Home Economics and Cultural Awareness (career class, all years)

Grayson chuckled fondly at the energetic young Slytherin, glad to see how well she had recovered from the incident in the Restricted Section a little over a month ago. She seemed to have plenty of friends for support, judging by the younger students crowding around her. He nodded and took note of all the other students who spoke up about their cooking experience, quickly calculating in his head who would do best where.

"All right. Since we have limited time, and several different recipes, I'm not going to be able to show you much beforehand. Instead, I'm going to pair you up, and have each of you jump right in, while I come around and help anyone who needs it. If you have any questions, please come to me and ask, rather than guessing--we will be eating these at the end.

"With that said, these are your groups for today: Reienne and Bushrah, you'll be working on the vegetarian sambossas. Ji Hyun and Catherine, you'll be making beef sambossas. Constance and Delia, you'll be making vegetarian Massaman curry.  Dominique and Elenore, you'll be making chicken Massaman curry. Mimosa and Nikolai, you'll be making kheer.

"When we come back together at the end, I want each of you to present your dish with a short description of its main ingredients, where it comes from, and what effect you think the geographical location and culture have on the ingredients used."

With that, he passed out the recipes he'd written, giving one to each group.

"The spice cabinet is over there," he gestured to his left, "and everything is labeled. Pots and pans are underneath each stove. All the other ingredients you'll need are sitting on that counter. If you need anything, just ask. If nobody has any questions, you may begin! Good luck."

He watched to make sure everyone settled in properly, before turning to his own area and starting a pot of rice to go with the curry. While he was at it, he set another pot on the stove, and filled it with water, bringing it to a boil. He figured he may as well make some masala chai to go with their dessert.

Vegetarian Sambossas:

Spoiler:

Massaman Chicken Curry:

Spoiler:

Kheer:

Spoiler:

Ozskar had picked the Home Economics class for a variety of reasons, but the biggest one was that he loved to cook and was hoping to get better with more foreign foods than he was used to, so when he had read that Home Economics was an option he immediately noted that he wanted that class. But right now he was late, he had stayed up late finishing some work the night before and had thus accidentally slept late.

As soon as his eyes had opened Ozskar checked his watch. Oh God I'm late. He thought as he stood up and immediately got dressed and rushed to the Home Economics room. As soon as Ozskar arrived he opened the door and rushed inside the classroom before looked for an open seat. "I was up late last night so I slept through a few of my alarms." Ozskar said as he sat down, straightened his tie and rolled up his sleeves.

Mimosa watched happily as people were paired up to do different things. Most international cuisines they were making the child was familiar with because she came from America - the greatest country on earth. America was where all the best Chinese food, Indian food and Burgers came from. he could make General Tao Chicken, she could make Chicken Tikka, she could make a McDonald's burger too. After all she had eaten all these things so making them couldn't be hard.

Mr. Hughes must have known she could do the most important bits because he put her in charge of dessert. Mimosa had had Kheer once or twice before and she had really liked it. It was made from sweet white stuff and had nuts on top. So when she and Squid Boy were relegated to the dessert station, the first thing she did was go about gathering all kinds of nuts while Squid Boy wasted his time reading the recipe.

Not five minutes late the child returned with walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, almonds, pine nuts, peanuts, acorns, anything that looked, tasted or felt like a nut. Dumping all the boxes on their work station, she grinned over at Squid Boy's incredulous face."You're welcome," she said smugly. "Now we just have to look for the white stuff and we're done. It's sweet and kind of like milk but thicker and chunkier. Maybe it's in the fridge?"

Squid Boy opened his mouth to reply but at that moment, the kitchen doors slid open and another Slyherin came through, someone Mimosa knew well from the Quidditch team. "Hey Ozskar," she called out cheerily. "Wanna come work with us, we're nearly done!"

Ozskar stood up when he heard his name get called out by Mimosa. "Oh. Yeah sure I'll join ya. Unless. Mr. Uh.. Unless the teachers not cool with it." He said as he headed towards Mimosa his expectations not necessarily high for the progress her group had made.

"So. What're we making? Where's the Recipe and who's this?" Ozskar asked Mimosa when he arrived at where their group was cooking, looking over what they had done, while he washed his hands before drying them. Oh lord, she just gathered nuts, and.. Way too many of them. Did she even read the instructions? He thought as he looked at all the nuts she had gotten out. "Mimosa. We only need Almonds and Pistachios, you can put the rest away I'll start up the rice." He said as he dried his hands and picked up the recipe.

Dominique was paying attention as she knew that was the most important part. She was hoping that she would get to work with Mimosa. Which she really loved because they were best friend. She then learned that she woudln't be working with Mimosa. Instead she was going to be with Elenore. This girl was also in her global citizenship class. And didn't know much about her, that wasn't going to stop Dominique. She was going to get through working with Elenore somehow.

She then was given a list by Elenore. It seemed like Dominique was going to go gather the ingredients that they need. It seemed like she was going to be Elenore gopher for this. But she then heard that Elenore would grab what they needed. So it was only fair that Dominique would go gather what they would need to make the dish. She just hoped that she would be able to get along with Elenore. After she got everything they would need she then looked at Elenore. “ Here is everything that we will need. So what is next?"

For a long moment Riley just looked at the recipe card. Sure she had cooked at tone at home but they were mostly dishes native to Ireland. Stews, Champ and Coddle were in her wheel house not curry or Sambossas....what was that even. Looking over the card again she got up to gather the things she would.

Riley tripled checked her card against the spices. While she knew most of them she had only cooked with a few of them. Her father was rather found of curry and she had been meaning to cook one. Not that that was the dish she was given...still if they were allowed to keep the cards or ask for copies of the other card maybe she could surprise her father this summer.

After two trips she had all she need and started to set it out for her and her partner. Looking to over the steps in the dish she waited to see if there would be any other direction from the Professor.

As the students got started, and Grayson's own stove heated up, he walked around to each group to see how things were going, and to make sure there wasn't any confusion. He glanced up when the door opened to admit a fourth year Slytherin. Thankfully, Mimosa saved him the trouble of having to fit him in somewhere. He nodded at them both to continue working together, thinking it was probably a good idea to put an older student in their group. Kheer wasn't hard to make, but it did take some patience, a virtue which eleven-year-olds were hardly known for.

A quick glance around the room told him no one had really started cooking yet, but they'd all gathered their ingredients. He returned to Mimosa's group and surveyed the wide array of unnecessary nut-like ingredients scattered all over the counter. Then he remembered something Mimosa had said to him in the library over a month ago. She can't read very well. As he heard Ozskar telling her which ones they'd need, he nodded and stepped in, picking out a bag of pistachios and a bag of almonds from the mess. He pointed them out to Mimosa.

"These ones," he said gently. "The rest can go back in the cabinet."

Next, he made his way over to the groups making curry. They'd gathered all the necessary ingredients and materials, but they hadn't really gotten to the fun part yet.

"Next, you should prepare your ingredients. Peel and cut the potatoes, mince the ginger, and chop the chicken," he said, overhearing Dominique's question. He'd come back later when they might need help--they shouldn't have too much trouble with the first steps, but he'd be willing to help if they were unsure how to prepare the ingredients. Mincing things took a bit of experience, though he knew they must have done it at some point or another in potions class, so he had faith in their abilities.

He moved on to the sambossa groups. They were at the same beginning stages. Ingredients sat ready on the counter, but remained mostly untouched.

"Do you need any help?" he asked, knowing the groups were mostly comprised of first years.

At first, Mimosa was inclined to be rather miffed when both boys ignored her clear expertise and divided the tasks among themselves, but she consoled herself with being the nut expert of the group. That is until Mr. Hughes walked by their workstation and picked out only two that they would need. But at least he gave her a job to do. The next ten minutes were happily spent putting all the other brands of the nuts back while Squid Boy and Ozskar worked on boiling the rice and milk and going through the recipe.

"What do I have to do now?" she asked once she was back. Squid Boy gave her a wary glance before telling her to go cut up the almonds and pistachios into little pieces. He gestured to the blender which Mimosa of course knew how to use, having watched her grandpa make smoothies every morning.

The little witch carefully crushed the almonds first than the pistachios, putting them in a tiny bowl for when the kheer was done. The next hour was mostly spent impatiently looking over the boys' shoulders and asking five dozen times "is it done yet?' and "it is done now?" which both Slytherins bore with immense patience and bravado.

When the dessert was finally ready, she was allowed to pour the hot
concoction into serving bowls enough for all their classmates to try. And then she did the most important part, garnish it with her precious nuts. Overall, their kheer was a complete success and all thanks to Mimosa who had done the majority of the work.