Chapter Text
“Sir? Why am I coming along with you?” Cody asked, bucket off and under his arm as he followed General Obi-Wan Kenobi through the halls of the Jedi Temple.
“Because you're my test subject for an idea I had to surprise our men,” Obi-Wan replied absently as they entered the Room of a Thousand Fountains. The sight was as glorious as usual, but instead of taking time to enjoy it and taking the time to meditate, Obi-Wan headed straight for the greenhouses, each set with a different climate for growing plants.
Cody frowned, a bit offended about being a test subject but he was now curious as to what plants had to do with surprising their men. He watched as Obi-Wan took an empty basket and started filling it with varying parts of different plants- the fruits, the leaves, the flowers... even the roots of some. They went to more than one greenhouse, though most of the plants came from the hottest of the greenhouses. He wasn't sure what Obi-Wan was doing but he watched closely and offered his opinion when Obi-Wan checked with him on whether one leaf looked better than another, or if a fruit looked ripe enough. He was definitely learning something from this.
“Do I really need to be there for this?” He asked as they entered the last greenhouse, a really hot and dry one.
“Hmm?” Obi-Wan hummed, then smiled as the question sunk in. “I want you to be familiar with this so that I can teach you how to pick the right parts of each plant, and later on teach you how to grow them so that you can help teach your brothers.”
“You're talking... food?” Cody guessed.
“Not quite, I'm talking spices to flavor food.”
“Well, rations do lack flavor,” Cody replied, feeling a bit more secure. No wonder he was being a test subject. He generally had a good idea on what the consensus on what things the 212th liked, and at least would be able to give Obi-Wan a starting point. “Are we spending our leave on this? All two weeks?”
“Yep. That way I can test different spice combinations on you.” Obi-Wan only took the fruits of some plants and not others, which made sense as there were very few actual proper trees in this greenhouse unlike the other ones.
“Oh, okay.” Cody smiled, a little. A perfect excuse to hang around his general, cut down on the backlog of work that always piled up, and not get nagged about getting out more by at least Rex bugging him? Perfect.
They headed back to Obi-Wan's rooms. “Do you have the food to cook with though?” Cody asked suddenly.
“I made the effort to order some ahead of time. I'm not going to cook anything fancy, just things that will show off the flavor profiles.”
“Now you sound like you watch a lot of cooking holos.”
“I did as a padawan. It was the only way to survive with my master being a disaster of a cook,” Obi-Wan deadpanned. “I didn't want to have to rely on getting food where ever we were by convenience and chance. No, better to be have to ability to whip up something edible out of whatever was on hand.”
“Huh, learn something new.”
He sat down and pulled out the work he had already deposited in the rooms, planning on taking the time to smuggle more in later now that he knew he would be spending a lot of time here over the next two weeks. He looked up as Obi-Wan divided out the different parts of plants he had gathered. Most he placed in a strange machine he had never seen before while the rest were stored in some way- some chilled, some in water, and some hanging out in the regular air. The hum of the machine started up and Obi-Wan moved to preparing an actual meal. Obi-Wan smiled at Cody's confusion.
“I'm dehydrating most of it, all plants last far longer dehydrated rather than in whatever other storage prolongs its life the most. Fresh tastes better, of course, but dried is far better than nothing, and it's actually easier to make spice mixes when it is dry or toasted. Or both. Once everything is dried out, I'll grind each thing up and store that and then make mixes from that.”
“Huh... that's actually pretty interesting.” Cody wasn't sure he liked the mischievous look Obi-Wan gave him, but he decided to wait and see.
An hour later, a delicious smell was drifting across the room. Cody perked up at the smell and looked over to see Obi-Wan dishing it up.
“Here's one of my favorite Mandalorian dishes,” he explained. “It's not the traditional stew, that one takes at least eight hours of simmering to get the flavors right, and depending on the recipe, even up to twenty four hours. I like to use a sixteen hour one. So I'll be starting it right after we finish so it's ready for lunch tomorrow. This dish though, this one is all about the tubers and meat and veggies hanging out in a pastry. And the flavors are wonderful.”
“...Are all the dishes going to be Mandalorian? How do you even know how to make traditional Mandalorian meals anyways?” Cody asked as he took a seat, and wondered why Obi-Wan set out a pitcher of blue milk and some extra plain pastry on the table.
“Did I not tell you? When I was a padawan, I spent a year on the run protecting Duchess Satine, right after her father died. Fell in love with the food and culture, sometimes wish I could be Mandalorian and Jedi. Caused some issues when we got back from the mission of course, and Quin still loves to give me a hard time about it but...”
“Isn't Duchess Satine really pacifistic? Did you argue- Wait a minute, that one book, is that based on you guys?”
Obi-Wan groaned. “One of Satine's supporters leaked how close we got trying to do... something I guess, and somehow that story came about. Unfortunately, it is somewhat accurate, I did fall in love with Satine. But we were both hormonal teens and I don't know how much of that was lust and living in close quarters for too long compared to true love. I would have left the Order at the end of the mission if she had asked me to, but I think I would've regretted it deeply, considering how much being a Jedi meant to me and still means. And seeing as I fell in love with the culture and she's kind of... destroyed it...” Obi-Wan winced.
“We did argue a lot because while I was idealistic and agreed that avoiding violence was best, sometimes violence can be the only way to get someone who is determined to be violent to back off. I'd lived through a war already at that point, and knew how difficult it was to completely stop a conflict without any violence.”
“Oh. So... no feelings for her?”
“Nothing but nostalgia for simpler times,” Obi-Wan assured him. “She's in the past and it's best I keep her that way. I'm relieved we've yet to have to do anything with Mandalore because she's very determined to be right in all situations.”
“I can see how that would be frustrating... Not sure how you would handle that.”
“Neither am I, except tell the truth.” Obi-Wan sighed. “Anyways, we're off topic, you need to try this.” He brightened and was far more excited than the general normally got, so Cody had to humor him.
He took a bite and chewed for a minute. It was certainly flavorful. Then it hit him. He sputtered a bit. “What the heck is that?”
“Capsaicin. It's a chemical found in many peppers and plants like peppers. It causes a burning sensation- a pain response rather than a taste. And I enjoy it. I don't go full on heat like others do- I like to still be able to taste what I'm eating through the pain- but it is enjoyable. Milk calms it down, and so does pastries.”
“Okay.” Cody nodded. He hadn't exactly wanted a proper explanation, but that was Obi-Wan. He reached for the milk and poured some out. After taking a sip, he went back to eating the dish. By the end, he felt like he was getting used to the spice. And the tingle of heat was pretty pleasant when it died down. “So... is Mandalorian food normally spicy?”
“Yes, it is. Most planets that have hot environments have plants that that evolved with capsaicin, and therefore spicy cuisine. Not all desert planets though, the plants don't always evolve when there's not a damp soil.”
“Huh... so in a way, this would be our culture if Prime had claimed us?”
“You could say that, yes,” Obi-Wan agreed after a moment. “I know you're making your own culture which is why I'm sharing all flavorful spices and mixes I enjoy not just the Mandalorian ones.”
“Well, I certainly liked that dish, once I got used to it. Can't wait to see everyone's faces when they try something this full of flavor.”
“Me either. You think they'll like it?”
“Definitely. Well, I think some of them might turn out to be unable to take the heat, but overall I think this will be a hit, and I can't wait to try the rest, and learn more.”
“Good.” They cleared the table of the dishes and took care of them. “So, want to help me get the tiingilar started?”
“How can I help?”
Obi-Wan grinned and handed him some veggies. “I'm not going to torture you with preparing the spicy stuff yet, it can be a challenge, and dangerous to ones hands. Now, this broth isn't terrible, but everything does have to be chopped a decent amount because not only are they the base of the stew, we'll be blending them all up after six hours stewing together with the meat base- though this can be made without meat, it needs a strong substitute to taste right, and I'm not quite as good at preparing any of those substitutes. Anyways, it's easier to blend everything together with the vegetables all chopped into smaller pieces than most might do when making a broth.”
Cody nodded. “Got it.” He grabbed a knife and started chopping. He had helped Obi-Wan in the kitchen before and knew what to expect.
Meanwhile, Obi-Wan dumped a bunch of water and a little milk into the pot before getting on preparing the meat to go in. This involved separating the meat from the bones- the bones would still go into the broth but it made it easier to remove them for the blending process. Once the meat was in the large pot, he then started pulling out spices to get the base broth all nice and seasoned. Some were just dumped right in, but others he dumped into a bowl.
He pulled on a double layer of gloves before handling the peppers. About half of each pepper was dumped right into the forming broth, the other half was chopped up smaller before going into the bowl with the other spices. He then pulled off the gloves, washed his hands twice, then got a pan heating with some oil and started toasting everything that was in the bowl.
Once they were all nice and toasted, he poured them back into the bowl and did a coarse grind on them before they were finally added to the broth. The pot was finally put on the stove and the heat put on high to bring it to a boil. After Obi-Wan washed his hands again, he started tossing in the veggies that had been chopped already. Cody was nearly done with the veggies at that point. He finished up and watched Obi-Wan toss them in and stir the ingredients around until they were well blended, and the liquid was all boiling.
“Finally.” Obi-Wan covered it all and turned down the heat so that it would simmer for the next six hours, when they would hit the next step. He washed his hands yet again.
“Why are you washing your hands so much?”
“I learned the hard way when dealing with peppers that it's best to just wash my hands as frequently as possible.” Obi-Wan grimaced. “I did a double layer of gloves, and washed my hands afterwards, and several hours later touched my eye on accident and it burned. The capsaicin was still lingering that much on my hands, through the layers. Though it would be much worse if I didn't use gloves at all, to be fair.”
“Wow... then how they safe to eat?”
Obi-Wan shrugged. “The body adjusts if you build up your tolerance to them slowly enough, otherwise it can just cause things to be a little painful at the end of digestion. Great for getting back at people who don't like spicy foods.” He grinned. “Sometimes when I'm annoyed at Anakin I will make something spicy, and watch him debate with himself on if the spicy food is worth avoiding the other terrible food available at the time. He sometimes choses the terrible food, sometimes the spicy food, and it's always entertaining watching him make the choice and often regret it, not that either of his choices were actually good.”
“You, sir, are evil.”
Obi-Wan cackled. “I try, but it does work best when no one expects it and thinks you're just oblivious. Some people realize what I'm doing with the spicy food, but others... they're a little too dense to get it.”
Cody shook his head. “Well, I know who to go to when I need some petty revenge on my men for something stupid they did on leave.”
“Ah, the endless arrests?”
“Not just that, they just can cause chaos where ever they go. And sometimes I owe Fox for dealing with their troublemaking, and I hate owing Fox.”
“Have you considered assigning them special training?”
“...What kind of special training?”
“The kind where they get to be the targets for others training while at a handicap. Weights, bright colored armor, things like that.”
“Oh, I like the way you think. I need to use that this time.” Cody made a few notes before going back to the backlog of paperwork. He wanted to clear it all out while on leave so that he started the next campaign with no paperwork to deal with at all, meaning he might only need to do a couple of hours of paperwork a day instead of spending most of the day on it.
Obi-Wan just smirked.
.
Six hours later, Obi-wan was getting ready for bed when the timer went off. Just in time. He had put off his bedtime just to be able to take care of the stew. The next step was to blend the current stuff in the broth. He removed the bones and set them aside before blending up the stew. He tasted it, tilted his head and nodded to himself.
He dumped in the spices he had prepared earlier and then chopped up some pungent bulbs to add in. Then he grabbed some more milk and stirred a little more in. That helped the stew be creamy, but not too creamy. It actually really helped bring the flavors together. He tasted it again. Perfect. He set the stew to simmer for six more hours. That would be when the main ingredients could be added to the broth.
Then he stretched and went to bed. Making his favorite stew recipe always left him short on sleep, but it made a lot and was always worth it. He just couldn't do it frequently. He considered freezing the rest of the stew after Cody and he had eaten a share for lunch to bring back on the Negotiator with him, where he might share it with some of his favorites among the men, including most of the cooking crew who always did their best to make the food as tasty as possible. Which wasn't always that possible.
.
Obi-Wan groaned when his alarm went off. He turned it off and stretched as he got out of bed. He didn't bother getting out of his sleep clothes before going into the kitchen to finish preparing the tiingilar. Now was time to add the chunks of food to simmer for four hours and get nice and cooked. Well, not all of it. Much of it would be added at different times because some would get too soft otherwise. The last thing to be added would be the noodles. Which he still had to make. Once the first round of ingredients were chopped up and in, and the rest prepared to go in so he'd just have to grab them and drop them in, he started in on the dough to make the noodles.
Just then, Cody walked in. He stopped dead. “Uh... What are you doing?”
“Just making the noodles. Once I'm done mixing, the dough needs to rest for an hour, and then I can start working it to make the noodles, which go in only in the last fifteen minutes before the stew is ready, and do need some time to rest after being shaped.”
“...and you couldn't put on clothes to do that?”
Obi-Wan shrugged. “It's my rooms, I'm not expecting to see anyone today, and I'm not planning on leaving until after lunch, since I'm actually getting a break from my councillor duties for a week and don't need to worry about that til then.”
“Fair enough.” Cody gulped. He had never seen Obi-Wan wear so few layers before, and these weren't even robes. He looked good. He wasn't sure he would survive the morning with that view, even if the layers still hid the important parts.
“So... breakfast?” he asked tentatively.
“Caf's prepared, just need to run it, I made extras last night you can eat that for breakfast if you want something heavy.”
“Okay.” Cody went and pulled out one of the extras and heated it up. The caf was made. He sat down and enjoyed the breakfast, though he kept watching Obi-Wan curiously. He had never seen anyone make noodles before.
Obi-Wan finished up for the time being and covered the dough before tossing a few more prepared ingredients into the stew. He then joined Cody with a cup of tea.
Cody looked up at him. “I was thinking... would it be possible to at least give our cooks your recipes along with the spices? We do have some spare rooms no one uses that could be turned into a greenhouse, if we really wanted to do that.”
“That's a great idea.” Obi-Wan brightened. “We could grow our own tealeaves and caf beans too then. And it would be a good hobby for some of the men. And a good punishment too, I imagine.”
“And then we could use the money we save on not needing to buy the products to supplement our rations and use that to buy meat or other things we need. I know you can keep gambling get us more money, but this way we can at least be efficient about it.”
“Minus the cost of starting up, of course.” Obi-Wan nodded. “Let's spend the morning working on the paperwork, and the afternoon researching what we need and maybe starting to make arrangements. I'll make sure to spend some time while we're here writing down the recipes I know, and finding cookbooks and other resources for our cooks to experiment with.”
“I'll help of course.” Cody smiled. He finished up his breakfast and got set up with his paperwork. He was fully intent on getting it done as quick as possible, still. Even if now his days would be broken up in figuring out something to improve their men's lives. He even managed to forget that Obi-Wan had never bothered to change out of the sleep clothes. Until he looked up of course, an hour later when the noodles were ready to be finished.
He kept sneaking glances as he worked, curious about the process of making noodles. Obi-Wan was also quite good looking in those sleep clothes so it was a great view. Cody chose not to think further about that, choosing instead to live in ignorance about why he was enjoying this.
Once he got the dough all worked through, Obi-Wan deftly rolled it out. He was definitely experienced in making noodles, which surprised Cody. He'd thought most people preferred to just buy the pre-made stuff that had dried and needed to be boiled. When they were at the right thickness, Obi-Wan started cutting the dough, and then shaping it.
Cody looked down, realizing he'd only signed two things since he started watching Obi-Wan work. He blushed and got back to work, still looking up in fascination every so often. He had made better headway into the stack by the time Obi-Wan finished. He was pleased with the progress he had made.
By the time the stew was ready, he thought that even at doing work only in the mornings, he would be caught up by the end of the week. Thankfully. Which would really free him up. Just do some rearranging with Obi-Wan about testing the food, and he could even go hang out with his friends at some point. He had been worried he'd be stuck working for most of the leave, but it wasn't as bad as he'd thought.
Obi-Wan served the stew with some bread he had picked up. “Normally, there's a homemade recipe for the bread, but I haven't had the time to make it. It's the most popular type of bread in Mandalore, and goes really well with the stew. I like having it around in general, so I usually make a batch if I find the time on leave, and it can take me weeks to get through it. This is the closest I can get to that type of bread without going to Little Keldabe.”
“Okay, that makes sense. It's for dipping?” He got a nod. Cody dipped the bread into the stew and watched it soak up the broth before trying it. He nearly coughed from the spice. He wasn't quite prepared for the spice, but was glad he tried the bread first.
After a few bites, he got used to it, and started enjoying the meat and veggie combination. “This is pretty good. I can't believe it takes so long to make though.”
Obi-Wan shrugged. “A lot of stews and soups taste better on day two rather than one, it taking so long just makes it so that it tastes amazing on the first day instead of dull. But a warning, the longer spicy things sit, the spicier they get in a lot of cases. Stews are no exception.”
“And yet you're considering bringing some to the Negotiator?”
“Yep. The leftovers from this I can freeze to keep it from going bad. I can make a big batch the day before. I usually start it after dinner so that it's ready for lunch, but it's just as doable to start it as soon as I'm up and it being ready that night. Then I just need to store it properly so the noodles don't get too soft and it's ready to serve after heating the next day.”
“Well, as long as I'm there to see their reactions, I don't care how you do it.”
“I can do that.” Obi-Wan grinned at him.
They were nearly done eating, and casually discussing preliminarily what would be needed to support having actual food on the Negotiator when Cody's comm beeped. It was Rex, asking him if he wanted to go out tonight.
Can't, general kidnapped me for experiments. He didn't really think the message through but also was really interested in the plans they were making. He didn't want to interrupt it for last minute plans. He considered offering another time, but he also didn't want to miss out on any homemade food that he had never had before.
Do you need rescue?
Cody snorted. Nope, I'm enjoying this.
Oh have you two finally confessed your feelings for each other then?
Cody stared at it blankly, shook his head and finished his stew before dignifying that with a response. Even if I might have a small crush on him, I don't think he's interested.
Yet he 'kidnapped' you not anyone else. And 'small' riiiight. Don't believe you
I am the commander of his battalion you know. Who else would he go to for second opinions?
Second opinions on what?
That's for me to know. You don't get to after that.
You mean telling the truth?
There's no way he has feelings for me. And it IS just a small crush.
Cody, you walked into a wall when his robes got torn up by Grievous that time. You watch him when he's just eating. no way it's a small crush.
I did not! Cody flushed and put away the comm, deciding not to answer further. It was already making him think too hard about his feelings, and that was one thing he hated doing. He didn't want to know how much he loved his general. He didn't want to know how much he would one day be crushed by rejection in some way. He liked living in denial, thank you.
He focused back on the debate. They had come around to discussing other ways to make their men's lives better and bringing things like arts and crafts on board. After they got a bit overexcited about it, they decided to shelve it for when the food and gardening ideas were taken care of. Two weeks was such a small time to make arrangements. And getting a space greenhouse started would take a lot of the funds Obi-Wan had stored away. He would need to spend a lot of time gambling to make up for it.