This is a new column I will be doing that involves a watching a Disney film and creating an accompanying meal. For my first selection I felt it necessary to go with the first full-length animated feature and one of my personal favorites: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937).
During dinner we watched Snow White on Blu-ray and it was absolutely beautiful. A lot of people forget about the original Disney princess film, which is unfortunate because despite its old age the movie holds up splendidly. My favorite part about this film is the color scheme. The colors are rich and vibrant, especially the yellows, blue and reds. Red is the most prominent and important color in the film epitomized by the poison apple that puts Snow White to sleep. The Blu-ray transfer only accentuates these beautiful colors and brings the story to life even better.
As for the story itself, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a classic fairy-tale about a goodhearted princess, an evil Queen, a charming prince, and of course, seven fun dwarf friends. I admit to having laughed out loud of some of the antics of the dwarfs and the woodland creatures. You find yourself rooting for Snow White and being genuinely scared of the Queen whose transformation into an evil hag may be one of the scariest and most intense scenes in a Disney film. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a classic for a reason and holds its own against the more polished modern day Disney features.
For our main dish I took inspiration from the scene in which Snow White cooks dinner for the seven dwarfs. She makes an indescribable soup so I decided to find a soup or stew recipe online. I chose this recipe for Potato and Chickpea Stew to go with the color scheme (it has a beautiful red color to it) and because I’ve made it before and it’s quite delicious. You can find the recipe for it here
The stew was easy enough to make and gave a very homey feel; fun to enjoy while pretending you live in a cozy cottage in the woods. You can’t have a meal without a drink and to be a little theatrical, I decided to recreate the witch’s poison. No recipe needed really, it’s just boiling water (or tea) with green food coloring. This is obviously more for show than taste but it was fun to do.
For dessert there was only one option: apple pie. Snow White famously bakes a pie for Grumpy in the movie and I made mine as similar looking as possible. Snow’s pie is probably gooseberry (alluded to earlier in the film) but I had to go with apple of course. It was easy to make; I used Refrigerated Pillsbury Pie Crusts (one on top and one of bottom) in a pie dish and filled it with a mixture of fresh sliced apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, and butter. For the top crust I tried to mimic the same pattern Snow’s pie had even down to having “Grumpy” written on it. For obvious sanitary reasons I used a fork rather than my neighborhood songbirds.
I had a blast watching one of my favorite Disney films and coming up with creative recipes that fit the theme including my “poisoned” tea, “Grumpy” apple pie, and stew as red and Snow White’s lips. I hope this blog inspired some creativity in the kitchen and love with this beautiful film and I look forward to doing more. Feel free to share your recipes and ideas; I’d love to hear them!
Coming Soon: Brave
