Da Count-Da Sous Chef

Yesterday I told you how I made Fry bake for everyone.  Well, the next day, as planned and at Calypso's request, I cooked the community meal for all the interns and staff (15 people).  The menu request was curried venison stew and roti, with sides of rice and peas & carrots.  I could have managed everything myself except the roti.  To get that much done requires two people just to keep the rhythm of rolling and frying.  My assistant was this fine young man.  He joined me early and asked how he could begin helping so as I was forming dough balls for the roti I asked him to cut up the venison.  He began immediately.  

Shortly thereafter someone came in and expressed shock that he was handling raw meat due to his veganism.  I felt kind of bad but he said he really didn't mind at all.  I decided I needed to add some sort of vegan dish to the meal so he wasn't eating just rice, roti, and peas & carrots.  It wouldn't be right for him to help me all afternoon and then not get a decent meal.  I thought I'd make curried potatoes and chickpeas so he went of in search of spuds and beans.  No luck on spuds anywhere on camp property and given that they are over 30 miles from a decent store it wasn't going to happen.  We scoured cupboards for other ingredients and I wound up improvising a curried bean and tomato dish with what was on hand.  It turned out decently.  

We had some really excellent conversation as we got the meal together.  I found him to be a very humble, intelligent, thinking young man with a great sense of humor and service.  All that was a delight but as we talked he shared some of the details of his life as a foster child and how he found family after he had given up at the age of 20 (Out of respect for his privacy it's not my place to share but really, it's a story that would make the hardest heart tear up first in sadness then in happiness at the new beginning.  I thanked him for his openness and trust.).  He shared about the joys of finally finding the family he never had and the struggles of learning how to be a part of it and his perspectives on his peers who seem in such a hurry to leave the security of family.  I was deeply impressed by him. 

When it was time to fry up the roti is when he became truly invaluable.  I rolled furiously and he fried quickly and happily through so much roti I thought we'd never be done.  We talked about the finer points of the various varieties of roti and he asked questions about technique.  Seems the kid also loves to cook and wants to be able to make it again himself.  We laughed when it was over because I was covered in flour and he said as sous chef he should have wound up dirtier than I did.  I've always enjoyed cooking WITH another person who enjoys cooking because it's just such a nice way to get to know each other.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon made all the more so by having such a remarkable helper.  I wish him only the best blessings that family has to offer.