During the dumpster fire that was 2020, people turned to various forms of entertainment to distract themselves. For so many of us, the distraction was Harry Potter books and movies. Draco TikTok became a thing, and I was confused, disturbed, and somehow intrigued. With the resurgence of Harry Potter, I decided that I wanted to immerse myself in the culture and make foods based on the colors of each of the Hogwarts houses. The first house that I made food based on was the Ravenclaw house.
The Ravenclaw House
The Ravenclaw House is known for intelligence, wit, wisdom, learning, and creativity, and it sure did take loads of creativity to come up with foods that reflected the colors of the house. The colors of the Ravenclaw House are blue and bronze — not a color commonly found in food. After hours of pondering and debating, I came up with ideas of what to make.
The Food
What's the first food that comes to mind when thinking of the color blue? Blueberries. Obviously, I had to include these in the dessert, but what could be used for the main meal? The only other blue food that came to mind was blue corn, so I scoured my local grocery store for some blue corn tortilla chips. When I finally found a bag, the plan started to come together. With the blueberries, I would make a blueberry hand pie with some bronze sprinkles for some added sweetness and crunch. With the blue corn tortilla chips, I would make crispy blue corn coated tofu with bronze roasted potatoes and carrots.
The Process
The first item that I prepared was the crust for the hand pies.
It was a relatively simple crust with only five ingredients — similar to a pie or biscuit dough. The recipe I used for reference is The Pretty Bee's Scrumptious Blueberry Hand Pies. After cutting the vegan butter into the dry ingredients, I added two tablespoons of water to bring the dough together and let it chill in the fridge while I cooked everything else.
Next, I made the crispy tofu and roasted veggies.
I sliced and pressed the water out of the tofu with a pan as a weight, to prevent the tofu coating from being soggy.
As the tofu was drying, I washed, sliced, and seasoned the carrots and potatoes. I seasoned the potatoes with salt, garlic powder, chili flakes, and dried rosemary.
The carrots were seasoned with salt, fresh cracked black pepper, chili flakes, garlic powder, dried rosemary, and oregano.
For the tofu coating, I happily crushed some blue corn tortilla chips and mixed them with salt, garlic powder, and corn starch.
Finally, it was time to assemble the tofu. In a somewhat effective dredging station, I dipped the tofu in soy sauce, then in the crushed chip mixture.
As the tofu and veggies were roasting, I assembled the hand pies. I dusted the blueberries with sugar and flour and stuffed them tightly into a circle of chilled dough.
I crimped the edges of the dough together like an empanada and left the edges uneven to get a crispy and craggy exterior. This made the hand pies look more rustic and improved the texture as I feel the dough or crust is the best part of a pie.
After everything finished baking, I was left with savory, crunchy, and colorful tofu, bronze potatoes that were crispy on the outside and creamy inside, and sweet and spicy roasted carrots.
The hand pies came out flaky, sweet, and warm with the bronze sprinkles on top providing an extra crunch and sweetness.
Ravenclaw Review
After cooking for over four hours, I felt tired, relieved, and satisfied. The food was warm and comforting, and made me feel like I was eating at a feast in the Hogwarts castle. The tofu wasn't a complete success due to the lack of breading structure, but that's a simple fix. The hand pies and roasted veggies were delectable, and I felt extremely content as I ate warm, comforting food while having a Harry Potter marathon on Zoom with my friends.