20th of Ash, 4622
It has been a long week for the Journeyman Baker; it was a stable job and allowed Jared to further his skills as a Cook. The creeping reputation that garners around his baked goods & on occasion, various meals such as soups & stews was making the thief worry about his prospects as he didn’t like the idea of gaining a reputation of any kind in general.
Jared would prefer to keep to himself, and the fact that he eyed a few customers who were inspecting his wares at the bakery he was currently working at only made his weary nature go into overdrive to the point that he couldn’t think much about his work during his shift.
“Uhhhh…. What is with all these people…. It is only bread and simple baked treats…. I don’t understand what the fuss is all about it. Hell, I even had to scurry away and let the owner handle some customers who were determined to meet with me for some reason….”
Pulling out the stool and resting his buttocks against it, The alistian thief couldn’t help but scratch his head in a manic way as he tried to figure out how to approach it. Of course, he could simply leave, but that would make it a bit hard if he lived around Genteven for an extended period and the mere fact that if he were to get caught while doing his usual thievery could spell some issues.
“Sigh… No use in going into the details for now; I need to make something up as that should help clear the mind for a bit & I probably need to make extra portions since Alistair does have a habit of eating more than I would expect but can’t blame him; his work is more demanding than mine.”
Taking a few more minutes to rest his body on the stool, Jared takes a moment to sift through all the available materials he could work with & what style of cooking he could conduct. He was no stranger to experimenting with an assortment of foods, and if an experiment went terrible; the vagabond chef often had a few tricks to salvage what he could as he didn’t waste food as the habit of horde food when he could still is present to this very day as starving was a terrible sensation to go through.
“Hmmm… A roast wouldn’t be too bad since I have some Pane Tuscano from the bakery; That is also a perk since I don’t need to slave over making bread since I am already doing that at the bakery….”
Jared couldn’t help but laugh to himself as the amber-eyed cook confirmed that he was essentially a slave to his work in a weird sense, but at the very least, he had the freedom to stuff that he enjoyed compared to those in actual slavery.
Still, making a meal often helped Jared ease his heart & soul, which are often filled with insecurities & passion and sometimes it makes the thief ponder as to how some people could be more confident in themselves but as he recalls. Never judge a book by its covers; everyone is damaged in their little ways, and nobody shouldn’t compare life experiences until you properly walk a mile in their shoes from what his friends back at home would say.
“Come on, Jared! You need to cook something, or else you aren’t eating anything tonight!”
Hopping out of his stool, Jared rolls up his sleeves as he attempts to distract himself as best as possible, as much as he needs someone to console his woes.
He was taking a moment to bring out some of the salted meats that he kept in the cooled storage, which took the form of a ground storage unit that allowed fresh goods & preserved items to last a little bit longer compared to allowing them to rest on the counter surface.
It doesn’t take much to prepare a roast; the main thing that needs to be done is to rub various herbs & spices onto the surface of the meat while a thin layer of oil is coated onto the meat to maintain the tenderness & juicy quality of the flesh. In this case, Jared had a few dried herbs such as rosemary, sage, pepper & garlic from his previous trip to gather groceries which was pretty expensive but well worth the cost if it meant that he could enjoy a good meal.
Once the amber-eyed cook prepared the roast, it was merely a matter of chopping large cubes & wedges of starch-filled vegetables and root items that paired well with roasted meat, such as carrots, onions, pumpkin & potatoes, to name a few things that could work with a roast.
“Hmmm… Some mashed potatoes would go well & some gravy or another kind of sauce would go well… Oh, fresh cranberry sauce would pair well too.”
While the roast was cooking, Jared took it upon himself to rummage through what available sauces he had prepared during Searing & early parts of Ash for his Frost preparations and if there were any condiments he could use to make the meal a little bit more succulent.
“Let's see. We could make an aioli since we have oil & garlic to work with; plus, on the positive side of things, I can add other items to make the flavour more complex. Another idea that could work is making some gravy, but what kind… Mushrooms, typically brown or onion gravy, would be nice….”
Taking a moment to ponder about which sauce he could use since the majority of spices that Jared knew how to make were from the five mother sauces. The one that would work best for a roast would be an Espagnole Sauce, which is essentially a brown stock sauce that is thickened by a brown roux (mainly comprised of equal parts of flour & fat by weight and the intensity of flavour & colour affected by how long the roux is cooked for).
Bring a small saucepan over to the roiling hearth, and the Journeyman cook begins his process of making his brown roux. Still, the first thing that needs to be done is to slice some brown mushrooms—chopping the main mushrooms in half before converting the halved mushrooms into thin slices and setting them off to the side for later use when the cooking process of the roux reaches a desirable colour.
Speaking of the roux, it was time to make the thickening agent for the mushroom gravy; Add an equal amount of flour & butter into the saucepan. Jared takes a moment as he moves the melting butter & flour around, making sure to prevent the flour from burning as the mixture begins; he could afford a few minutes to spare as he needed to prepare the beef & chicken stock, which essentially amounts to adding the powdered stock into some water setting it to the side with the mushrooms.
“Alright, it seems like everything is coming together now. About to enter into a slightly tricky bump but a few hiccups in the food, but Alistair would overlook a few mistakes… He isn’t a cook from what I remember, so eh….”
It was true that since Jared crashed at Alistair’s home, he had been doing a lot of the domestic housework, but that didn’t bother the thief as much. But it would be nice if he could help out here and there, but what could Jared do; he was a guest in his home, after all, & he did have some good housekeeping habits.
It was time to finish making the mushroom gravy with things moving fast. As the roux reached a desirable sable brown hue to which Jared quickly tossed the sliced mushrooms and allowed them to sweat out what moisture the fungus’ flesh had stored in its body before adding the beef & chicken stock. Allowing the stock to reach a simmer, it only takes minutes for the stock to thicken as the roux releases the starches in the flour to make the gravy.
Once the sauce was done, it was time to take the roast out; Honey would be excellent since it tended to tenderise meat for some reason that Jared couldn’t explain himself, but it was also similar to other kinds of food items such as pineapples & papayas, but that was something Jared could further explore at a later date.
It was a blur to the apprentice thief as he was running around in the kitchen, getting all the food ready, from making sizable portions of roast beef, mashed potatoes & some mushroom gravy and a decent bottle of wine that he acquired through semi-legitimate means.
“Alright, dinner is made at the very least… You don’t need to worry for tomorrow unless we go through it like savage animals now.”
Jared couldn’t help but laugh underneath his face cloth as he took his seat at the dining table & digs into the meal he had worked hard on. After all, running on an empty stomach is a sure way to cause problems later down the line.
