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 Civilian Char’les Harv (Officer’s Mess Chef) in A Day With Koro
Posted by… suppressed (10) by the Post Ghost! 👻

(snip)

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

Shedda watched, her eyes gently alight as she watched the taciturn argumentative chef with the small boy. She could actually see the man who had committed murder to protect someone he cared about, that was like family. A man that was willing to risk it all for that person. Then it occurred to her, that Koro may very well ask her to try some of the soup too, and she’d have to eat and like it. The things you did to encourage children.

Shedda

With help, Koro placed the fish in the pan where they were searing things. His eyes lit up as it sizzled and he studied the changes in the fish as it went. “It’s changing colour!” He all but bounced on his toes and looked at Shedda.

~Koro

Shedda grinned, “That’s because fish, or white meat is made up of muscles with fibers that are called fast-twitch. These muscles get energy from glycogen, a type of sugar. When you heat up meat it creates a reaction with the glycogen and the proteins. When you cook the fish, the proteins denature, or break apart, and recombine and that makes the meat change color.”

Shedda

Koro took in all the new words with eagerness, his mind repeating them though he really had no idea what they were. At three and a half, some of this was pushing his understanding, but as ever he was a fast learner. “Wow…” he whispered.

Harv looked at Shedda and said “You are correct. But… how do you tell when a meat or protein has been cooked to the desired temperature?” he asked her and then looked at Koro and winked. “Let’s see how good she really is.”

Harv

They had already established Shedda was not a culinary expert nor was she particularly adventurous in her food. Fish certainly being one of things she disliked. Her eyes danced with undisguised humor though. She looked at Koro with a grin and then back at Harv. “A meat thermometer.”

Shedda

“Is that right, Harv?” Koro asked, flicking his gaze between the two adults. It was notable that he had slipped back into Federation Standard again.

~Koro

Harv chuckled at Shedda and said “You can use a thermometer… but all that does is tell you how hot something is. And every piece of meat cooks a little different. So you check it by texture. Texture is what something feels like. So yes, when we cook, we touch the food. That is why we keep the kitchen and ourselves clean all the time.” Now, when you check meat, you put your finger on it and push very gently to see how firm it is. And once you get the hang of it, you will always cook your meats perfectly. Now watch, like this.” Harv put his finger directly on the fish and checked it’s firmness. “Still a little spongy, so it needs to cook a bit. Now, give me your finger.” He took Koro’s hand and then his index finger and touched it quickly to the fish. “See how your finger wanted to go into it? That means the inside isn’t cooked through. But in another minute or so, it will be.”

Harv

Shedda shrugged and actually grinned at Harv. She never claimed to know what she was doing.

Koro giggled at the squishy texture but he did listen carefully to Harv. “It doesn’t take very long,” he observed, knowing they had really only put the pieces in the pan a short while ago. Or what felt like a short time, in any case.

“What happens if you cook it too long?”

~Koro

“You try again. Kitchen magic, like anything worth doing, takes practice. Sometimes you might not get it just right, but you keep working on it,” Shedda told him. Not that she thought this particular day was going to get messed up. Harv would not let any food that wasn’t perfect out of his kitchen. Unless he was tormenting her.

Cmdr. Shedda Mal’athar, Executive Officer

“Exactly. You cook it again until you get it right.” Harv said. “And soon you learn to trust your other senses. Smell… sight… hearing… all of these come into play, Koro. A good chef can tell you when a roast is done to the desired temp just by the smell coming out of the oven. Or when bread is done just by the color of it.’

Harv, Chef

“Wow!” Koro said, his eyes wide. He reached out cautiously and touched the fish again and it was much less squishy. “I think it’s done?” he said to Harv.

~Koro

Harv touched it and said “Good, Koro. Well done. It’s not quite finished, but you always want to pull it off the heat a little early. Thing will continue to cook a little while they cool.” He took a spatula and, with Koro’s help, lifted the fish out and set it on a cutting board. He then pointed to the pan. “See all that stuff on the bottom of the pan? That’s a whole lot of flavor. So how do we get all that flavor out without using water, do you think?”

Harv, Chef

The preschooler screwed up his face as he lifted his gaze towards the ceiling, briefly lost in thought. Finally, he looked back at Harv. “We scrape it off?” he said,

~Koro