entrancelogs | Closed

Kanji shows up prepared, having thrown his jacket into one of the booths and put an apron on over his clothes. While he's not entirely a beginner at cooking, his skills are mostly limited to simple things-- he's nowhere near Souji's level, but he knows it would help out a lot if he was able to make something more than sandwiches and various simmered dishes in the kitchen.

"Hey, Senpai!" He grins broadly, clearly looking forward to whatever Souji has planned. "Ready to make a chef outta me?"

Souji had shown Minato where the diner was, and Minato couldn't very well turn down the invitation to work there either. It'd be a good way to spend time with friends and also have something to do too in the meantime. May as well learn how to do something useful too.

In similar fashion to Kanji, Minato took off his blazer and borrowed an apron for this cooking lesson (the mp3 player and headphones were staying though), and thought about... well, he hoped he was better than his High Priestess Link at cooking, and then, well, about his own senpai that was great at cooking.

Nostalgia aside, Minato was ready as ever too, standing near Kanji. His kouhai were really tall, just saying.

"... Please make me a better cook than the girls at home."

If he could boil water, then yeah, step ahead, really. They were all well-meaning, but he'd prefer not have the kitchen burned down or have to eat mysterious stuff that came out of it.

It sounds like all of them have problems with girls who can't cook. Souji wonders if there's some kind of epidemic.

He gives them both a small smile and pulls an apron on as well as he starts to talk. "We're going to make croquettes with meat and potatoes. I have a list of the ingredients here."

He pulls it across the counter, which is clean (for now), and shows it to them. There are...a lot more things on it than one might expect for such a meal. Quietly, he reads the ingredients off:

2 lb. (about 4) russet potatoes, peeled and halved
1 large onion, finely diced
½ carrots, finely diced (optional)
2 Shiitake mushrooms (optional)
2 Tbsp. oil
1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. white pepper
Freshly ground black pepper
3 eggs for the breading
2 cup Panko
½ cup all purpose flour
Oil for deep frying
Tonkatsu Sauce

"Do you know where all of these are?" Some of them, like the vegetables and meat, are obvious, but the rest might not be. So it's time for a scavenger hunt.

Kanji's mouth quirks to one side as he looks the list over, arching an eyebrow as he reads through each item. Seems like a lot more than he'd expect to be in something as small as a croquette.

"That's a lot of stuff," he comments, but he follows up with a nod. "Uh, I think I know where most of it is-- I use some of it for easier stuff. We've got Panko?"

Technically, considering where they are, he figures they could probably have just about anything they wanted, thanks to the closets.

"What's the difference between the oils here?"

Kanji has the advantage since he knew where most of the ingredients should be located. Minato would just have to guess base on common sense, if that was reliable at all. Maybe.

Wouldn't they need actual utensils for all of this too? Peeling and halving and dicing mean a cutting board, a knife, a peeler, things like that. Then there's the matter of a pan and some long chopsticks or whatever spatula-type thing to aid in the cooking.

Minato's listening though since he wants to know what is up with the two different oils too, but he's now shuffling off to find a cutting board. Knives were most likely in a drawer. He could get those afterward.

"We've got all of it."

He watches Minato shuffle off, then turns back to Kanji. He doesn't have to worry about Minato paying attention; unless he falls asleep, he'll be paying attention, regardless of what else he's doing.

"It's the same kind of oil. You use the smaller amount to sautee the onions. The larger amount is to deep fry the croquettes."

While Kanji starts to get some of the ingredients and Minato gets the utensils, Souji finds a large pot and half-fills it with water.

"The first thing will be to peel and cut the potatoes into large pieces, then cook them. While they cook, we'll chop the other vegetables."

Kanji nods his understanding, filing that tidbit of information away for later as he goes about collecting the ingredients on the list. Some of them he finds easily: the commonplace stuff he uses to make lunches for himself or friends who come into the diner, but most of what he can make well is pretty basic. It takes him a little longer to track down panko and oil, but soon everything has been collected and laid out on the counter.

"How big are the pieces s'posed to be?" he asks, pressing his lips together as he grabs a potato and starts peeling it. At least he's used to working with his hands, which means he'll be good to concentrate and take care not to have any accidents with any of the utensils.

There are the knives. Minato places one by the two cutting boards he found (one for himself and then Kanji, just in case) after ending up at the wrong cabinet--just plastic containers in that one--and then another wrong cabinet--no, there were cups and the like in there--and then goes to retrieve the carrots and onion from where Kanji found the potatoes. That's not cheating, that's just learning by observation.

Since they weren't going to be cooking the vegetables straight as is, Minato gets himself to washing the carrots that will need to be apparently "finely diced." How technical. They're even optional. But may as well go all out. He sets those on his cutting board after shaking off of some of that excess water, and slowly cuts off the top stems to prep them for official slicing--these things don't have to be peeled if they're going to be finely diced?--and then figures he may as well just try slicing one and ends up with rings. This counts, right? He could slice those rings up later into diced pieces. That totally counts.

And okay, right about now he's slicing and then eating some at the same time. Have to taste it first before it goes in, just saying.

"You can cut them in quarters. Then put them in the water." Big chunks were fine - they'd mash them some after they cooked. He puts the pot of water on the stove and turns up the heat to get the water warmed up before they put the potatoes in.

After eyeing Minato for a moment, Souji quietly pulls the cutting board of carrots across the counter toward himself and nudges the onion toward him instead. Minato's less likely to taste test those - though Souji wouldn't put it past him.

For his part, he finishes dicing the carrot and gets started dicing the mushrooms as well.

Kanji's face takes on a look of intense concentration, following directions to the letter-- he's eaten enough of Souji's lunches to know that his senpai knows exactly what he's talking about in this department. He cuts the first potato he'd peeled into quarters, carefully dropping them into the water before moving on to the next one.

"Alright. This part's easy enough, at least," he remarks, slicing into the second potato.

Minato was just testing it out for their benefit. But if Souji wanted to cut and dice the carrots, then Minato would cut that onion up and finely dice it. The onion wasn't even optional.

He has to get another cutting board for this along with another knife. And then he has to figure out how to go about this. First things first is to cut off the top and the bottom so he could have a flat base for cutting. He peels it first though since no one was going to be eating that part.

Then, after a sneaking glance at Souji, he began to dice the onion.

He sniffles and is now outright crying over doing this, his eyes stinging and tears streaming down his face. This is your fault, kouhai. All your fault. Senpai's not going to forget this.

Your tears mean nothing to Souji, Minato. This is the price you pay for cooking lessons. He nods in approval to both of them as they work. This part is pretty easy, but he should still let them know they're doing well. So far, they're doing much better than Yukiko and Chie (and though he hasn't met her, much better than Fuuka, as well).

By the time Minato is finished with the onion, Souji has finished the carrot (which was mostly done when he got hold of it), and has also diced the mushrooms. He keeps the onion separate for now, and gets out another, wok-like pan, though he just sets it aside.

"Once the potatoes are soft, you'll drain off the water and mash them." He looks up at Kanji then looks to Minato. "Do you know how to test that they're done?"

"Uh..." Kanji begins, frowning. "What's that saying? 'Stick a fork in 'em?'"

He wasn't entirely sure that applied here, but he follows instructions all the same, sure that Souji would clarify as needed. That, after all, was why there were here.

"Ain't done much with potatoes before," he goes on to explain. "Most of the stuff I've been puttin' in boxed lunches is pretty simple."

Minato manages to find a tissue to dry his eyes after that whole escapade of which he still won't forget and will have to find some way to dice an onion without the waterworks. He tosses said tissue in the trash and washes his hands to get back to preparing the rest of the ingredients.

He sniffles away the last of his tears and nods since he's in agreement with Kanji's assessment. Makes sense. Or he was going to suggest they could just try and eat one, but after taste testing the carrots, he doesn't think Souji-sensei would find that answer useful at all.

Since there's more to be done then, Minato again shuffles off to go get the eggs. Those are easy enough to find and Souji doesn't have to worry about him eating these things raw. He can be helpful when he wants to be.

"Right." He offers Kanji a slight smile of approval. "If you can stick a fork into it easily, they're done. Then drain the water off and put them back on the stove." It would take a little while before that was finished though.

He nods to Minato as he got the eggs and produces three small bowls. One will be for the eggs, one for the panko, and one for the flour.

As an olive branch for making him dice the onion, he offers: "Do you want to saute the onions?"

"Got it."

He knows he has a little time to spare before the potatoes are ready to be prodded at, but he grabs a fork for himself just in case, having it at the ready-- and looking more than a little proud that he'd actually guessed right. That smile of approval from Souji is going a long way to help his confidence as far as this cooking lesson is concerned.

He turns his attention to Minato for a moment, watching with interest.

"Yeah, man. Give that onion hell for makin' you tear up!"

"... I should give Souji hell for it."

But Minato does bring his hand up to his mouth and a very soft, short laugh escapes him. He hardly ever laughs and he couldn't remember the last time he did. But now he finds himself doing it, and he's really happy. Being here with Kanji and Souji reminds him of home and his friends. It's just a warm and comforting feeling, knowing he has two new friends here that he can consider just as precious and close.

He nods over to Souji and he's willing to give that onion what's for and saute the hell out of it. But not burning it, he promises. He'll go ahead and get that going once the pan is hot enough for it.

That laugh is nice to hear and Souji smiles in turn, happy to see his two friends getting along. Even if he weren't there, he's sure they would.

Souji gets the oil for Minato for the sauteing. "Once the onion's soft, add the carrot and mushroom until they're soft, too."

Aaaand back over to Kanji. Being the referee in this game of cooking tennis is a big job!

"There's a potato masher in a drawer over there. Don't mash it too smooth or it won't stick with everything when it's time to make the croquette balls."

Kanji, at least, is doing his part to keep up and follow instructions, paying attention so Souji doesn't have to watch him too closely and run himself ragged. He knows he's not very smart, but figures he shouldn't waste Senpai's time here-- he's prepared to do his best.

"So we want it kinda lumpy?" he asks, raising an eyebrow before pulling the drawer open, looking for the masher in question. "Uh-- what's it look like?"

Minato ends up at the stove then with the pan, sauteing the vegetables that were all nice and diced up. He watches it to make sure it doesn't burn since he didn't want to have to go through cutting up vegetables again. Once that is done, he turns off the fire and sets the pan aside on another untouched burner.

He smiles to himself, and then looks at the eggs. Did those have to be separated? Eggs totally had to be separated. Lots of recipes called for that. He could do that.

Thus after finding the panko and flour, he puts one of the eggs in a bowl. He places that bowl on one end of the counter.

Then of course he puts another egg in another bowl and oh so innocently slides himself and that bowl to the opposite end of the counter. There. Separated! Done and done.

"It's shaped like a-"

Wut.

What are you doing Minato.

Souji stares, for a moment, at this "separation" of the eggs, then looks back at Kanji.

"-like a circle with a lot of diamond-shaped holes in it, on the end of a handle."

He'll deal with you and your antics later, Minato.

Kanji freezes for a moment after Souji's brief explanation, looking towards Minato as his senpai had done just moments earlier.

"What are you...?"

Maybe the explanation he gets will just confuse him further. He frowns, nodding as he goes back towards rummaging through the drawer, closing his fingers around the handle of the potato masher a moment later.

"Alright! Got it!"

Whatever Minato is up to over here, it's antics. But Souji-sensei shouldn't have to deal with too many of those, so Minato has a little bit of mercy and goes off to bring out the ground beef since that's also on the recipe list. He does make sure that it goes into a proper bowl to be seasoned later, and he does wash his hands since he touched raw meat. Have to keep those hands cleans if he's off to get the salt and two kinds of pepper now.

He does leave the eggs where they were though. So.

He retrieves the salt and pepper, and when he puts them on the counter too, he turns his head to sneeze into his elbow. And then sneezes again.

Souji smiles at the both of them, then tests the potatoes. They're soft enough now and he quietly instructing them both on how to drain the water from the potatoes by holding the lid to partially cover the pot so the potatoes don’t fall out. He models this as he explains, just so they don't lose any potatoes in the process. He ought to participate at least somewhat in the cooking, even if this is a lesson and he wants them to learn through experience.

"If you put the pot back on the burner, any leftover water will evaporate. Go ahead and mash them for a while." He nods to Kanji then over to Minato. "You can cook the meat in with the vegetables and season it. I'll set up the batter and the oil."

Minato's already done most of the former, but the eggs need to be reunited and a separate area set up for taking care of all of this.

Kanji remains attentive, not wanting to miss a single detail-- can't let his senpai down, after all. Once he's given instruction, he grabs the masher and gets to work, his usual leaning towards brute strength working incredibly well in his favor.

"Y'know, this is pretty fun," he remarks cheerfully, shooting the other boys a lopsided smile. "I wouldn't mind doin' more stuff like this."

Minato smiles too when he hears Kanji's comment. He is set on cooking the meat now per Souji's instructions too since he's got the vegetables already about finished. It should turn out all right. It might not be as perfect as Souji doing it on his own, but it should still be at least edible.

"I want to too."

It does make Minato think that he should offer to help them too with something. He doesn't have any real marketable skills, but he would do anything and everything he could for them.

Souji smiles and watches the two of them. He's pleased that he's able to teach them something they're enjoying, and to spend time with both of them in general. It's important to him that the two of them get to know each other and get along. Though he wasn't particularly worried about that not happening, he feels himself relaxing since it's so obviously evident now.

Neither job takes too long and he motions for Minato to put the meat and vegetables in with the potatoes.

"We need one more egg to mix in." He looks over at Minato, because apparently he's a pro with eggs.

"Once it's all mixed, and it cools a little, we can start making the croquette balls."

"That part tricky?" Kanji asks with interest, setting the now-mashed potatoes down on the counter. "I bet we can handle it."

Minato again does as he's told when it comes to the meat and vegetables, and for Souji's hint to him about the eggs, he rewards Souji with a slight tilt of his head and a smile like he's all innocent but is obviously guilty as charged. He goes off to get that egg for Souji then.

He wanted to see too how to make the croquette balls. They are so close to getting to cook them, which means they are that much closer to getting to eat them.

Kanji's enthusiasm is contagious and Souji nods. "This part is pretty easy. And kind of fun."

Once the mixture is completed and cooled a bit, Souji reaches into the pot and pulls out a handful of the mixed potatoes, vegetables, and meat.

"You know how big you'd want a croquette to be." He glances at Minato, who could eat a croquette the size of a small dog, and amends: "Or the size you'd buy in a store. So take that much and make it a round disc."

He uses both hands, patting and squeezing the mixture into the right shape. After showing them, he sets it aside on a plate.

Kanji grins again as he catches that amendment; he doesn't know Minato as well as Souji does, but this is helping him to put a few more pieces together. Sounds like restraint is an issue and specific instructions are important.

"Alright," he says with a nod, following Souji's lead and taking a handful for himself. It's a little trickier for him to get it to be the right shape, since he's not used to working with something as malleable as mashed potatoes, but he ends up with a mostly round disc and sets it down beside Souji's on the plate before reaching to make another.

The size of a small pony, thank you very much. Do you hear that sound though? That is the sound of Minato's breaking heart since he thought he could finally eat the world's (or at least, Wonderland's) largest croquette ever, but alas, dreams don't always come true.

But onto other dreams! While Kanji's making awesome croquette discs per Souji's instructions, Minato's inspecting the mixture of their prepared ingredients. If he rolled three round spheres, he could make a snowman. If he made them longer and more cylindrical, they'd look like mozzarella sticks, those impostors. Or if he made them into sort of half-dome shapes, he could end up with ones that looked like gyoza, those impostors again. So many endless possibilities!

But instead, he works on shaping what looks like two oblong discs mashed together at the ends. He beams then as he holds a heart-shaped croquette in his hands because really, the end product heart-shaped croquette would be super cute. He would've made a butterfly-shaped one, but that's too complicated. He's not that impractical, of course he isn't.

Unlike the work up until now, which Souji had let those two do without his assistance, Souji's helping to form the croquette balls. It helps to have a physical model of what you need to do, especially when it comes to the size and shape of--

--Okay, hearts aren't too bad.

He looks over at Kanji. "You can try other shapes, too, once you feel comfortable with it."

Souji? He'll be making a star, thanks. It'll probably fall apart when he tries to fry it, but he'll deal with that when the time comes.

Souji just said the magic words. Kanji's face practically lights up, cheeks flushed as he grabs another handful of filling, rolling it into a ball between his palms before he starts to flatten it and pull parts into other directions, the tip of his tongue sticking out between his lips as he focuses on his work.

A few moments later, he sets it on the plate beside the discs he'd already made, this one in the shape of a rabbit's head.

"Bunny croquettes," he says simply, as though that explains everything.

"Cute." Minato really likes that bunny. His eyes take in all those details to see how Kanji had formed it. Kanji didn't take as much time with it as Minato had with his heart. Kanji has an eye for these things, and Minato makes a note of that too. "Make more." He says it almost like a little kid encouraging an older sibling to do something cool again.

He also sees Souji making stars. Those are cute too! "Make more," he says one more time in the same manner.

He smiles and pours the rest his energy and time with his share of the croquette mix making pudgy hearts, not too flat so they wouldn't end up like burger patties. He wanted the hearts be rounded and substantial, like he could use one as a paperweight. They aren't that dense though! That would make them not cook all the way through.

Edited 2017-01-05 05:52 (UTC)

Rather than another star, Souji took inspiration from the bunny croquette and made his next one in the shape of a cat's head. The ears had to be a bit more rounded than if he'd drawn it on paper, but that was okay. He'd know what it was, and it would still be delicious.

At this rate, they ran of the meat, potato, and vegetable mixture before long. That was when he brought over the bowls of flour, egg, and panko.

"Now cover each one in all three of these." He did one of his first - the star - to demonstrate before setting it aside on another empty plate.

Kanji doesn't need to be told twice. He smiles brightly at the encouragement, making a couple more bunnies with his last handfuls of of the potato mixture. He's just finished shaping the last one when Souji brings the bowls over, and for his test run, he grabs one of the plain discs he'd made-- just in case it doesn't go well, he doesn't want to risk damaging the rabbits.

"Got it," he confirms, pressing his lips together and following Souji's example. His croquette comes out looking a little lumpier than Souji's, the flour sticking a little more heavily in some places because of his not managing to get the egg quite even. "Um..."

Minato is a little biased toward his hearts, and is watching Kanji's technique with the breading and battering of the croquettes. It did come out a little lumpy, but it wasn't too bad. Minato gives it a shot too but then one of his hearts turned out a little too liquidy and he didn't get enough flour or panko on his.

"We need to combine forces." Or just watch Souji again to get it right. Souji was just so used to doing it that it was second nature to him. He made it look so easy.

Souji shakes his head, but not reprovingly. He wants to reassure them both.

"You'll get the hang of it." Probably before they're done here today. For the moment, he shows them again, battering up one of those kitty cat faces and setting it with the one he already did. "You can use a brush for the egg, too, if you want to."

In his opinion, it just risked even more of a mess, but it did make it easier to get things on evenly.

He waits while they each try again, looking at the croquette "balls" still waiting to be battered.

"...These are going to be really good."

Kanji takes that advice to heart, moving to rifle through a nearby drawer to find a brush for himself. Grabbing another disc, he concentrates as he uses the brush to cover it with egg, finding he gets much better results this time-- it might not be a better choice for everyone across the board, but he's always felt pretty natural with a paintbrush in his hand.

"Aw, yeah, much better," he declares, finding he has an easier time dousing it in flour and panko this time around, too. "How long are they gonna take to cook? I'm gettin' hungry already."

Minato follows Souji's advice and Kanji's lead on this again, not minding that he was doing all the following. He could do that for once, instead of leading. He is slower at the brushing than Kanji was, but he manages to get his heart-shaped croquettes covered for now.

Minato nods too since he wanted to eat croquettes like five minutes ago, but they do need to cook them first. Hearing them sizzle in the hot oil was going to be fun too. He wanted to watch how Souji was going to cook them and not burn them.

Souji had the two of them continue battering the croquettes while he finds a pair of long chopsticks and a wok-like pan, and retrieves the oil to get that heating up. Neither of the tasks takes all that long - though the battering is a bit slower using brushes than otherwise - and when the croquettes are ready, he helps bring the plates over to the stove.

"We need some paper towels to absorb the oil."

With that implied request, he dips the end of a chopstick into the oil to test the temperature.

"If you see little bubbles around the end of the chopstick, it's hot enough."

Closed

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just fyi I am going to be so amused if this cooking lesson results in tragedy

I mean I feel like that's incredibly likely...

... Souji would still eat whatever the heck they made though

Indeed c:

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I'm missing so many Kanji notifs where did they go D:

;o;

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