Posted by Civilian Sair Songz (Counselor) in A Day With Koro

Posted by Civilian Char’les Harv (Officer’s Mess Chef) in A Day With Koro

Posted by Civilian Sair Songz (Counselor) in A Day With Koro
Posted by… suppressed (6) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

Koro moved his hand but let Harv do most of the work as he studied the actions very carefully. “It’s so crunchy,” he said, not looking up, seeming to intuit that his eyes needed to stay on the sharp tool. “Who taught you how to cook?” he asked.

Harv’s demeanor almost broke, but he cleared his throat and said “Why, I learned from my parents a little. But I went to school to really learn. You can learn all kinds of things at school. I learned how to cook.”

His deep brown eyes took in Harv intently, as if aware he had touched on something. “I like learning. Mira says I can go to school next year, but not big kid school. Little kid school.”

“Do you cook, Shedda?” Koro asked.

~Koro

Harv

“Only very simple things, Koro, and not very well at all. I think Harv would die of shame if I ever attempted to cook within five light years of him,” Shedda chuckled. Meals when she grew up, were very very simple and not a lot. She and her father didn’t require much in the way of food, and gave all their extra to the other families.

Shedda

Koro grinned. “But what about kitchen magic? Is that the same?”

He focused on cutting the vegetables, replicating what Harv had demonstrated with fairly high accuracy.

~Koro

“I would never claim to be able to do kitchen magic, thought I have seen it work many times.”

Shedda

“Magic and cooking go hand in hand. It’s how we cook that makes the magic.” Jarv said while nodding in approval of Koro’s cutting. “Good job.” He said when the young boy finished. “Now we cut the protein, which for your grandmother is fish. And it’s important how we cut it so it cooks properly in the skillet and in the pot.” The next ten minutes was a crash course in basic cooking… taught in a fun and accessible (to Koro) way.

The preschooler was having a great time and listened intently to each one of Harvs’s instructions.

When Harv and Koro finished getting everything ready he looked at Koro and said “Alright. Now we start working with fire. Are you ready?”

Chef Harv

“Yes!” Koro said, bouncing on his toes. “How long will the soup take to cook?”

~Koro

“Once we get it all put in the pot, it takes the magic a little while to come together. About two or three hours. We just let it sit and do what it needs to do. But while that magic begins, we will do other magic, too. I’ll show you how to make bread, and that’s great fun because we get to get messy.” and he grinned at Koro.

Harv

“I like bread,” Koro said, his eyes alit.

As the stove was started, Koro paid close attention, tilting his head down to watch the flames rise up from the burner to lick the bottom of the pot.

He took the long wooden spoon sitting on the counter held it upright proudly. Despite the reason they were making the soup, Koro seemed to be enjoying himself. He got to make magic soup for Mirane and he was going to give her a cozy blanket to keep her warm. “Mama likes sweet stuff, even though she says we should only it it in mod-” He frowned for a brief moment. “Moderation?”

“Moderation is exactly the right word.” Harv said with a smile at the boy.

“Could I maybe make a sweet thing on another day?”

~Koro

Harv nodded. “Absolutely. You can come cook almost anytime you want, okay?” Harv said. He then took a knee in front of the boy and said “And if you ever need a place to be alone with just your thoughts, you come here. A kitchen is a wonderous place, Koro. More than magical.”

Harv

He studied Harv with his deep brown eyes and gave a solemn nod.

Under Harv’s careful tutelage, Koro learned to sauté the vegetables. “What else do we put in the soup, Harv? How does it end up tasting like soup?”

~Koro

Harv smiled. “A fine question, my young friend. First we do something called ‘searing’. We put the veggies and fish into the skillet and cook it just enough to get the flavors started. Then we put all that in the pot. But it’s still not soup yet, right? So then we add what is called ‘the base’. That is what makes soup, soup. FOr today, we are going to use vegetable stock. Stock is what you make when you put veggies in water and cook them slowly for a loooong time. Then you strain out the bits, add some seasoning, and what is left is stock. So. Let’s get these veggies and the fish seared, then into the pot it goes.”

Harv