The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook (20 page)
Often when we hear the word “porridge,” we think of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” but it's actually a real food that real people in the United Kingdom eat, especially the Scots, who've been eating porridge since before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons in the fifth and sixth centuries.
4 cups water
1 cup steel-cut oats
Milk or cream, for serving
Golden syrup, for serving
Bring the water to a boil in a medium-size saucepan. Slowly pour in the oats while stirring constantly. Simmer on a low flame, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes, until all the water is absorbed.
Serve with the milk or cream and generous amounts of golden syrup. Don't mix the golden syrup in or you will lose its unique caramel-like flavor.
Serves 4
Harry is too worried that the dragon in his first Triwizard task will fry his bacon to be tempted by the crispy fried bacon served the morning before the tournament. He's too nervous and, frankly, terrified to eat at all, but he takes comfort in knowing he would rather face a dragon than go back to the Dursleys' (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 20).
The British were much luckier than their contemporaries in other countries. In bad times, they had more food to eat than did the rest of Europe. Bacon was available even when a depression hit the country some 700 years ago. By the 1800s the lower classes were eating bacon almost every day for breakfast.
8 slices of bacon
Heat a large skillet. Add the bacon and fry on both sides until it is crisp.
Remove the bacon to a paper-towel-lined plate. Repeat until all the bacon is used up.
Serves 4
On the morning of a Quidditch match, Captain Oliver Wood excitedly dishes out scrambled eggs to his team members. The weather is excellent; what could possibly go wrong? He doesn't know yet that the match will be canceled due to a couple more mysterious attacks (see
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
, Chapter 14).
Eggs are a truly miraculous food. They have many uses, from simply being cooked and eaten (for which there are a million methods) to enriching breads and cakes, acting as a leavener or emulsifier, thickening sauces and custards… the list goes on and on. And that's without even mentioning what you can do with the whites and yolks separately. But for our purposes here, it's enough that scrambled eggs make a delicious and healthful breakfast.
1 tablespoon butter
6 eggs
¼ cup heavy cream
½ teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
½ cup shredded mozzarella cheese
Buttered toast, for serving
Tomatoes, for serving
Heat the butter in a large skillet. Whisk together the eggs, heavy cream, salt, pepper, and chives. Whisk in the shredded cheese. Pour the mixture into the skillet and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly and gently with a wooden spoon until set.
To serve, sprinkle more chopped chives on top. Serve with buttered toast and tomatoes.
Serves 3 to 4
To deflect questions about what Ginny was about to tell Harry, Percy (man, he has a guilty conscience!) asks for the breakfast rolls. But Ginny was about to tell Harry something much, much more important… good thing Percy interrupted, or she would've spoiled the plot (see
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
, Chapter 16).
Cinnamon rolls, or buns, are a classic breakfast treat. Most people don't know this, but the cinnamon you buy is more likely powdered cassia bark, which tastes like cinnamon and is more plentiful and therefore cheaper. Real cinnamon is said to be superior, but who would know?
Dough
¼ cup warm water
1 tablespoon (1 packet) active dry yeast
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2/3 cup whole milk
½ stick (4 tablespoons) butter
3 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1/3 cup granulated sugar
Cinnamon Filling
1 tablespoon butter, melted
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon
Icing
1 cup confectioners' sugar, sifted
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon heavy cream
½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Combine the water, yeast, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a mixing bowl and set aside until puffy. Heat the milk and butter in a small saucepan or the microwave until the butter is melted. Set aside. Whisk together the flour, salt, and yeast. Set aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar, then whisk in the milk-butter mixture. Add the yeast mixture and egg mixture to the flour mixture and stir to combine. (If making this dough by hand, first whisk ½ cup of the flour mixture into the egg mixture until smooth, then add the egg mixture to the rest of the flour mixture.) Knead the dough in the mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook or by hand either in the bowl or on a lightly floured surface until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Place in an oiled bowl, turning to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Set aside in a warm place until doubled in size, 1½ to 2 hours.
Grease and flour a 9″ × 13″ pan. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll into a 16″ × 12″ rectangle. Brush the tablespoon of melted butter over the dough. Combine the brown sugar and cinnamon and spread it over the dough until within ½ inch of the borders. Roll up the long side. Slice off the messy ends.
The best way to cut the roll is using dental floss. Sounds crazy, but a knife exerts too much pressure and squashes the roll. First, slide a length of floss under the roll until you reach the center. Bring the two ends over the roll and cross them, pulling until a neat cut has been made. In this manner, cut the two halves in half again, then each quarter into 3 slices to make 12 rolls in all. Lay the rolls in the prepared pan and leave to rise until the rolls are touching each other and reach the rim, 1½ to 2 hours.
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position and preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake the rolls for 20 minutes until golden brown, rotating the pan halfway through baking. Remove from the oven. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan, then invert the pan and reinvert the rolls onto a serving platter.
To make the icing, beat the icing ingredients together with a wooden spoon until smooth. Be sure to sift the confectioners' sugar or you will have lumps. Spread the icing over the rolls while they are still warm, or pipe the frosting using a #3 round tip. Eat immediately. The rolls do not keep well and should be eaten within a few hours of being made.
Makes 12 rolls
If you want the rolls for breakfast, prepare the rolls the day before through Step 3, but instead of setting them to rise, cover the rolls with plastic wrap and allow them to rise in the refrigerator overnight, then pop them in the oven in the morning. You can also prepare the icing ahead of time and keep it in the refrigerator; just allow it to come to room temperature before using.
Ron gets really mad at Hermione for stirring up the house-elves in the Hogwarts kitchens. She just doesn't get it: House-elves like being slaves. Now he's sure the food they'll send up from the kitchens will be horrible, but the next morning he's relieved to see that the kippers are fine (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 28).
To “kipper” a fish means to split it, clean it, and then cold-smoke it. Kippers are often eaten for breakfast with eggs and toast. Whole, cold-smoked kippers are hard to find in the United States. In this country they are sold as kipper snacks, small chunks or fillets of smoked, salted herring that can be eaten straight out of the container. If you don't mind spending a lot on food, you can order this delicacy online from companies based in the United Kingdom.
4 kippers
Butter, for serving
Salt and pepper to taste
Broil or grill the kippers for 5 minutes. Remove them from the oven or grill and brush butter over the kippers. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper.
Serve with toast.
Serves 4
Lunch and Dinner in the Dining Hall
The Great Hall is magnificent. Look up at the ceiling — wait a minute, where
is
the ceiling? It's there, but it's charmed to look like the outdoor heavens, reflecting the weather and time of day. You take your seat at one of the four long tables, one for each House, and if you glance up at the podium, you will see another smaller table, reserved for the staff.
Fantastic food magically appears on platters in front of you, and you dish it out onto your golden plate. Where does all this bounty come from? In the kitchens directly below the Great Hall, four long tables correspond to the tables above. The house-elves send up the food by magic (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 21).
The kitchens provide hearty lunches and dinners with such mouthwatering specials as steak and kidney pie and shepherd's pie. Great desserts — such as Harry's favorite, treacle tart — accompany each meal.
Harry probably did not know this, but in the nineteenth century, men were generally too busy to eat lunch; they ate a big breakfast and a big dinner and nothing or a small snack in between. You weren't a real man if you ate lunch — that was only for women and children. Men everywhere should be grateful that this has changed… and today, as everyone knows, lunch is the light meal eaten between breakfast and dinner. In some countries, dinner is eaten in the afternoon and then a light supper is eaten in the evening, but it seems that at Hogwarts both lunch and dinner were heavy-duty meals. All that wand-waving and magic-making must really stimulate the appetite.
Ron has just discovered that leprechaun gold is fake, and he rants about it as he serves himself roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. As always, nothing spoils his appetite, and even as he complains about being poor, he continues to scarf down potatoes (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 28).
The English developed a reputation for excellence in roasting beef. Roast beef is so important to the Britons that they even have a song about it called “The Roast Beef of Old England,” which in turn inspired a famous painting of someone holding a humongous chunk of raw beef. Interestingly, the U.S. military plays this song when roast beef is served at formal dinners.
1 4- to 5-pound rib roast (or shoulder roast if you want a leaner meat)
3 tablespoons kosher salt
1 tablespoon fresh coarsely ground black pepper
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a roasting rack and place it in a roasting pan.
Rinse the roast and pat it dry with paper towels. Generously sprinkle the roast with the salt and black pepper. Place the roasting pan in the oven and cook until the thermometer registers 120°F for rare, about 1 hour and 20 minutes; 125°F for medium rare, about 1 hour and 30 minutes; 132°F for medium, about 1 hour and 35 minutes; or 145°F for well done, about 1 hour and 45 minutes.
Remove the roast from the oven and tent a piece of aluminum foil over the roast. Let the roast rest 15 to 20 minutes before carving and serving. The resting time is important, as the roast will continue cooking for a few minutes due to residual heat; the resting time also allows the juices to redistribute themselves throughout the roast.
Serves 8
To prevent food-borne illness, it is recommended to cook roast beef to an internal temperature of at least 145°F.
Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding go together like peas and carrots. They are almost always served together, and lunch after a niffler lesson with Hagrid is no exception (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 28).
There was only so much meat to go around, so how to serve less of it but still leave the dinner table satisfied? Thrifty housewives always served the Yorkshire pudding before the roast beef at the traditional Sunday dinner to take the edge off the appetite. In the old days, when they cooked the roast on a spit over an open fire, they used to put a pan under the roast to catch the drippings, and the batter was poured into the hot drippings. As it baked, it soaked up the juices that continued to drip down from the meat.
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
3 tablespoons butter, melted
1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Whisk together the flour and salt in a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs until smooth, then whisk in the butter, then the milk. Pour the egg mixture into the flour mixture and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450°F. Pour the vegetable oil into an 8-inch pan or baking dish and put it in the oven while it's preheating. The oil needs to be hot before you pour in the batter.
Remove the batter from the refrigerator. It may need to be whisked again for a few seconds. Carefully pour the batter into the hot baking dish. Bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350°F and continue baking for another 10 minutes, until it puffs up around the edges and the edges are golden. Serve hot or warm.
Serves 6
At the Yule ball, the feast in the Great Hall is a bit different from usual. Instead of food magically appearing on the table, a menu has been placed next to each setting. Dumbledore demonstrates how this works by saying out loud the item he wants to eat, which in his case is pork chops (see
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
, Chapter 23).
If you were just a common man living in the old days, you may have chosen pigs to raise as livestock. Almost every poor family owned a pig. Pigs don't cost anything to feed, since they eat garbage and can forage for themselves. They also produce a lot of meat, and everything but “the eyes and the squeak,” as they say, can be used. (Try not to think too hard about that.)
4 6-ounce pork chops
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, whisked
2 cups seasoned bread crumbs
Vegetable oil as neede
Remove the pork chops from the package and pat dry with paper towels. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.
The breading process has three steps. The coating (breading) is a series of layers. Be sure to coat the food completely at each step of the process. You will need a bowl or large plastic bag for the flour; a bowl for the eggs; and a bowl for the bread crumbs.
Place the pork chops in the bowl of flour and turn them to coat evenly (or place the pork chops into the bag of flour and toss to coat evenly). Remove the chops from the flour and place in the bowl of beaten eggs; turn to coat completely. Lift out and let the excess eggs drain back into the bowl. Place the egg-coated chops in the third bowl of bread crumbs and turn to coat completely.
Fill a heavy skillet with enough oil to reach a depth of ¼ inch and heat to 350°F. If you don't have a thermometer to check the temperature, watch for the oil to begin moving (dancing) in the pan. Once that happens, sprinkle a pinch of bread crumbs into the oil. If they sizzle, the oil is ready. If the oil is smoking, it is too hot. If that happens, remove the pan from the heat and let it cool until the smoking stops. Then return the pan to the heat.
Carefully add the breaded chops to the oil and fry the chops about 4 minutes per side until they are browned and the internal temperature reaches 145°F. Use a pair of tongs to turn the chops. Do not use a fork. If the chops are pierced too many times, they will become dry.
Remove the chops to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain.
Serves 4
Harry gloomily eats his lamb chops and potatoes. He's just been yelled at by the captain of the Quidditch team for getting detention from Professor Umbridge — like it was his fault — and he knows she'll never let him off for Quidditch tryouts. Not to mention the huge pile of homework waiting for him when he finishes his detention with her. Well, he'd be a whole lot gloomier if he knew what horrors Umbridge has in store for him (see
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
, Chapter 13).
“Lamb” refers to a baby sheep up to a year old. Once it's celebrated a birthday, it becomes tough and gamy and is called mutton. Because lamb is very fatty, it's usually cooked with an acid such as wine (which contains tannic acid) to cut the fattiness.
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 shoulder lamb chops
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup white wine for adults or 1 cup canned chicken broth for children
1 teaspoon dried rosemary leaves
½ teaspoon ground sage
Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet.
Rinse the lamb chops and pat them dry. Sprinkle them on both sides with the salt and pepper. Sear the lamb chops on both sides over high heat, about 3 minutes per side, and transfer them to a large plate.
Wipe the fat gently off the skillet so as to leave the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil in the skillet. Add the onion and sauté until it is browned. Sprinkle the flour over the onion, then stir until well blended. Pour in the wine or broth while stirring. Stir in the rosemary and sage. Cook and stir, scraping up the fond (the browned bits), until the mixture is thickened and bubbling.
Return the lamb chops to the skillet. Cover the skillet and simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, until the meat is tender. Serve with the pan sauce, passing extra sauce at the table.
Serves 4
At the Dursleys', Harry has never been allowed to eat as much as he wanted. So at his first-ever Hogwarts feast his eyes must have been popping out of his head with amazement at the huge variety of dishes that suddenly appeared on the table in front of him, including roast chicken (see
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
, Chapter 7).
