Herbed Boiled Potatoes, Surprisingly Good!

 This certainly isn't the flashiest, most magical, or most exciting recipe in The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, but it is a solid one.  This recipe can be found in chapter seven, Lunch and Dinner in the Dining Hall, and does seem like something Ron would have wolfed down while Hermione watched with concern.

It reminds me a lot of my grandmothers German potato salad.  It uses an oil and vinegar dressing instead of mayo, as most American potato salads do, and it is served warm, instead of cold.  It relies heavily on the vinegar and herbs for flavor, and is a tasty, simple side dish suitable for a weeknight meal.

I served this side with a main of Ogri'La's Chicken Fingers, from the Official World of WarCraft Cookbook.  A very nice pairing, as this potato salad is very bright and herby, a good contrast to the richer chicken.   I have actually made this dish a second time with fresh mint and thyme instead of dill, and it was fantastic. I think it will work well with a variety of herbs, depending on your tastes.  I don't happen to have Tarragon vinegar, which seems very specific, abut again I think a variety of vinegars will work.  I've tried both a simple cider vinegar, and a much more complicated raspberry and lime balsamic, and both made a wonderful dressing, so this recipe is very suitable to substitutions and working with what you have in your fridge, pantry, or garden

The only thing I would change when making this in the future is I might add salt to the water when boiling the potatoes.  Otherwise it is good as written, but also very easy to change to suite your needs.  This will certainly go into our regular dinner rotation!

The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: Review

Full disclosure, I've had this cookbook for years and made a number of recipes from it before I decided to start this blog. I received this lovely book from my husband as a birthday gift some years ago.  We immediately tried a number of recipes for the holiday season.  I didn't review any of them at the time, but all of them were interesting enough to make more than once.  I particularly want to make Aunt Petunia's pudding again, as it was a big hit the first time we made it!

This book has no pictures or illustrations of the finished recipes, and the pages are all rough cut, I presume to sort of imitate the feeling of a hand written spell book. I rather like the look and feel of the book, but it isn't the highly polished presentation that some of the other fantasy cookbooks aim for. The paper itself is good quality, and the individual recipes are easy to read and the directions are well written.  I enjoy the little historical and Harry Potter related notes included with each recipe. My only beef with this cookbook is the organization of the recipes themselves.  There is no real rhyme or reason to it that I can make out. Each section is related to a part of Harry's journey through the magical realm, or characters there-in.  There are sections for the Dursley's, the Train, Diagon Alley, Giant's and Elves, the Great Hall, and so forth.  It's very whimsical, and I do think it captures the feeling of the Wizarding World in it's layout, but it makes it more difficult to navigate when looking for main dishes or desserts, for instance.  It does have a very nice Index, something I have noticed most fantasy cookbooks lack, so that can help if you know the main ingredient or the name of the recipe you are looking for.

This cookbook is really a love letter to classic British cuisine, which I think shows through in the Wizarding World as well.  There's all the fun things foreigners might like to try, like Spotted Dick and Toad in the Hole, as well as more Wizarding World specific treats that fire the imagination, like Pumpkin Pasties and a wide variety of Honeydukes treats.  Mostly it's very common British fare. Stews, roasts, meat pies and classic puddings, the sort of things that are very suitable for regular meals.  I like the mixture of the magical and the mundane, it fits the world of Harry Potter very well.

Here are some of the recipes my family has tried from this cookbook.

Boiled Potatoes with Herb Vinaigrette.