Harry Potter Week: Day 1 - Pasties

Welcome to Harry Potter Week!  As promised, I'm doing a weeks worth of Harry Potter food, based on the movies and books.  Having read the books (read: listened to in the car on my hour commute to work) and watched the movies, I get a little confused where I got the ideas for the food.  So, if you see something that clearly wasn't in the movies, it was probably in the book.

My family is a huge sci-fi fan, so Harry Potter was a natural fit from the start.  I know some people just don't get into the whole fantasy thing, but who wants real life stuff?  Enough of that goes on around me on a daily basis.  I don't need that in my down time too.  Am I right?!  Exactly.

Pumpkin Pasties, Cornish Pasties, Mini Shepherd's Pies, Chocolate Frogs and assorted veggies.

Anyhoo, I thought I'd start off by delving into the land of Pasties.  Now, being an American, it's hard not to giggle when saying, or even reading this word, because it means something entirely different over here.  However, in the UK, a pasty is like a savory hand pie.  I made two varieties.  One savory Chicken Cornish and a sweet Pumpkin Pasty.

Pumpkin Pasties
adapted slightly from Caroline Russock Cook the Book
reprinted with permission from The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook by Dinah Buchholz

I used my go-to pie crust recipe, which is the Martha Stewart recipe, but you can use whatever recipe you like, or a store bought one, if you prefer.

The filling is really quite delicious.  Except of course, if you do what I did, and forget to add the sugar!  Fear not though, I just added it after it was cooked, and it was fine.  The whole pie cooks again, so the sugar will dissolve if you happen to forget. =)

 

Cornish Pasties
Adapted from Diamonds for Dessert

I used the same crust recipe as before.  The Diamonds for Dessert recipe is for a beef pasty, but I wanted to make it a little healthier, so I chose to do chicken.  Everything else was pretty much the same, except I subbed chicken stock, for beef stock.

I thought the thyme in the filling was a little overwhelming, but when you taste it in the pie, it balances out nicely.  I might also reduce the salt a smidge.  Start out with a little, then add to your liking.

All of the dishes I'm featuring this week, I made for a Harry Potter party back in May.  And, let me say, these pasties were a huge hit!  They were among the first things to go!

Come back tomorrow for another Harry Potter recipe:  Mini Shepherd's Pies!!