Turnip Turnovers for Luna Lovegood
“The girl gave off an aura of distinct dottiness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had stuck her wand behind her left ear for safekeeping, or that she had chosen to wear a necklace of butterbeer caps, or that she was reading a magazine upside down.”
I skipped two Potter books. I’m going to go back to them, but I’ve been so excited to make these, and, with Fall everywhere now, it seemed like a great time to skip ahead to The Order of the Phoenix.
To skip ahead to Luna Lovegood.
When we first meet Luna, she’s alone in a train compartment. “She had straggly, waist-length, dirty-blond hair, very pale eyebrows, and protuberant eyes that gave her a permanently surprised look. Harry knew at once why Neville had chosen to pass this compartment by” (185).
As “Looney” as everyone seems to think she is, we quickly find out that she’s in Ravenclaw, and that she notices far more than anyone thinks she does. Like the fact that Ron took Padma Patil to the Yule Ball in the previous book.
I wanted to make a turnover for her, with a puff pastry dough as the crust since most people think she’s flaky. I thought the turnover would be cute too, since she’s reading the Quibbler upside down when we first see her.
For the filling, I wanted to do something a bit weird. Something that most people wouldn’t expect.
Turnip.
Turnips are part of the radish family, and I knew I wanted to use them to represent Luna’s radish earrings (her earrings aren’t really radishes, even though they look like them, but they keep the Nargles away). Radishes have more of a bite to them, and I thought the mild flavor of the turnip would represent Luna’s personality better.
I wanted something to symbolize Luna’s airy manner. She’s sweet, if quirky. And her head always seems to be up in the clouds, even when it isn’t. I thought a marshmallow dipping sauce, made with cream cheese, would be fitting, especially if it’s topped with something sharp… cracked black pepper.
I decided to buy the puff pastry because Luna never takes anything for granted. Making puff pastry from scratch is pretty easy, but it takes a long time to do. And we could be looking for Crumple Horned Snorkacks instead of spending hours making this dough.
Turnip Filling (I doubled this because my dad loves turnips)
-1 (1-1 1/2 lb) waxed turnip, peeled and cubed—I have to tell you, this is hard to do, so you’re going to need a good knife, and you’re going to need to be feeling strong. Make sure you watch your fingers. OR! You can buy them pre-cut. But they only do that in the fall.
-1/4 tsp ground black pepper
-1/4 c marshmallow fluff
-3 tbsp unsalted butter, grated
-1/2 c milk
Add the cubed turnips to a large pot of cold water, and cook over medium-high heat, eventually boiling, until the turnips are soft enough to be stabbed by a fork. It’ll take a long time for these to cook… usually between 30-60 minutes. It all depends on how small or how big you cubed them.
When the turnips are tender, pour them through a strainer to get rid of most of the water.
I used a ricer, which was about $10-15, to mash my turnips. You can use a potato masher too, but I’ve found that the ricer makes the turnips a bit smoother. I put my ricer on top of a measuring cup, which I lined with cheesecloth.
4. THIS IS IMPORTANT! You have to put the turnips in the cheesecloth to strain more of the water out of them, or your turnovers are going to be a soggy mess. Once the turnips are in the cheesecloth, you want to start squeezing them. You have to keep squeezing them until you can’t get any more water out of them. The picture below shows all of the water I squeezed out of the turnips with the cheesecloth, and why this step is so important.
5. Once the turnips have been completely drained, place them in a bowl, and stir in the milk.
6. Add the pepper and fluff, and stir them in.
7. Fold in the grated butter.
8. Set aside.
9. Thaw the store bought puff pastry dough for about fifteen minutes.
10. Cut the dough into thirds where the creases are.
11. Cut one square off of the end of each rectangle. It should look like the picture below.
12. Place two tablespoons of the turnips in the center of one of the halves of the rectangles, like the picture below. Essentially, your going to fold the rectangle into a square, and the turnip should be in the center of the one square.
13. Repeat steps 10-12 with the second slab of puff pastry.
14. Place two tablespoons of the turnips in the center of three of the single squares.
15. Wet your finger and run it along all of the edges of the dough. This is going to act like a glue and seal them together.
16. Put the other three single squares on top of the three with the turnips.
17. Fold the rectangles in half, covering the turnip sides.
18. Use a fork to crimp all of the open edges together. You can wet the edges a bit more if they aren’t sticking, but make sure you don’t wet them too much.
19. Place them on a cookie sheet (it doesn’t have to be lined), and bake them at 350 degrees for 18-24 minutes. They should be puffed up and golden.
20. Let them cool a little.
Marshmallow Dip
-8 oz cream cheese, room temperature
-1 1/2 c marshmallow fluff
-cracked black pepper
In a medium-sized bowl, cream together the cream cheese and fluff.
Using a pepper grinder, crack black pepper on top of the dip before serving.
If you don’t eat them immediately, you can refrigerate them for a few days… just be sure to warm them back up a little bit. Then start dipping, and enjoy your turnip turnovers.*
*Daydreaming about lion hats and Blibbering Humdingers while eating is recommended to achieve your best Luna Lovegood expression.
