New Plan, Step One: Provide For My Community [open]

[summerdude]

Magnus needs something to change, so when a Mansion calendar helpfully informs him that it's International Falafel Day back on Earth, he goes to the library for some cookbooks, and then to the kitchen.

He lays out ten different falafel recipes. He gathers the ingredients they list, as best as he can understand them. He has canned chickpeas and fresh chickpeas and dried chickpeas and chickpea flour and box mixes of falafel that say 'just add water!'

Cripes.

"I can do this," he says, peering at the assorted recipes intently for a good ten minutes, and then takes the dried chickpeas over to the sink to rinse and soak.

Comments

[sporesprouter]

"Of course I will!"

[summerdude]

"You're a lifesaver, Tress Mystery Name Lastname."

[sporesprouter]

She laughs. "Happy to lifesave, then. Do you want to try to fry one?"

[summerdude]

"Yeah!" Magnus moves closer to the pan, scooping in a little of the falafel mixture.

[sporesprouter]

She steps back to watch.

[summerdude]

He makes a mess of it, smushing it too hard and flipping it too fast; some of it smears on the bottom of the pan. He looks at Tress, eyes wide.

[sporesprouter]

"It's fine. We still have plenty of the mixture, more than enough to deal with a practice run or two. Want me to try again but I'll give tips as you're doing it this time?"

[summerdude]

"Why don't you talk me through it while I try it again?" Magnus suggests. He's always learned best by doing.

[sporesprouter]

"Absolutely. Are you ready?"

[summerdude]

"I think so." Magnus scrapes the failed falafel out of the pan and gets another fresh scoop of the mixture.

[sporesprouter]

"Perfect. Drop it into the oil and then push down it with your spatula, but gently. You want to flatten it out, but not so much that it doesn't still have some thickness to it."

[summerdude]

Magnus follows her instructions carefully.

[sporesprouter]

"Perfect. While that side is cooking, you can push it around gently with the spatula so that if there are any hotter spots in the pan, it doesn't get one bit of the food a bit too hot."

[summerdude]

"Tress," Magnus says, doing as instructed. "Can I tell you a secret?"

[sporesprouter]

She blinks. "Of course you can."

[summerdude]

"You really can't tell anyone I said this," Magnus warns.

[sporesprouter]

"Not a word," she promises.

[summerdude]

Magnus glances furtively around, then stage-whispers, "You're better at explaining this stuff than Hanguang-jun."

[sporesprouter]

Tress schools her face to solemnity and nods. "I won't say a word." She nods back to the pan. "Lift the edge a little bit with the end of the spatula and look at the color of the bottom."

[summerdude]

"I'm looking for brown," Magnus says, confidently, as he tries to peek without the falafel sliding all over the place. Then, less confidently, "Right?"

[sporesprouter]

"Light brown. Some people say golden brown. About the color of my hair, if that helps."

[summerdude]

"Most of the falafel I've seen has been dark brown," Magnus says, but he squints dutifully at Tress's hair, and then peers at the bottom of the weird-ass falafel he's making.

[sporesprouter]

"You can let it cook a little longer if you want it a bit darker. You're the falafel expert, after all. The recipe writer might have just preferred it a bit undercooked."

[summerdude]

"We should probably follow the recipe," Magnus decides, and flips the falafel.

[sporesprouter]

"All right. Perfect flip! Probably a good idea anyway to try it as written first anyway, and then if you don't like it, you can adjust things like browning it more."