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Baking: Sweet and Savory | Monday, 3rd period

"Good morning," Hannibal said when everybody had arrived. "My apologies for last week; I was rather under the weather. This week, we'll be working on something simple and from someplace other than Europe, as requested." He smiled and nodded at the students who'd requested those things.

"Mochi is a traditional Japanese food - it can be a snack on its own, or it can be combined with other things. I have a number of examples here. It has only a few ingredients, and is fairly simple to start, though you do need to be precise and careful."

He pulled up the recipe on one wall and went over it with them. "You may make the plain version, or dress it up however you like. Please feel free to ask me questions if you have them."

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Seriously - food coloring, tea, flavor extracts, various coatings - mod it up!

Chocolate and strawberries. Sparkle was so going to go to town with chocolate and strawberries in his mochi. Pink outside, maybe with a dusting of cocoa powder, strawberry halves inside and a smear of chocolate...

He found himself wondering if it would be worth putting a dollop of whipped cream on top of them before serving, or if that would be pushing his luck.

"Very good." Hannibal nodded his approval. "That will be lovely if it's cut into, and the flavors will work well together." He was so proud, Sparkle!

Sparkle grinned a little at the approval. There was no way in hell he was going to admit that he'd been tempted to try something completely ridiculous like tuna salad, now.

"I'm kind of just playing around," he admitted. "Should I bother with whipped cream, or do you think that'd just be going a step too far?"

"I think it might overwhelm it a bit. And the textures might not work well together," Hannibal said. "But why not make one of each, and taste them? You can make your own decision."

Cosette, in the end, decided to try some kind of mocha mochi, and spent the rest of the period experimenting with different combinations of coffee and chocolate to see what kind of flavors she'd end up with.

Hannibal nodded his approval. "One suggestion, mademoiselle, purely for presentation - consider sugar or confection in a color to coat it. Brown foods can look dreadfully dull."

Cosette nodded. "And it isn't as if it's hard to make something as simple as this look pretty. Would it be silly to color them something that doesn't look like chocolate at all? I had thought maybe a light green, but that seemed deceptive."

Hannibal smirked. "Sometimes deceptive food is a good thing. I think green sounds lovely."

He pulled out his tablet and found some more pictures. "Some of these can get (http://banhdashop.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/set3.jpg) quite (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8ZVqqnxflFI/T6yFYjmzcCI/AAAAAAAAAgc/1HM7LDv7AqI/s1600/Screen+shot+2012-05-10+at+9.13.01+PM.png) fancy (http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SFsEakBHnyo/TZUdCdt0RoI/AAAAAAAABIM/SXo00EXd3CU/s320/lolz%2Bkawaii%2B%2528or%2Bhowever%2Bur%2Bsupposed%2Bto%2Bspell%2Bthat%2529.jpg), if you're so inclined. Food coloring and a brush, or other confection layered on top," he explained.

The sound Cosette made should probably not have been humanly possible.

"Oh, look at the little bears! I don't know that I can make them as fancy as all that --" she indicated the ones with the most elaborate artwork on them -- "but little animals I can try to do."

That...was quite some noise, yes. That was what you got for showing adorable things to a teenage girl, Hannibal.

"I thought you might enjoy that." He chuckled. "Let me know if you'd like some help." The cutesy things weren't exactly his style, but he could certainly help her if she wanted to make them.

"You don't strike me as someone well suited to that kind of artwork," Cosette told him, "so I'll only ask if I absolutely have to."

"It wouldn't be my preference," Hannibal admitted, "but I can show you what to do. Though I suspect you could be quite good at it yourself, if you wanted to."

"Perhaps," Cosette allowed. "We shall see how much I enjoy it, first, shall we? Suppose you show me a bit about how to start decorating these, and I'll see how well I figure things out from there?"

"I would be happy to." Hannibal went to program some new things into the room and returned with paintbrushes of varying sizes. He got some of the food coloring and set it nearby, too. "Where would you like to start? The bears?"

Re: Cook your food!

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Re: Cook your food!

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Re: Cook your food!

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Re: Cook your food!

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Re: Cook your food!

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Re: Cook your food!

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Re: Cook your food!

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Re: Cook your food!

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Kathy was going to alter the recipe juuuust slightly, making Chapssalddeok, or Korean-style mochi. She'd make both the pink and green ones.

...Hopefully Dr. Lecter wouldn't be offended by her using the microwave to cook it. But that was how she'd learned!

Kathy was going to get an unpleasant surprise when she went looking for a microwave. This was Hannibal's programming; there wasn't one.

But she gave it a good college try! If there had been a microwave anywhere in in the room, Kathy would have found it.

As it was, she was going to stand in the middle of the room for a moment, completely stymied, before trying to look again because surely this time she'd find it!

Hannibal looked at her curiously. "Are you missing something?"

"A, er, umm..." Kathy was starting to get an idea of what Dr. Lecter's reaction would be considering his sim hadn't included a microwave and was reluctant to ask him. But maybe it was just an oversight?

"...A microwave?" she asked. "I thought I'd make Chapssalddeok, but that was how I learned to cook it."

Hannibal was so disappointed in you, Kathy.

"I don't believe in microwaves," he informed her. "You have a recipe? We can adapt it."

Kathy hunched over a little, like Dr. Lecter's disappointment was a weight she could feel. "Umm, not really? It's not so much a recipe as something I learned to make growing up. Mom just zapped it for three minutes in the microwave, so that's how I learned. Sorry."

"Never apologize for what you've learned," Hannibal said to her. "Even if you need to learn differently now. Come, we'll find a way."

"Sorry," Kathy said automatically, because apologizing for apologizing was a just a thing that happened sometimes. "I mean, okay. I won't. Or, well, I guess I'll try not to. I was just excited for the chance to cook something I grew up with."

Hannibal smiled at her attempt not to apologize. "That's understandable. How is the version you know different from the Japanese one?"