Wookiee Hut Cuisine presents: Blood of Gryffindor Soup by SuSu and MaceVindaloo In addition to a Halloween ball, each of the Hogwart's houses were allowed to have their own house-only parties. We've documented Slytherin House initiation party. Gryffindor had its own initation, and they make a potion that reflects their scarlet and gold house colors. It's important to keep the two soups separate and to make them the same density so they can be poured out for serving. It was the serving that was impressive: the two soups would each be put into pitchers, and the two poured into a soup plate side by side slowly and close to the bowls to avoid splashing. The result was a side-by-side bowl of red and gold soup. As Halloween is close to the start of the school year, it was a way to "initiate" the new students into the house, explaining to them the scarlet stood for courage, while the gold stood for perseverence. They had to drink it down — thus incorporating "blood of the house" into themselves — and after drinking down the brew, the new students were dubbed as "official" Gryffindors! Blood Red Courage Soup 6 beets 3 medium sized sweet potatoes 2 pears oil, for rubbing onto vegetables 2 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion, diced 1 clove garlic, crushed hot water or chicken stock or broth 3 tablespoons tomato paste salt, to taste pepper and/or hot pepper sauce, to taste Heat the oven to 400°F / 200°C. Line a baking tray with foil. Scrub the beets, sweet potatoes, pears, then dry them off. With your hands, rub oil on the vegetables and place on the tray. Roast the vegetables till they are tender, about 40 minutes, depending on how large the individual vegetables are. When the vegetables and pears are roasted, let them cool till they can be handled, and chop them up, skins and all (but remove the core and stem from the pears). In a pot, heat the olive oil and cook the onions and garlic over medium low heat, till soft. Add the roasted and chopped beets, sweet potatoes, and pears. Cook for a few minutes, then add 4 cups hot water or stock. Stir to dissolve food off the bottom of the pot. Add the tomato paste and stir. Add more hot liquid to loosen the texture if necessary. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Use a blender or food processor to purée the soup. Be careful — hot liquids expand on blending, so blend less than half of the volume of the container at a time. When done, adjust the seasoning and the density with salt, pepper, and water and/or stock. Golden Perseverance Soup 4 tablespoons butter 1 onion, diced 3 carrots, peeled and chopped 2 ribs celery, chopped 4 tablespoons flour 4 cups chicken stock, or so 30 oz canned or frozen niblet or creamed corn 1 or 2 cups milk or cream salt, to taste pepper, to taste In a large pot, melt the butter and sauté the onion, carrots, and celery over medium heat, till the vegetables soften but don't brown. Sprinkle the flour over the cooked vegetables, and stir. The flour will "seize" up the butter; scrape the bottom of the pan to prevent the flour from burning. When it's lightly browned, add a cup of hot chicken stock and stir to incorporate. When it forms a sort of paste, add more chicken stock, and keep stirring. Stop at about 4 cups of stock. Add the corn; if you are using canned corn, you can use the canning liquid, too. Use a blender or food processor to purée the soup. Be careful — hot liquids expand on blending, so blend less than half of the volume of the container at a time. When done, adjust the seasoning and the density with salt, pepper, and milk and/or cream. Soup Assembly Put the Beet Soup and Corn Chowder into separate heat-proof pitchers. Have a hot soup plate ready; you will need to pour both soups into the bowl at an even pace. Don't pour from a great height, get down close to the bowl. If the densities are similar, you can get a bowl of soup that's half red, and half gold. If one soup is thinner than the other, it will come out of the pitcher faster; the solution is to pour the thinner soup more slowly. Don't worry if it's not perfect — you can garnish it with a dollop of sour cream and a scattering of chopped parsley or chives to cover up any problems. If the soups are thick, you can do this in a transparent mug, too. It's quite attractive looking! Disclaimer: All content is made up, and no profit or lucre is expected, solicited, advocated or paid. This is all just for fun. Any comments, please e-mail the author or WOOKIEEhut directly. Flames will be ignored. Characters and situations are based on those which are the property of LucasFilms Ltd., Bantam Publishing, Random House, Bloomberg, Scholastic, etc. and their respective original owners and developers. The rest is this story's author's own fault. This story may not be posted anywhere without the author's knowledge, consent, and permission. These recipes are provided "as is," and neither Wookieehut nor any person associated with the website is responsible for any success or failure of the recipes, nor any implied effects. If there are questions, please email the author. This page is presented by Wookieehut.