Solo [The Tidepool Bar]Of Life and Blades VI

[Moritz Craven]

48 Winter 521

Kebabs. One word was what Moritz met Stu with as he headed into the back of the bar. A bit confused he stared back at Moritz way to eager face, waiting for the Kelvic to clarify. After a chime of silence Moritz finally realized that was what he was doing, which coincided with Stu finally being a bit more awake. When he did speak he begun by restating the same word again.

"Kebabs! I want to make a kebab for a meal for people! Its really simple, but it looks cool, and I think people will like them. Its just meat or things, fruit, vegetables, cooked and on a skewer."

Rolling his eyes and reaching under a table Stu mixed two things before taking a long drink of something which Moritz assumed involved alcohol. Perhaps he was a bit too chipper so early in the morning for the man... "And how do you make it? Clearly you have eaten them, liked them, but how are they made? What all do you need? How long does it take to cook?"

At the series of, admittedly, valid questions Moritz had to pause. He had never actually seen them made. He knew they did not take long as when he ordered them they came out quite quick, so it could not be too overly complicated...

"Ah, well... I have not made them before. But I am fairly certain they are made quite quickly. Its just hunks of meat, vegetables, fruit, the like, skewered and cooked that way... Although I'm not entirely certain how or on what."

A smile on his face Stu motioned for Moritz to come over before giving the Kelvic a pat on the shoulder. "Well lucky for you I have an idea, basic as it is, of how to make them. Also we have a grill over there, I think we can make them on that. Though its been awhile so you will need to clean it first. Make sure its spotless, and then we can talk."

With a nod Moritz headed over, checking the grill which had not been used by Moritz though he had seen the oven below used before. It was all one big metal thing, the oven below and the heated grill above all functioning as one thing, though it seemed the heat of the flames could be shunted one way or the other or both.

At the moment the oven was hot but the grill relatively cool, at least for it not being in use and this being Syka. With that in mind he began by scrubbing, getting a metal scraper to pull across the top and to find any little bits of things left over if missed on a prior cleaning after use. While it was not entirely dirty it was a bit out of use, and so he did find some bits of things here and there needing cleaning off. But for that he just applied some good old elbow work, and dug in as he pried off stubborn chunks.

After a handful of chimes that was done, and so he took a clean rag and some water and wiped the entire thing down, getting some soap as well and lathering and cleaning it.

Only once he had done that and rinsed it several times with no more soap coming off did he dry it and open the spot that began heating the surface.

WC: 571

[Moritz Craven]

With the grill cleaned and dried Stu began to check on it, but soon sent Moritz off to help with some tables. While the grill was used in the bar Moritz had not, slowly working up to using it but having used simpler implements like open flames and such. But he felt he was ready to try a grill which was a bit more complex...

Racing along as always at a high speed of walking Moritz headed out to the table and took the men's orders. By their looks they were probably passing Svefra, though based on them giving specific orders without being prompted it seemed they had been there before.... It also seemed they did not want any food, ordering only liquids... Namely some of the specific fruity cocktails Stu made.

With a nod he headed to the back and relayed the drinks orders to Stu. While he had been out front the man had checked over the grill and nodded on it passing, pointing at a few items he needed brought out before he could begin on the cooking. With that they were busy for a bit as Moritz hefted some containers, dropped some off at the bar, brought others back. He also went and fetched some of the presliced fruit used on the drinks and brought some out front, heading to the back then to chop up some more to be used later and take its place.

Cleaning his hands again he began with some oranges, simple enough since he was just making wedges and removing the seeds. A slice here, there, and there, then one more to half it.... Then pulling them apart he found the seeds on each side to avoid anyone swallowing them... And done with those tossed them into the fruit bin for those.

Likewise he also cut up some lemons, these he had to be more careful with to avoid the stinging juices, but likewise made wedges with a series of cuts so they could be added to a drink and one final halving.

Once that prep work was done Stu shouted fro Moritz, and coming out with a tray Stu loaded him with a pair of drinks for each of the men to get them started. Clearly Stu knew they would finish the first one way too quickly and so already made their seconds. Balancing the tray up high with one hand at the base and the other at the edge he quickly made his route to the table were the Svefra were sitting. Then just as quick he nodded at the men and unloaded their drinks one by one, placing a pair before each.

He only waited for them to take a sip of each and confirm it was to their liking before he raced back with the tray.

At that point he had a short lull to work on the grill, checking its heat to make sure it was right. However he quickly could tell it was not and so increased the switchover, increasing the heat going to the grill for now so that it would heat up a bit quicker. Though the heat on the metal plate alone was only going to increase so fast as the oven below it heated.

WC: 543

[Moritz Craven]

While he waited for the grill to heat up, having more or less figured out how the cooking implement functioned - he believed- he turned his focus to cutting up and preparing the ingredients.

He wanted a nice mix of things, and so he prepared a decent mix of ingredients along with their needed tools. Some onions and some bowls of water to avoid eye irritation. Pineapple... Peppers... Hmmm... There he paused for a bit, before settling on some kind of orange like fruit that he could not name that in shape reminded him of some others but was not quite the same... Regardless he recalled its taste, not quite sweet but nice when cooked and solid enough, and so he believed it would go well on the skewer. If he mixed these four ingredients in succession on the skewers he felt that would be sufficient for a taste. He might try meat on a later try but for now he was just working out the basics and it was easier to work with just plants for that.

Plus if he under cooked it no one would get poisoned or be in danger like they might be with meat, so another plus to working out the cooking method without using any meat. Another merit was that he could eat it as well, not being big on meat and avoiding it if possible. Since this was a testing try at things he would need to taste things a lot to measure and check on preparedness, and so having plants as something he would like to eat a good bit of also helped.

Seeing he was preparing Stu swung by, looking over him as he got out various cutting boards, knives, pans, and bowls, for use in his work. "That is a good start... Your also going to need oil, here, and I'd add some seasoning into the mix, this should go nicely along with some salt and pepper. "

As he spoke Stu took out a few items, a jug of oil and some containers with the seasoning mixes he often used, placing them alongside the other items. "Once you have the vegetables prepped let me know and I'll show you the next step."

Moritz nodded at that and began the next step, dicing up the vegetables. Of his four he began with the simplest, the pineapple. Onions and peppers could get messy, and he could not still recall that ones name so he'd save it for later...

Before Syka he had never seen the ingredient before, but a lot of Stu's drinks and food included it so he had gotten quite proficient at working it. Cut off the top and base with the leafy stem being careful with the knife. Cut it in half then... And then halve that. Once quartered he slid the blade along the edge, working off the skin with a series of slow sliding motions. Once that was done he just needed to take out any unneeded bits like the core, and sliced the remainder into nice even chunks to be added to the kebabs. He did this by first slicing it along the length making many arcs of pineapple, and then cutting this into equal parts. From there he proceeded on to the next pineapple, and the next piece, until he had worked through the entire whole pineapple.

WC: 561

[Moritz Craven]

With the pineapples done he went over the names of the other items, onions, peppers, pineapple... And... This one... Seeing he was having trouble Stu filled in the missing word, squash, which was the final piece of the ingredients.

Since it seemed to be a longer ingredient the best way to cut it seemed to be long ways, that way a bit of the rind would remain on each piece and it would be more evenly distributed across the kebab as opposed to slicing it other ways.

Cutting off each end and setting them aside Moritz then began to dice up the rest, working the tube of vegetables long ways. This seemed much easier than the pineapple, seeing as it had a rough and bumpy exterior and large tufts of plant. Of course being smaller he needed to cut up more to get the same amount of usable material, so there was a trade off in that.

Next was peppers, requiring more scooping and such than most of the other items so far. It had large empty bits and more mushy bits than say a pineapple. Like with the others he began by cutting off the top and bottoms, careful to remove the stems. With some openings into the insides he scooped out with a spoon the inner parts he did not want, seeds and the like, scrapping the sides to make sure he got it all out. Then he tried cutting it long ways as with the squash, which was a bit trickier due to its larger size. In the end he had to half some pieces to make them more bite sized, but felt he had a decent pile by the end. Before putting this with the other finished ingredients he went over the pieces once more, checking for any missed seeds or things that might annoy an eater.

Lastly was the onions, the things which he had prepared the water bowls for. Placing the whole clove in the water he began cutting, removing the skin on the outer layer first before using his knife. There he did not want to dice it up finely like normal, and so cut it slightly different than how he normally would. Here he tried for chunks, sort of like quartering the pineapple but a bit different. Namely since the final chunk was what he was going for and would not be chopped up further once a good bite sized piece had been worked out. Having cut onions before the process itself was not new, but he was still trying a new method and so it took him a bit longer than normal.

Gazing over his items Moritz cleaned his hands and checked over once more, making sure he had everything he needed. The oil, salt, pepper, and seasoning Stu had said. The prepared ingredients to put on the kebabs... Onions, pepper, squash, and pineapple... And he had the kebabs, which Stu had pulled out a bit earlier.

At that point Stu saw Moritz was done and headed back over, checking over his things before saying anything.

WC: 515

[Moritz Craven]

Once Stu was satisfied that Moritz was fully prepared, and there being a lull without any customers, the bar owner prepared to spend a bit longer helping out Moritz with his dish. Clearly the Kelvic was excited about it, and who was he to nay say that excitement. "Alright, so I want you to prepare your kebabs, skewer the items one by one. Then you need to coat it all with a layer of oil, and add on the seasonings. I'll show you the next step once its ready to go on the grill."

With a nod the Kelvic began his work, sorting the piles of vegetables into a neat system where he could take one piece from each pile in turn. To begin with he would just do two kebabs, though he had the ingredients prepared to do several more.

Onion, pepper, pineapple, squash. Onion, then a piece of pepper, pineapple, then cap it off with a piece of squash. He repeated this pattern over and over, at least twice on each kebab, fitting the pieces on one by one before he soon enough had the two kebabs filled nicely.

Taking out the oil and a brush for such tasks Moritz then began oiling up the food, trying for nice even strokes across each piece. He kept at this until he felt each piece had been nicely coated, before turning the kebab and working on the next part. After a few turns and more coating he had the first kebab coated, and move on to the next one. Like with the first he slowly worked his way along each piece of the kebab, coating each piece one by one, and then slowly turning to a dry patch and coating it as well. Like this he worked his way through both kebabs until both were well and truly oiled up and ready.

With that done he tried seasoning them, holding them up with one hand and slowly turning them, while lightly dusting them with bits of salt held between his fingers on the other hand. He worked this side to side as he slowly turned them, doing so over a plate so he could catch whatever missed. Then he repeated this with the pepper, working it side to side while slowly turning it... And then lastly with the odd mix of seasonings Stu had, until it seemed seasoned. Stu smiled at his odd method, shaking his head. "I guess as long as it works..."

Prepared and seasoned Moritz set the two kebabs on the now hot grill, and waited... With that he occasionally added some more oil when directed by Stu, but otherwise just checked for doneness and slowly turned the kebabs from side to side to make sure they were cooking evenly. This took the most concentration, since he wanted to make them even to each other, but he knew the inherent parts were not quite the same and so he would need to cook each to there own need. An odd thing to realize, but realize he did.

After about a quarter bell the smell of the cooking vegetables was in the air, and he could see they were about done. With a pat on his shoulder Stu nodded, and Moritz placed the two finished kebabs on a plate. Then by mutual consent both he and Stu picked one up and began to try it, Moritz nodded as he enjoyed his work.

Being critical, he had to admit it was not as good as the ones at the Outpost, but it was still pretty good. Even Stu gave a half satisfied shrug. "I think you'll need to practice a bit more, but not bad for a first try. I'd say... Average. Not bad, nor good. But that just means if you keep at it, you can get better. So keep at it, and once you have them done we can try offering them to someone, alright?"

With a smile and a nod Moritz returned to his work, glad he had managed to work through a dish he was actually excited about, something he thoughts others might like but which required no meat.

WC: 694