(Morcster Chef) Mushrooms? - Ch. 100 (Patreon)

It didn’t take long for the oil to start bubbling as water escaped the Mushrooms. Malissa glanced at Arek, but the orc just gestured for her to continue stirring. After several more minutes, the liquid in the wok started to run dry and the mushrooms hissed and popped aggressively.

“They’re frying now,” Arek said. “Now we’re just waiting for them to start to crisp up and caramelize. That shouldn’t take long.”

“They’re actually starting to smell decent as well,” Malissa admitted a short while later. “Almost sweet, actually.”

“That would be the beginnings of the caramelization,” Arek said, sniffing the air above the wok. “We’re almost ready to add the last few ingredients.”

Arek grabbed several cloves of garlic and chopped the hard ends off. He smashed each one with the flat edge of his knife, then roughly minced them. He pushed the garlic off into the corner and broke several sprigs off a sparse green herb with short leaves.

“Garlic and thyme. They work very well for basting just about anything. There’s a very good steak recipe that does the same thing as what we’re about to,” Arek said. He gestured to the white bag at Malissa’s hip. “Could you get the butter? I’ll take over the mushrooms.”

Malissa relinquished her station to grab the aforementioned food as Arek grabbed the spoon and rustled the mushrooms aggressively. The sweet smell had intensified in the short time they’d been talking, and the mushrooms were turning a beautiful golden brown shade.

She pulled the jar full of butter out of her bag and handed it to Arek. The orc twisted the top off and scooped several large spoons into the wok. He tossed the garlic and thyme in after it, then resumed mixing the food to ensure everything was evenly coated.

Malissa swallowed. Her earlier complaints seemed foolish now. The smell of the ingredients within the wok had drawn the attention of several other chefs in the kitchen, and Voulier was one of them. The man was so distracted that he forgot to reprimand his other workers for slacking off.

The moment the butter had completely melted within the pan, Arek gave the food several more tosses to ensure everything was evenly coated. Then he poured it out into one of his wooden bowls and set it to the side with a satisfied grin.

“That’s it. Simple but rich and satisfying. Here, try a piece,” Arek said, grabbing a crispy mushroom and offering it to Malissa.

The tall woman accepted the offering and popped it into her mouth. Her eyes widened in shock. It didn’t seem possible, but the simple dish tasted significantly better than it smelled. The mushroom had absorbed the flavors of the garlic and butter flawlessly. It was surprisingly sweet, but not so much as to take away from its savory aspects. The edges of the mushroom had caramelized, adding a crunch to break up the meaty texture of the mushroom.

Malissa savored it for as long as possible, but the morsel of food practically melted away in her mouth. She finally swallowed, but found herself at a loss for words. She just settled for a slow shake of her head.

“Wow. Now I really look like an idiot,” Malissa said, licking her lips. “That might have been the tastiest vegetable I’ve ever had. If I ate that for the rest of the month, I still don’t think I’d get tired of it.”

“Well, you did most of the work and the recipe isn’t very difficult,” Arek said, putting the wok under the sink faucet and turning on the water to clean it. “You’re welcome to do just that. Just wait until we finish the third course.”

Malissa blinked, thinking back over the last few minutes. Arek was right – she’d done nearly everything, not that the recipe had all that much to actually do. A small smile stretched at the corners of her mouth and she gave Arek a nod.

“Right. The last course is probably desert then, right?”

“Correct,” Arek said. He grabbed an apple from the pile at the wall and tossed it to her. “I’m keeping today pretty simple, but I think we’ve worked out that simple doesn’t mean anything when it comes to taste. The next thing we’ll be working on is an apple crumble.”

“Crumble?” Malissa asked, searching her memory for the term but coming up blank. “Is that like an apple pie?”

“It’s close. It’s basically an apple pie with a crunchier crust and, well, not a pie. It’s a layer of apples with a layer of crust on top. Crumbles are generally faster to make than a pie, but I find that they’re different enough to be different dishes.”

Arek grabbed an apple for himself before claiming a thin knife from the wall and gesturing for Malissa to do the same.

“Now comes the first, and probably hardest, step. We’re going to be peeling these apples. If I was just cooking for myself and I was in a hurry, I might consider leaving the skin on the apple. It has a lot of nutrition. However, the texture will not blend well with the rest of the dish, so it must go. Have you ever peeled an apple?”

“Not really,” Malissa said. She shrugged. “I tend to eat them with the skin. It seems like to much effort to take it off.”

“Watch closely, then,” Arek said. He placed his knife against the apple at an angle, positioning his thumb on the apple a short distance in front of the blade. “You’re pulling the knife along the apple. Brace your thumb against the apple, but make sure you move your thumb before the blade gets too close.”

Arek demonstrated the motion, digging the sharp blade into the skin and then squeezing his hand, slowly and steadily pulling the knife towards his thumb. Once it was about half an inch away, Arek reset the position of the knife and his thumb.

The motion cleanly peeled a thin layer of the skin away from the apple. Malissa did her best to copy Arek’s technique. Her skill the knife lent itself well to the task and she successfully imitated the motion, although she took a bit more of the apple’s flesh away than the orc had.

“Good job,” Arek said, starting to peel his apple once again. “Just keep doing that. We only have half a dozen apples left to do.”