The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook - Dinah Bucholz [39]
The Romans — no surprise there — brought the chestnut tree to Britain. Over the years and in many countries, chestnuts were ground up and mixed with flour, but these days we eat them roasted. They're also popular with Brussels sprouts at Christmas time.
1 pound frozen Brussels sprouts
1 cup water
½ teaspoon salt
¼ stick (2 tablespoons) butter
1 cup chopped canned chestnuts
2 tablespoons dark or light brown sugar
Pinch of nutmeg
Bring the sprouts, water, and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Reduce to a simmer and cook about 7 minutes, until sprouts are tender. Drain the sprouts and cut into quarters.
Heat the butter in a skillet until foaming. Add the sprouts, chestnuts, brown sugar, and nutmeg. Cook, stirring constantly, just until heated through. Serve immediately.
Serves 4 to 6
Double Strawberry Ice Cream
Do you sometimes wish you had a cook like Mrs. Weasley in your home? Imagine finishing off a weeknight supper with homemade strawberry ice cream. Harry enjoyed this sumptuous dessert, the finish to a sumptuous meal, the night before going to see the fateful international Quidditch match (see Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 5).
“Doubtless, God could have made a better berry, but doubtless, God never did,” said Dr. William Butler, a sixteenth-century author. In those days, people ate strawberries with cream, still a favorite way to eat them — and what better way to improve upon it than to take these two simple ingredients and churn them into ice cream?
1 pound strawberries, chopped
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 cup strawberry jelly (not jam or preserves)
1½ cups milk
1½ cups heavy cream
3 egg yolks
Mix the strawberries and sugar together and let sit for 1 hour to allow the juices to be extracted. Drain well and reserve the juice. Set aside.
Combine the strawberry jelly, milk, and heavy cream in a medium saucepan and cook over high heat, whisking constantly, until the jelly has melted and the mixture is smooth — do not boil. Temper the egg yolks by whisking in 1 cup of the hot mixture; then return the yolk mixture to the saucepan while whisking constantly. Cook until the mixture thickens slightly; again, do not boil. Pour the mixture through a sieve.
Stir in the reserved juice. Lay a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a skin from forming and cool to room temperature. In separate containers, chill the custard mixture and chopped strawberries until completely cold, about 6 hours for the custard.
Freeze the custard mixture according to the manufacturer's instructions for your ice cream maker. Add the strawberries 2 minutes before the churning is over. Transfer to an airtight container and freeze until firm.
Makes about 6 cups
Apple Tart
No matter how annoyed he is, nothing interferes with Ron's appetite. While eating his apple tart, he fumes at his mother for making him clean up his room. Not bad, Ron (see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 6).
An English cookbook from the 1300s called The Forme of Curye — yes, they really did have cookbooks in those days — mentions tarts. A tart is flatter than a pie and has no top crust. And that's pretty much all you need to know about tarts.
Tart Dough
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk
3 tablespoons heavy cream
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Filling
5 tablespoons butter, divided
4 sweet apples, such as Fuji or Braeburn, peeled, cored, and sliced
½ cup granulated sugar, divided, plus more for sprinkling
½ teaspoon cinnamon
4 tart apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored, and sliced
For the crust, place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse