Hannibal's house in Baltimore, Monday afternoon

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal unlocked the door with his free hand, still holding the cooler of fresh fish in the other, and waved Zhari in.

"Please. You may set your things down here, if you like." He set the cooler on the foyer floor and began pulling off his jacket.

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[sharp_as_knives]

"Here." Hannibal lifted a section of the marble countertop to reveal the sink. "Extra room for cutting when it's not being used."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

This kitchen kept being more and more magical. Zhahar could almost expect elves to pop out of the woodwork and start passing her utensils with a little song and dance number.

After harvesting all the ingredients that she thought she'd need, Zhari returned to the kitchen to start her preparations. Most of the fist, she'd allowed the fishmonger to clean and descale, but the two she was preparing the traditional way, she hadn't let him touch. She wanted to do everything else herself.

Washing her hands in the sink, she scrubbed the fish as well, then placed them on a cutting board, grabbed a knife, and expertly slices open the first fish's belly and began to clean out the viscera. "What should I do with these?" she asked, gesturing to the pile of fish guts as she started working on the next fish. "We can always burn them on the fire, but if you have a garden...?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"Save them," Hannibal advised. "We can make the fish useful to the herbs as well."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Zhari nodded and finished cleaning the second fish, popping out the eyes and setting them aside with the rest of the guts. She washed her hands again and then looked back at Hannibal. "We don't have olive oil back home." No olives, no olive oil. "We use various kinds of vegetable oils. But since coming here, I've really learned to appreciate olive oil. You mind the substitution, or are you going for complete purity?"

These were the important questions!

[sharp_as_knives]

"This is less an exercise in exactness than in thoughtfulness. What oil would you use traditionally and why? Why would you choose olive now instead of another oil?" Hannibal smiled. "The class is philosophy, remember; cooking will be next semester."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Well, most of the time, we use butter or lard," Zhari explained. "It the easiest to come by. Mostly, we use rapeseed oil, because our corn is used first for food crops and only then, if we have enough left over to eat and have seed stock for the next year, can we make oil from it. Sunflower oil is a little more common, but they haven't been doing so well in recent years."

Stupid encroaching deserts.

"I just like olive oil better because it tastes...lighter? Does that make sense? It's not so heavy or thick. I think it will enhance the fish's flavor, not overpower it."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Good." Hannibal nodded. "Yes, that makes sense. Though we do have rapeseed oil here as well, if you would prefer. The name was thought to be potentially offensive, so it generally gets called canola oil."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Best rebranding ever!

"Ooooh, that's what that is," Zhari said nodding. "I've been looking for canola flowers and couldn't find them."

Because the girls didn't have a computer and thus lacked wikipedia. Which was probably for the best because Sholeh would fall into a wikicrawl and never come out.

"I still think I'd rather have the olive oil, please," she decided. "Might as well enjoy it while I can."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Olive oil it is." Hannibal bowed slightly and went to get it.

"Have you had a chance to try the different types yet?" he asked when he returned. "This," he held up the bottle, "is best for this type of cooking, but there are others as well."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Zhahar shook her head. "I'm usually limited to what I can find in the common rooms when I'm cooking."

[sharp_as_knives]

The look Hannibal gave her was somewhat akin to horror. "Before you leave, I'll have you taste my oils, and send you back with a bottle or two." He wondered if the strangeness of Fandom had followed them here, or if he could get away with giving her one of his own rendered oils; they were much higher quality.

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Ooooh!" She bit her lip and a mischievous smile crossed her face. "It would be polite of me to refuse and wait until you insisted," she told him. "But...I don't think I'm going to. Can we try them why the fish is cooking?"

[sharp_as_knives]

"We'll take your initial refusal as read, shall we?" Hannibal nodded at the fish. "Once you have it cooking, I'll set them out."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

Zhahar was more than willing to consider that an acceptable trade. Grabbing the fish she'd personally clean, she slathered oil inside the cavity, then added salt, pepper, large cloves of garlic, and other various herbs. The minced garlic was mixed with a little bit of oil into a paste, then smeared on the outside, and more salt and pepper were sprinkled on top. Then she rinsed her hands, reached for the sculpting clay, and began to layer it right onto the fish, making a thick, airtight seal.

They'd gotten more fish and once Zhari had finished the two fish she'd made according to the recipe from home, she started experimenting with the others. One set involved garlic, lemon, olive oil, and wrapped in grape leaves, another was stuffed with mushrooms, precooked sausage, tomatoes, and basil leaves.

There were others for Hannibal to experiment with as well, if he wished.

[sharp_as_knives]

After watching for a moment, Hannibal retrieved a few things from the inside kitchen and brought them out. "This works on a similar principle to the clay, but paper is perhaps a bit more versatile. Cooking like this is called en papillote." He leaned toward Zhari. "Which is a fancy way of saying, 'in paper'."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Why would you waste paper on cooking?"

Zhahar was merely curious, as opposed to Sholeh's outright horror.

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal raised an eyebrow, but then, she did come from someplace where resources were scarce.

"This is not the same type of paper you'd write on or use for books." He held out the roll to her. "This is specially made for cooking. It's resistant to heat and the food won't stick to it. It holds in the moisture, much as the clay does."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"But you have to make it that way, right?" Zhari asked, examining the parchment paper with her fingers. "This comes from the same place as regular paper, right?"

She held it up to the light, seeing how thin it was. "I'm not sure this would work in an open fire, the way the clay does."

[sharp_as_knives]

"It's more often used in coals, or in an oven. And yes, made similar to regular paper." He finished the last fold and held out the parcel. "It will be interesting to compare it to the clay, I think. How the flavors differ."

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"I don't mind trying it," Zhahar said cheerfully. She wasn't sure she could ever get herself to cook with paper (or that Sholeh would ever allow her to, either), but that didn't mean she wasn't interested in the result. "Are we ready too cook, then?"

She didn't mind admitting that she was eager to try her new flavor experiments--and hopefully impress Dr. Lecter as she did so.

[sharp_as_knives]

"I think so." He waved at the grill. "Charcoal, wood, or gas fire?"

[3girls-1core.livejournal.com]

"Wood, please," Zhahar said. "It's the one that I know. We'll cook them right inside the coals. Usually, we also roast potatoes while we're at it, but I think the fire will be full enough with all the fish we've got instead."

[sharp_as_knives]

"Wood it is." Hannibal opened the cabinet and pulled out enough to fill the grill, along with kindling.