Molly's Magical Meat Pies
After Molly Weasly’s brothers, Fabian and Gideon Prewett, were murdered in the First Wizarding War, she was so distraught that she didn’t leave her bed for over a week. During her confinement, her eldest son Bill --11 at the time-- was put in charge of his younger siblings. He wished he was at Hogwarts with the rest of his friends, but he missed the age deadline by one month and 29 days. He would have to wait for the following school year. He became entirely frustrated with taking care of his younger brothers and sisters. The next older brother, Charlie, helped quite a bit, being 9 years-old, but Percy was 5, Fred and George 3, Ron 1, and Ginny a newborn of just over two months--certainly this was a hand-full. His father, Arthur Weasley, helped where he could, but was very busy chasing Voldermort’s followers that were bewitching muggle artifacts to cause chaos and damage. In addition to Bill’s child tending frustrations, it was very hard for him to see his mother in such a condition, let alone deal with his uncles’ deaths himself. In search of some sort of relief, he was constantly thinking about how to help his mother snap out of her depression. These were the thoughts on his mind, when he thought about how much his mother loved to eat meat pies. She was always happy when she made meat pies for dinner. She had a particular recipe she liked in the book Cooking the Muggle Way by Mordicus Egg. He retrieved the book, and with much difficulty made a pie for his mother--the muggle way. When he proudly walked into his mother’s room to display his creation. Molly was so touched that she decided, right then and there, that there was no point in her being useless in bed. That night for dinner, the family ate Bill’s pie which tasted awful. He had mistaken sugar for salt and cups for teaspoons. As a result, he added one cup of sugar to the meat pie. Molly quickly made another pie, this time with a little magic to speed things up a bit. She also added a teaspoon of sugar to the recipe in honor of Bill’s thoughtful gesture and named the pie Molly’s Magical Meat pies, because it made her so happy again.
Sources: wandw.wikidot.com, harrypotter.wikia.com, hp-lexicon.com.
Ingredients:
Crust
3 cups sifted flour
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 cup shortening
1/3 cup cold water
Filling
2 lbs stew meat
1 large onion, chopped
2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed
4 large carrots, peeled and cubed
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried parsley
1 teaspoon dried basil
Salt
Pepper
STEP 1: First, let’s make the crust. In a bowl, combine 3 cups flour and 1 ½ teaspoons salt. Cut in 1 cup of shortening. Mix in 1/3 cup cold water.
STEP 2: Form half the dough into a ball and place it on a floured surface or surface covered with plastic wrap.
STEP 3: Flatten out the dough with your hands.
STEP 4: Use a rolling pin to flatten it out even farther. You can use a piece of wax paper to keep dough from sticking to the rolling pin…or an anti-sticking charm.
STEP 5: Cut off any excess plastic wrap then roll the pastry around the rolling pin.
STEP 6: Unroll the pastry onto the pie pan.
STEP 7: Trim off excess pastry and cut slits on the bottom of the crust.
STEP 8: Boil potato and carrot chunks with 1 teaspoon salt until they are soft. Drain and set aside.
STEP 9: Cook stew meat with 1 chopped onion, 1 tablespoon minced garlic, 1 teaspoon dried parsley, and 1 teaspoon dried basil. Salt and pepper to taste.
STEP 10: Mix in the carrots and potatoes with the meat.
STEP 11: Tranfer filling into the pie shell.
STEP 12: Roll out the other half of your pastry and put it on top.
STEP 13: Trim off excess pastry and crimp the edges with a fork. Cut vents/slits in the top of the pie crust.
STEP 14: Bake in the oven at 350° for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown.
STEP 15: Remove from oven and let cool.