Horrific Halloween
Regina Murphy
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Happy Halloween!
I love to play with my food, and this is a primary food-playing holiday.
You may recall our past winning recipes like “Jaundiced Eyeballs,” “Gavin’s Gruesome Feet of Meat,” and “Penicillin Pizza.” This year we’re getting a little upscale, with foods that aren’t exactly gruesome to look at, but still meet the tone of the holiday. You can always lay out a plate of pickled herring and sardines. I did that last year and they were devoured...devoured! I couldn’t believe it,
Empanadas can be made several ways for your Halloween table. Stuffed with savories, they can be “Rotted Guts Pie” (mushrooms, cream cheese and roasted red bell peppers), Crabs (Stuffed with crab meat and cheese, with strips of green bell pepper or chiles for legs poking out of the crimped edge), Hatchets (stuffed with beef, onions and cheese, with a long pretzel stick out the bottom as a handle, and a drizzle of Sriracha along the blade), or even pumpkin pie moons.
This sweet dish can be made as half moons in an empanada press, or full moons if you place one dough round on top of the other and crimp the entire edge. Get creative by brushing the tops with a light layer of orange-colored cream cheese. Cut out a tiny bat shape from a fruit roll-up and park it on top. Or pipe on some tinted cream cheese “bolts” and “windows” to make them look like flying saucers. It just never ends!
This recipe makes about 3 dozen half-pies
PUMPKIN MOON EMPANADAS
2 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 cup sugar
1 (1 lb.) can pumpkin
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/4 tsp. cloves
1 2/3 cups evap. milk (1 can)
1/2 tsp. allspice
Pate Brisee for two pie crusts or equivalent
Combine the first nine ingredients to make the pie filling and bake it in a large greased casserole dish at 425 degrees for 15 minutes. Leave in the oven and reduce temperature to 350 degrees. Continue baking for 45 minutes or until a flat blade inserted in center of dish comes out clean. Cool on wire rack.
Roll the pastry out thin and cut into 4-inch circles. Place in empanada press if using. Put a spoonful of the cooled pumpkin mixture towards one side of the center of the circle. Fold over the crust into a half-circle and firmly crimp the edges closed with a fork. For full moons, put one spoonful of the filling in the center of one circle and place another circle on top, pressing lightly to remove air and then crimp the edges with a fork
Slice three small slits in the top for venting, place on a greased cookie sheet, and bake until crust is a light golden-brown. Serve warm or room temperature.
You can make these ahead and freeze them ahead by freezing, unbaked on cookie sheets, then thaw and bake them a few hours before serving. Since the filling is fairly moist, you don’t want to bake them too early or they'll become soggy.
This technique can be used for all kinds of fillings, from meats to fruits.
Here is a cheese and pastry recipe from “Britta, Webmistress of the Recipes.” The internet is a great source of inspiration for any holiday, but especially All Hallow’s Eve.
SPIDER WEB
BRIE EN CROUTE
1 small wheel of brie (8 oz.)
1 sheet of puff pastry
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp. butter
1/4 walnuts or pecans, chopped
Thaw puff pastry and trim a strip off the side to create your web with, leaving enough of a square to wrap the wheel in. Melt the butter in a sauté pan and brown the nuts for about 5 minutes. Add the brown sugar and pour in the center of the pastry sheet. Place the brie on top so that the sugared nuts spread out to cover the face. Wrap the puff pastry up around the sides of the brie and secure on top by pasting together with water or egg white.
Turn brie over and place seam-side down on a pastry sheet. Use the spare strip of pastry to build a spider’s web on top, perhaps even a spider, gluing in place with water or melted butter. Bake at 375 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes and serve with crackers or toasted slices of French bread.
If you prefer, you can spread a jam in place of the sugared nuts, or substitute dried fruit (chopped). Use anything that will complement the cheese and be easy to scoop up with a cracker.
This year I’m planning on some gazpacho shots, garnished with two pimiento-stuffed olives on a party pick to look like monster eyeballs staring at you. This recipe is a “quick and dirty” version that saves on chopping up all those vegetables.
QUICK GAZPACHO
2 cups V-8 spicy, low sodium
1 can diced tomatoes (Ro-Tel if you like spicy)
1 small white onion, diced
1 medium cucumber, diced
2 jalapenos, diced (optional)
Mix it all together and chill thoroughly. Serve in shot glasses for a cocktail party, or martini glasses for a smaller group. Choose your garnish: green olives, lime wedge, cucumber stick, a green onion, pickled green bean, etc.
Before we get too far away from the sweets, let me add this last recipe. These bones are look really convincing, especially if you dust them lightly with cocoa to make them appear aged. The texture is light and crisp, the flavor sweet —but not too much so. If you served raspberry/cherry/strawberry jelly on the side they could be dipped in “congealed blood”. The only potential problem is humidity — if it’s humid when you make meringues, or when you serve them, they will turn gummy and be more “trick” than “treat”.
BRITTLE MERINGUE BONES
3 large egg whites
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/8 tsp. salt
2/3 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Chocolate sprinkles
Preheat oven to 200 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment. In a medium sized bowl at high speed, beat egg whites, cream of tartar and salt till fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar. Add vanilla. Place in pastry bag fitted with a medium plain piping tip.
Pipe 3-inch bone shapes (femurs work best) onto parchment paper and bake one hour until set. Turn off oven, dry in oven one hour, dusting with chocolate sprinkles to resemble dirt after 30 minutes. Be sure to store in airtight containers or they will become soggy. Makes four dozen small finger-sized bones.
Insert maniacal laughter here--bwaaahahahahaaa! Happy Halloween, Happy eating and enjoy yourself this Friday. Don’t forget to set your clocks back this weekend, and don’t forget to vote Tuesday.
Next week we’ll have a special Veteran’s Day column featuring a vintage “Victory” cookbook from the Westport chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, followed by pies. So tell me, dear readers, what do you do with your chicken stock? Poultry season is approaching, and all those bones can be boiled up for some fabulous flavor bases. How do you make stock and then what do you do with it?
Send those recipes and helpful hints to murphysmenu@yahoo.com or 517 Merchant St. Let’s Get Cooking!