The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook (24 page)
Serves 6
Hermione and Ron are in a fight… so what else is new? Ron made fun of Hermione in a lesson with Professor McGonagall, and now she's sitting alone at the Gryffindor table, not really eating her stew. She's mad, and it doesn't help that he's dating Lavender and not her (see
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
, Chapter 15).
This stew hails from Chiddingly in East Sussex, an important Roman mining town. There's practically no information of how this dish evolved and how olives came to be a part of it. But it tastes good, and that's all that matters.
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound chuck steak or eye roast, trimmed and cut into 1-inch cubes
Flour for dredging
1 onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
½ cup chopped green olives
About 1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar
2 tablespoons malt vinegar
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 large red-skinned potatoes, thinly sliced
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet. Dredge the meat pieces in the flour and cook in batches over medium-high heat, tossing the meat as it cooks, until well-browned. Transfer to a large plate.
Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and add the onion and celery. Cook over medium heat, scraping up the fond (the browned bits on the bottom), until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.
In a medium-size deep round baking dish, layer half the celery-onion mixture, then half the olives. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of each of the vinegars, 1/8 teaspoon of the cloves, salt, and pepper. Then layer over that half the meat. Arrange half the potato slices on top. Repeat this layering once. Pour in chicken broth to come halfway up the sides of the dish. Sprinkle the top layer of potatoes with more salt and pepper. Cover tightly and cook for 2½ hours.
Remove the cover and check that the stew is not too dry; if it is, add some more chicken broth. Bake uncovered another 30 minutes until browned on top.
Serves 4
What a way for Hermione to find out about the house-elves at Hogwarts — at the start-of-term feast, when everyone is starving. Harry has just finished swallowing his steak when Nearly Headless Nick talks about the trouble Peeves caused in the kitchen with the house-elves. Hermione is hungry, but she feels it's wrong to eat any more. Harry and Ron are unaffected, of course (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 12).
“Collops” is a quaint word that means “slices,” specifically slices of meat. The Victorians had very strong feelings about how their collops should be prepared. The cookbook
Great British Cooking
by Jane Garmey repeats a story related by the famous Victorian cookbook author Isabella Beeton: a woman was asking around about a cook she was thinking to hire. When told about the cook's high moral character, she said, “Oh, d'n [sic] her decency; can she make good collops?”
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1½ pounds strip steak, cut against the grain into 1/8-inch-thick slices
1 onion, sliced
1 10-ounce package mushrooms, sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Heat the oil in a skillet and brown the meat over high heat, about 1 to 2 minutes per side, in batches, taking care not to overcrowd the pan. Remove each batch of meat to a plate. Add the onions and mushrooms to the pan and reduce the heat to medium-high. Cook, stirring often and scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen the flavorful fond (browned bits), until the onions are brown and the mushrooms are soft.
Remove the skillet from the heat and add back the meat, tossing to combine. Serve alongside buttered egg noodles.
Serves 6
Hermione knows she can't help the house-elves by starving herself to death, but she can go to the library. That's her mantra: when in doubt, go to the library. She stuffs her mouth as fast as she can with lamb chops, potatoes, and sprouts so she can use the remaining lunch period to read up on elf rights (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 13).
Brussels sprouts have a bad rap as being one of the least desirable veggies out there. A good reason many don't like this veggie is simply that they've only had it overcooked. To get scientific about it, overcooking releases sulfuric compounds that taste just, well, gross. So be very careful not to braise the sprouts for longer than 7 minutes.
1 pound frozen Brussels sprouts (use frozen sprouts for easier preparation)
1 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup whole milk
¼ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Bring the sprouts and water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook sprouts about 7 minutes, until tender. Drain the sprouts and transfer to a serving dish.
Heat the butter in a skillet until foaming. Add the flour and stir to combine. Pour in the milk while stirring. Add the salt, nutmeg, and pepper, and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until thick and bubbling.
Pour the sauce over the sprouts. Serve warm.
Serves 6
The sprouts can be stored with the sauce in the refrigerator up to 1 week but should be reheated gently over a low flame or in the microwave.
To make the foreign students feel at home, the dishes of their native cuisines appear along with the usual Hogwarts fare on the Great Hall tables at the feast welcoming Durmstrang and Beauxbatons (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 16).
If you've been wondering how in the world to pronounce it, your search is over. Ready? Here goes: bool-yuh-BAYSS. Any dish with a French name sounds fancy, but this stew originated with simple fishermen. A very logical story: the fisherman comes home with the catch he hasn't been able to sell, an assortment of fish and shellfish. The wife dumps it all in a pot with veggies and herbs, wine and olive oil if available, and boils it up to serve with bread. Simple enough — although the variety of ingredients in this recipe is anything but.
½ cup olive oil
1 cup chopped onion
3 ribs celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups clam juice
¼ cup fresh flat-leaf parsley, minced
1½ cups chopped tomatoes
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1 tablespoon paprika
½ cup dry white wine
Pinch of saffron
¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 pounds firm white fish like halibut, sea bass, or snapper, cut into bite-size pieces
1 pound lobster meat, cut into bitesize pieces
1 pound crabmeat
1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 dozen clams
1 baguette per serving
Butter, for serving
In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions and celery and cook, stirring, until tender, about 3 minutes.
Add the minced garlic, clam juice, parsley, tomatoes, salt, thyme, paprika, wine, saffron, and red pepper flakes. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover the pot. Simmer for 30 minutes.
Bring the soup to a boil over high heat. Add all the seafood, cover again, and reduce the heat to a simmer for 45 minutes.
Divide the soup among 6 bowls. Serve with the fresh bread and butter.
Serves 6
The following nine recipes are based on a quote from
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
: “The pale blue Beauxbatons carriage looked like a large, chilly, frosted pumpkin… while the Durmstrang ship's portholes were glazed with ice, the rigging white with frost. The house-elves down in the kitchen were outdoing themselves with a series of rich, warming stews and savory puddings” (Chapter 23).
T
he Oxford Companion to Food
tantalizingly asks about Toad in the Hole, “How did it get its name?” but doesn't answer the question! Wikipedia explains that maybe it's because the sausages poking out of the batter look like toads poking their heads out of their holes. They don't, but oh, well. Someone had too much imagination.
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 pound of your favorite sausages