She’d always cook egg dishes for my birthday. And she’d make porridge when I was sick--- I could eat that even when nothing else would stay down. Oh, I get it now. Mom thought about me, and then would make my favorite foods or thing that were easy to eat. That’s what the chef meant when he said to cook from the heart!
Huh. We’re using fish? I usually associate curry with beef or chicken.
Ghost Chef
We’ll be using a whole can of mackerel for this dish. Mackerel’s savoriness goes well with the curry spices! And it’s full of calcium and omega-3 fatty acids, making it a healthy option.
Uh... Dice? Are you saying to throw them like dice?
Ghost Chef
No,no, I mean chop ‘em into chunks. Y’know, as opposed to slicing them. Here, I’ll show you. You roll the carrots around like this, angle your knife diagonally, and cut ‘em into bite-sized pieces.
Got it! Oh, hey... Jamil’s filleting his fish. (Look at how he handles the knife. That’s so cool! It’s like he knows exactly what he’s doing. I wanna cook like that one day!) Chef, could I ask a favor? I’d like to learn how to fillet a fish! I mean, not NOW, of course. But I’d love to do it at some point during the program.
Ghost Chef
What an eager beaver! All right, how’d you like to give it a go right now?
We’ll fillet a mackerel, sauté it until it’s nice and crispy, then top your curry with it. Now, filleting a fish is no easy task. You sure you’re up for the challenge?
My mom told me the other day that she’d been laid up in bed with a bad cold. But she didn’t bother to tell me that until after fully recovered. I get that she doesn’t want to scare me, but I kinda wish she’d lean on me more when she’d struggling. So the next time I visit, I want to cook for her and show that I’m more dependable than ever!
Ghost Chef
sniffle* Aww, that’s so sweet! Sounds like you better roll up your sleeves then! The next step’s to lay the blade flat and cut into the fish from the back.
Oh, that’s the first piece I filleted. It tore off while I was cutting it. I gotta tell you, filleting a fish is pretty tough. This was my first time doing it, and it was kind of a mess.
