[sb118-valkyrie] JP: Lieutenant Is'Kah Xiron and Lieutenant JG Ghee'looth Xiron - Festival of Light - Part 2
Colgin
((Nor’shalgah Neighborhood, Harbortown, Equatorial Provence, Andoria))
Is’Kah: Then we better get to cooking. Shall I start the Pa’ka stew?
Mir’looth: Of course.
The elder Andorian led Is’Kah to a preparation area, where the hybrid quickly settled in. Mir’looth took the spot next to Is’Kah, a clay bowl sat at the edge of a cutting board. It was filled to heaping with a yellow stalk like fibrous vegetable
Mir’looth: Please, chop these.::She gestured to the clay bowl.
Behind the clay bowl was a two-liter stainless steel tray with a heavy wool cloth covering it. Mir’looth’s antennae darted back and forth before becoming ridged, in the Andorian poker face. She pulled back the cloth to reveal a bunch of Terran carrots. Taking a cleaver shaped blade that was hanging from a magnetic strip on the wall she started to chop the carrots.
Mir’looth: My secret ingredient in the Pa’Ka stew. Some traditionalists turn their antennae to mixing ingredients from different worlds. ::Look at Is’Kah with motherly eyes:: But what is the point in going out into the galaxy, if not to find its treasures?
Is’Kah: Each culture adds something amazing to each other.
Once the two were done chopping, Mir’looth led Is’Kah across the kitchen to a large iron cauldron. The 50 liter cooking vessel was made of thick black iron and hung over a gray wood fed flame.
Mir’looth wrapped her hand in an insulated cloth and lifted the heavy iron lid and a cloud of steam wafted from the cauldron. She perched the lip on a hook on the bulged side of the cauldron and gestured for Is’Kah to add the chopped vegetables to the boiling stew inside. Once in she handed Is’Kah a wooden spoon large enough for a petite hybrid to use as an oar.
Mir’looth: Stir it so it does not burn on the sides. The oils will hide the carrots.
Is’Kah: I feel like I should start singing row, row your boat with this.
Ghee’s mother moved over to a nearby tray of pie pans with a thick dough lining. Taking a large bin of shredded mozzarella, she began to sprinkle it into the pie shells.
Mir’looth: Harbortown Deep Dish.
While Mir’looth started to add slices of onion, mushrooms, and several Andorian vegetables an older Andorian zhen came up to the cauldron with a cutting board heaped with wedges of a yellow-white starchy root. The elderly woman looked into the pot with suspicion, but the cooking oil had discolored the carrots enough that they resembled the tuber root that was already in the cauldron.
Older Andorian Zhen: Pizza at a Light Festival?::Wagging her antennae:: We might as well have replicated food.
Mir’looth: That is enough, Eid. We have family from the subterranean provinces and several non-Andorians. There is no harm in offering a variety.
Eid, the elder zhen, again wagged her antennae and went back to her cooking.
Another zhen, this time more middle-aged, silently took a bin of sliced green bell peppers from the Mir’looth pizza prep table. She took the bin to the cauldron and, with her antennae bouncing in jest, dumped the remainder of the Earth peppers into the Andorian stew.
Zei’lin: Let Eid have her own bland cabbage soup.::Her left antennae flexed downward in the Andorian version of a wink.
Mir’looth::At her sister in law’s defiance.::You are going to give Is’Kah the idea that it is all drama in the kitchen.
Zei’lin::to Is’Kah::Hi, I am Zei’lin, Ghee’looth’s aunt. Excuse the mad house when you get this many extended clanmates in one spot, people get territorial.
Is’Kah:
Zei’lin: Mir’looth has the right idea, putting you at the cauldron. You know in Graalen ‘to stir the culdron’ means to be in on all the secrets.::Her antennae darted to the left as she maintained eye contact.:: If you excuse me, someone is about to burn my roast.
After Zei’lin left, Mir’looth placed a gentle blue hand on Is’Kah’s shoulder.
Mir’looth: It must be like walking in on the twentieth season of a serial holodrama for you.
Is’Kah: It is, but I cheat and get the spoilers.
Mir’looth placed some pickled sea cucumbers and fermented cabbage in the last three pies, then covered each pie with a thick layer of Terran tomato sauce. Taking the tray by a handle on the end, she lifted it off the prep table and slowly moved toward the large brick oven near the cauldron.
Mir’looth: Be a dear and open the oven door for me.
Is’Kah: Yes, ma’am.
Heat like that from an old-style furnace blasted from the open oven. Mir’looth carefully slid the tray of pies into the brick oven.
Mir’looth: Computer, Start a 16-minute timer.
Computer voice: Timer started.
Mir’looth: Lets see if we can save my nephew from Zei’lin.
Is’Kah: What do you mean?
Mir’looth: Zei’lin is pleasant now, but you should have seen her three years ago when she hosted the feast. There was a huge fight over how to boil harbor crabs properly.
Is’Kah: She isn’t that bad.
Zei’lin stood over a traditional electric oven with a twenty-kilogram mammal sitting in a pan. Ghee’s aunt was probing the meat with a thermometer as a young chaan poured a broth over it.
Zei’lin:: looking at Mir’looth:: Can you believe it, he set the temperature thinking the oven dial was in Federation basic units and not the traditional Andorian heat scale.
The young chaan looked utterly dejected.
Mir’looth: It is ok, most people are used to computer-assisted ovens. This one is over a century old. We can slice the meat and add more broth. Then wrap it in a cooking foil. That should allow it to remoisturize
Computer: Timer, bread oven.
Mir’looth: Is’Kah, can you help? I have to check on the rolls? The draw under the meat slicer should have a roll of cooking foil; if not, the replicator is by the pantry.
Is’Kah: It would be my pleasure.
Turning to the Chaan, Is’Kah smiled at him.
Is’Kah: Will you please grab the foil for me? I have an idea.
Ta’bor: I am called Ta’bor, ::Beat:: Ghee’looth, and I are cousins.::Another beat:: Sure thing, I think it is in this drawer.
The school-aged Chaan began to dig around in the draw until he found a roll of transparent food-grade aluminum foil.
With a gentle touch, she reached into the oven, carefully pulling out the sizzling meat pan and placing it on the counter. She then took her time positioning the juicy meat on a cutting board, scoring the sides with precision and care.
Is’Kah: Can you bring me three cups of broth from the Pa’Ka stew?
Ta’bor: On it.
Ta’bor moved quickly back to the cauldron and ladled out the boiling broth into a large mixing cup. He returned the cup to their spotted Vulcan guest.
Once Is'Kah placed the meat back in the pan, she cheerfully wrapped the foil around it to act as a tent, helping keep everything moist. With a friendly nod to the Chaan, she gestured towards the dish, inviting everyone to enjoy it.
Is’Kah: Gently pour the liquid over the meat, allowing it to simmer for about thirty minutes. This will help the dish become wonderfully juicy and develop a delightful flavor twist.
Ta’bor: Thank you. You really saved the roast.
Taking the pan, Is’Kah slid it back into the oven.
Mir’looth returned with two stainless steel trays of golden oblong rolls. The tops had split in the baking, and a bright orange jelly had bled through. She set them on the table next to Is’Kah.
Mir’looth: Gy’lac fruit rolls. One of Ghee’s favorites.
She reached over Is’Kah for the shelf above the oven, grabbed a pair of wicker baskets, and began placing the rolls into the baskets with a pair of tongs.
Mir’looth: There are some wool clothes in that drawer. Wrap the baskets to trap the heat and set them on top of the stove.
After wrapping the baskets, Is’Kah went to a free area to start preparing her dish. It didn’t take long before some dough was in the chiller, along with slices of the local red meat, marinating. The texture reminded her of Terran pork.
Taking a large portion of the already mashed tuber root, Is’Kah brought it to her workstation and started mixing in more spices, something to make the dish pop. She was careful not to add too much capsaicin to the fluffy mixture, thinking that Andorians wouldn’t appreciate Vulcan or Bajoran-level spices.
After cooking the meat, Is’Kah rolled out the dough and started making dumplings, dropping them into a basket above a pot of boiling water as she completed one. As the filling was already pre-cooked, the steam bath was used to cook the shell. Once they were finished, she fried a quarter of them.
Several of the dishes were coming to completion. The contents of baking pans, mixing bowls, and warming pots were transferred to vibrantly colored serving trays, pitchers, and bowls. The dinnerware, unlike that common in human homes and Starfleet mess decks, did not match; each piece was a unique design made of a radiate-glazed ceramic material. One tray that was being loaded with dozens of kabobs was an abstract of blurred colors and shapes, while one older Andorian shen spooned a mashed tuber root dish into a bowl with an irregular, wavy side, giving it the look of an open clam shell.
A tray with an ornate scene of several Andoria caravanners leading pack Zabathus through a glacial pass was set down on top of the oven with the roast.
Mir’looth: Is’Kah, help me dress this roast. Pull it from the oven.
Ghee’s mother, using a large bifurcated fork, lifted the roast out of the pan and onto the ornate serving tray.
Mir’looth: This one is one of my favorites. It was from Adaiza’s clan. I think commissioned for her great-great-grandparents' unification. All pieces are like that, each with its own origin, but ending up here in this kitchen on this day, we will all share. Motioning to the table at a bowl of blue mushrooms.::Be a dear and slice them, then bed them around the meat.::sniff:: You really saved it.
Ghee’garie and a few others came in with a couple of anti-gravity carts. The carts hovered a meter off the floor, similar to the larger pallet jacks common to every cargo hold and warehouse in the Federation. They gingerly collected the ceramic dishes, placing them on the safety of the cart and its mild stasis field that would prevent the antique dinnerware from falling.
Ghee’garie: I hope they did not work you too hard. Looth’y was looking for you.
Mir’looth: You can go on, dear, we got this covered.
The hybrid bowed her head to Mir’looth.
Is’Kah: Thank you for teaching me more dishes to cook for Ghee’looth.
Smiling, she went in search of her bonded.
Chief of Tactical and Security
USS Valkyrie, NCC-16418-A
R240101I14
Pronouns:
She/Her (Player and Character)
Zha/Zhen (Character)
and
Lieutenant JG Ghee’looth Xiron
Acting Chief Engineer
USS Valkyrie-A
D240010GX2