Halloween special: Freaky food
Get spooky with your food this Halloween
The Witch’s Hand
Chef Gunti, The Park
Ingredients
30 ml oil
500 gm minced chicken
Salt as per taste
Black pepper powder as per taste
2 big boiled potatoes
50 gm parmesan cheese grated
Almond slivers for detailing of the nails
Tomato ketchup for detailing of the blood
200 gm flour
1 tsp salt
50 ml milk
50 ml water
1 tbsp melted butter
Method
Take flour, add salt and knead into a dough with the milk and water. Knead further with butter and let it rest for a while. Flatten into a thin sheet with a rolling pin.
Heat oil in a pan and add chicken mince and season with salt and black pepper powder. Sauté till cooked and finish with parmesan cheese. Cool it and then mix with boiled potatoes. Mould the mix into any Halloween shape you like. Here we are making a severed witch’s hand. Cover with flattened dough. Imperfection is key to achieve a dirty ragged look! Using a toothpick or fork, score the “skin” or make wrinkle marks on the hand. Bake in a preheated oven at 220ºC for 20 minutes. Finish the detailing with “blood” using tomato ketchup or tomato sauce.
Spooky Cuties
Ingredients
200 gm cauliflower florets
100 gm diced potatoes
400 ml milk
Salt as per taste
20 ml cream
10 pitted olives
Few toasted bread slices
Method
Boil cauliflower florets and potatoes in milk and salt. Once soft cooked, strain and blend it with addition of cream. Pipe it with a star nozzle piping bag on the toasts. Finish the detailing of spookies with black olives.
Tandoori mummies
Prashanthi, food blogger, yummilyyours.com
Ingredients
10 paneer sticks
Pizza dough for the mummies
Pepper corns
Ketchup or mustard sauce
2 tbsp oil
For the marinade
1/8 cup yoghurt
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste
2 tsp red chilli powder
Salt to season
1/8 tsp garam masala
1 tsp lemon juice
Method
Beat the yoghurt to a smooth consistency and mix in the rest of the ingredients for the marinade. After mixing well, coat the paneer sticks with the marinade. Set aside and let it rest for at least an hour. Pan roast the marinated paneer in a tbsp of oil. You can also roast the paneer. Cut the pizza dough into thin long strips and wrap them around the paneer sticks to mimic mummified remains.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C for about 15 minutes or until the tops turn golden. Take the mummies out of the oven and make eyes with mustard sauce or chilli sauce.
Spooky Cupcake Cones
Chef Yogesh Joshi, Park Hyatt
Ingredients
(You can also buy cones if you want)
4 whole eggs
240 gm castor sugar
150 gm butter (room temperature)
90 ml milk
170 gm flour
90 ml vegetable oil
90 gm dark chocolate
For the filling
125 gm cream cheese
125 gm icing sugar
35 gm butter (softened)
1 whole lemon
50 gm whipped cream
1 vanilla pod
Method
For the cones: Break the eggs into a large bowl. While beating the eggs, slowly add sugar. Add flour, butter, milk and oil until a smooth dough forms. Set aside for about one hour. Pre-heat the oven to 200ºC. Spread the mixture thin with a spatula on a baking paper. Bake until golden brown. Shape into a cone. Once cold, it will become crispy and hard. Melt the chocolate and cover the inside of the cone with a brush.
For the filling
Mix cream cheese, icing sugar and soft butter together. Add some lemon juice. Crush out the vanilla seeds. Add the same to the mix. Fold in the whipped cream. Put the filling in a piping bag and dress into the cone. Garnish to your liking with spooky decorations. .
Boo! Horror hacks
Here are three simple ways to make your Halloween party a super-spooky hit
Rice pumpkins
Turn simple fried rice into something spooky. Make small balls out of the rice, use the stem of a brinjal or a chilli for the stem of the pumpkin and use small pieces of bay leaf for the nose and eyes.
Ghost bananas
All you need are bananas and some chocolate. Peel the bananas and cut the lower parts. Use small flattened pieces of chocolate cut in circles, for the eyes. For the mouth you can use a bigger piece.
Squiggly worms
If you want to gross out guests this is a fantastic idea. You will need ready-made jelly mix, keep the mixture ready and pour it into a set of straws. Put the straws in the fridge and let it set for a while. Afterwards slide out the jelly, and your squiggly worms are ready.