisfying as sinking a knife into a slice of meat. Frowning, she wondered why Mrs. Wainthrop had not let her cube the beef, which she would have much prefered, but seeing she had no choice in the matter she went back to her horrible sprouts.

Several minutes later, the majority of the sprouts had been prepared. Henrietta shuffled over to see Shu's progress, and nodded.

"That should be henough dear. I need to make the pastry for the pie now. Do you know how to brown hoff meat."

Shu nodded, it was a basic thing that she had learnt at a young age. She hesistated however, and instead of making her way to the stove, asked, "How do you make pastry?"

Mrs. Wainthrop practically beamed at the question. It was clear that it was quite a novelty to her to have someone assisting her in the kitchen and she was only too pleased to answer Shu's question. She waddled back over to the work surface, where she had already gathered all the pastry making ingredients.

"Now, this particular type of pastry is called puff pastry. There are lots of different types, as I'm sure you know, but I find puff pastry always works best for my pies. The basic ingredients are flour, lard, butter, and water. You also need a pinch of salt. Now, the trick is to use a third of the amount of butter as you do flour, and a third of the amount of butter that you do lard." Shu nodded, so far it was sounding fairly simple. Whilst Henrietta was measuring out the ratios, Shu began to brown the beef off in a pan over the hot stove flame. She watched the next step, and Mrs. Wainthrop raised her voice to explain over the noise of the frying meat.

"Of course, we have to sift the flour before we use it, we don't want any lumps in there, oh dear no. Add the salt to it when you do. Then rub in the lard." Shu paused, curious as to what her host meant. Henrietta saw her face, and explained further. "To 'rub in' means to mix the ingredients between your fingers." The old woman carefully placed her wedding ring aside, then demonstrated. Shu nodded silently, understanding now what the instructions meant. Henrietta continued with her commentary. "Usually its best to then leave the pastry in a cool place for a while, but we're running a little behind so I'll just continue on. The next part is to roll out the pastry with a rolling pin."

Henrietta picked up her ancient wooden pin and began to roll the pastry out to about a half inch thickness. At this point she began to spread small cubes of butter over the square she had created. By this point Shu had finished browning the meat and edged closer to the hostess, curious. Henrietta folded the pastry in half, and rolled it out again.

"We do this about five more times, until there's no butter left. Putting the butter in lumps like that is what makes the pastry puffy." She looked at Shu, and offered her the rolling pin. "Would you like to try?" The kemite girl nodded, and took the pin.

Shu carefully broke off some pieces of butter and placed them on the rolle out pastry. Then, just like Henrietta had done, she rolled the pastry out again. She repeated the process three more times, and Mrs. Wainthrop took over for the final roll. Shu watched as the old woman divided the pastry into two parts, then began to press one half into the bowl shaped pie dish that had been sitting on the side from the outset.