All my thoughts turn to food when throwing a Halloween party that makes sure everyone of all ages experiences an eerie evening to remember.
There’s no end to the creative ideas out there to make your Halloween party a success: whether you get creative with some pumpkin carving, have fun with face-painting and fake wounds, tell stories of things that go bump in the night or – my favourite – go trick or treating (hopefully with more treats than tricks!)
However (as usual) my focus turns to food, and how to come up with a spooktacular feast. The best way forward, I find, is to start with easy recipes and to simply give them a little Halloween makeover that doesn’t require supernatural skills in the kitchen – other than a dash of creativity.
First of all, it’s time to get some spine-chilling soup on the go. Guaranteed to be lapped up is a cauldron of tomato soup, made with a base of onions, carrots, celery, garlic (to fend off the vampires) and a combination of fresh and tinned tomatoes. To make this ‘blood bath’ even spookier, take a few mini mozzarella balls and stud them with green and black olives to represent floating eyeballs. Then simply drop them into the soup when you’re ready to serve.
To serve alongside the soup, try some spicy broad bean fritters with lemon minted yoghurt, shaped into witches fingers with slivers of almonds as gruesome fingernails. Or, you could try shaping them into Halloween bats if you’re feeling brave enough to tackle a bit of handy knife work. For the fingers, I rolled the mixture into a cylinder shape and for the bats, I made larger, oval-shaped patties and once cooked, I carved them into simple bat shapes.
For my little devils, I always make a spooky Halloween margherita pizza, shaping the mozzarella into little ghosts. To make the ghosts, you’ll need a block of Mozzarella cheese (rather than the fresh mozzarella in liquid) so that the ghosts hold their shape. Again, use little pieces of black olives for the eyes. I followed Jamie’s basic pizza recipe for this Halloween version.
I hope these simple, spooked-up recipes inspire you to give some of Jamie’s recipes a Halloween makeover! Happy Halloween!