A Love Reborn: Finding Romance Twice In One Lifetime
Chapter 92: PREPARATIONS

Chapter 92: Chapter 92: PREPARATIONS

Before the restaurant could open, a lot of things were required to be done. So, it was a busy week for everyone.

In order to make sure that everything would be perfect on the day of opening, Calista hired some ladies from the villagers to help her with the cleaning and other things she needed to do around the restaurant.

She also hired some men to help her with the firewood issue and two days before opening, she got some of them to slaughter a few pigs she purchased in another village.

She wanted to prepare pig stew using the pig’s heads.

On the day before the restaurant’s official opening, Calista was busy at the restaurant preparing the meat dishes.

After all the thinking and contemplation, she came up with several menus she would be serving her fellow villagers.

She had three pigs slaughtered, so she was currently having three heads she was planning to prepare alongside other kinds of meat she had prepared.

Inside the restaurant’s kitchen, Calista was with Susan and another little girl she took a liking to. The girl was currently the head of the family since her mother died of a severe cold last year and her father ran away from home. No one knew where he was and the girl currently was taking care of three siblings. And she was just around thirteen years old. Very young, but what else could she do except work for a better future for her siblings?

Feeling pity for her, Calista decided to hire the girl and let her help with the errands at the restaurant, she couldn’t have Susan running around and helping with everything, after all.

Inside the kitchen, Calista, who was wrapped up, was busy explaining and showing both Susan and the little girl whose name was Naomi, how to prep the pig’s heads before cooking.

After the pig’s head is separated from the body, as a chef, the next step will be to cook diligently while making sure that whatever you cook won’t be harmful to those who eat it.

Calista using a cleaver she prepared in cases like these, showed the ladies who probably have been leaving such work to men how to break down and clean the heads.

With the heads carefully broken down, Calista picked several ingredients she was planning on using to cook the heads. She had an artisan make huge cauldrons for her which could be used during the cooking.

For this cooking session, she picked ginger, cooking wine (she bought in Liresa City some time ago), peppers, and salt. She didn’t add a lot of ingredients. After all, she was giving all the food for free and all of this was costly to start with.

With all ingredients in hand, the next thing to do was to cook the heads. To cook it, Calista placed the heads in the cauldron alongside the ingredients already prepared. She poured water into the cauldron, making it cover everything by two inches. Bring to a simmer, then reduce the heat and very gently simmer for five hours, or at least until all the meat is tender.

This was something that was going to take a while, so only one person was needed to keep an eye on the fire while the others did the other things. Of course, having someone watch over the cauldron was only for a short moment, as in these five hours, that person could listen and help in the preparation of other dishes as well.

With the pig heads on the fire, Calista went to the beef. She was planning on making stew with all the meat. After a second thought, she decided against roasting anything. It was time-consuming for her. No matter what, she needed to replenish her energy.

For the beef, Calista showed Susan and Naomi how to dice it into cubes. When all the beef had been cut, washed thoroughly before it was placed in another cauldron. Inside the cauldron, Calista added salt and a bit of oil before leaving it to simmer for hours again.

"Cali, why are we not adding a lot like we did with the pig?" Susan couldn’t help but be curious after seeing the difference.

Calista chuckled lightly upon hearing that. "It’s because this stew is unique. You will see it when it’s done!" remaining a bit mysterious without divulging a lot to them.

Seeing that she wasn’t willing to say everything, Susan could only shrug and wait for when Calista was done to see what was truly happening.

With all stews over the fire, she went outside to where the other hired ladies were and she joined them to prepare the other ingredients.

Apart from stew, she was planning on making vegetable dishes. And among those dishes, Calista picked sweet potatoes and pumpkins. And these ladies were currently peeling these.

Apart from that, there were onions and carrots which she decided to prepare in advance.

With everyone talking and laughing, time quickly flew, and those who were in charge of preparing meals, prepared lunch for everyone while Ma Susan brought Calista and Susan’s meals over. The old lady wasn’t taking any chances, so she was extremely careful.

The pig heads started cooking in the morning and checking the time. After lunch around 1 pm, Calista went to check the cauldron plus the one for beef. Using the wooden tongs, Calista checked the meat and was pretty satisfied with how it was going.

The pig heads were now tender, so Calista had the heads removed from the cauldron since the cauldrons were built in and weren’t the kind that could be taken out at will.

The heads were left aside to cool whilst the beef was checked again. It was nearly done, and just needed more time to cook perfectly.

When the heads cooled slightly, Calista and Susan peeled away all hefty sections of the meat, such as the cheeks and near the brains and set it aside.

All the heads were then placed back into the pot along with any bones that might have come loose during the transplant and let it simmer for at least three hours longer.