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Halloween Recipes: Part 3, The Main Course
by Guest Writer, Valerie Whitmore[this is a repost from October 2012]
Jump to: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
When I plan our taste testing events I always try to plan for a disaster. This includes trying to find a recipe or two that have a high probability of turning out perfectly. I usually try for the heartiest of the recipes to be the sure-fire winners so we're not left with just snacky foods if the main dishes don' turn out. And believe me, pretty much every tasting has a glitch or two.
Typically the glitch is that we just don't get to a recipe. It's usually one that is a little more complex and can't be done in advance. Once the tasters show up the distractions start and sometimes it's hard to get things put together. And sometimes, thankfully less frequently, a recipe just doesn't turn out once I've started it
So for our Halloween tasting party I wanted a recipe that would be appealing to all (I wasn't sure if anyone would be turned off by the other "creepy" recipes). It also needed to be hearty enough to balance out the sweet treats without overstuffing the taste testers. I needed to be sure that we'd get to it. And, of course, it needed to fit with the holiday theme.
I found a pumpkin chili recipe in the Halloween section of CDK. I liked that it had a hint of heat to it with the chili powder and jalapeno but that it was meatless (since we were tasting over a dozen other recipes that evening). The recipe calls for 2 cups fresh pumpkin. Well, in typical fashion my closest grocery store didn't have any cooking pumpkins. Seriously - a week before Halloween? So I was left using canned pumpkin instead. Easier that way, of course, but I really wanted the fresh pumpkin.
Since I had so many other dishes to prep for I made the recipe up until you add the pumpkin and remaining ingredients and put it in a crockpot on warm a couple of hours before we ate. I stirred in the remaining ingredients during the last 45 minutes or so. The recipe really turned out good. The flavor was awesome and the heat from the chili powder sort of gently and politely snuck up on you after a few bites. If I was making this recipe just for us I would have used a "hotter" chipotle chili powder for more heat, but with guests I never want to spice things up too much since everyone's tastes vary.
Even though it was Halloween-y, I didn't want to just serve a bowl of chili. I needed something to make the theme more obvious
After going through nearly every recipe in our Halloween section I had lots of ideas going through my head. I decided we needed dinner rolls to go with the chili. Enter: Moldy Dinner Rolls with Blood Clot Butter
I made the butter ahead of time. It's basically just a honey butter with bacon crumbled in it similar to Marie Callendar's Honey Butter, but this version is dyed a lovely shade of red. The bacon is supposed to be the blood clots, of course. The flavor of the butter is amazing. I seriously had to stop myself from just digging in with a spoon. The taste testers agreed.
For the dinner rolls I had more of the frozen dough I used for the Breadstick Bats so I made the rolls from that. They were simply brushed with an egg wash dyed green. I didn't much care for how they looked with the wash covering the entire roll. I think having it speckled on might have been a more "authentic" touch. The recipe is based on this one simply titled "Mold"
You could very easily adapt this course to be an every-night meal. Just omit the food coloring and you have a lovely dinner. Unless you like green dinner rolls, of course.
Jump to: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5
When I plan our taste testing events I always try to plan for a disaster. This includes trying to find a recipe or two that have a high probability of turning out perfectly. I usually try for the heartiest of the recipes to be the sure-fire winners so we're not left with just snacky foods if the main dishes don' turn out. And believe me, pretty much every tasting has a glitch or two.
Typically the glitch is that we just don't get to a recipe. It's usually one that is a little more complex and can't be done in advance. Once the tasters show up the distractions start and sometimes it's hard to get things put together. And sometimes, thankfully less frequently, a recipe just doesn't turn out once I've started it
So for our Halloween tasting party I wanted a recipe that would be appealing to all (I wasn't sure if anyone would be turned off by the other "creepy" recipes). It also needed to be hearty enough to balance out the sweet treats without overstuffing the taste testers. I needed to be sure that we'd get to it. And, of course, it needed to fit with the holiday theme.
I found a pumpkin chili recipe in the Halloween section of CDK. I liked that it had a hint of heat to it with the chili powder and jalapeno but that it was meatless (since we were tasting over a dozen other recipes that evening). The recipe calls for 2 cups fresh pumpkin. Well, in typical fashion my closest grocery store didn't have any cooking pumpkins. Seriously - a week before Halloween? So I was left using canned pumpkin instead. Easier that way, of course, but I really wanted the fresh pumpkin.
Since I had so many other dishes to prep for I made the recipe up until you add the pumpkin and remaining ingredients and put it in a crockpot on warm a couple of hours before we ate. I stirred in the remaining ingredients during the last 45 minutes or so. The recipe really turned out good. The flavor was awesome and the heat from the chili powder sort of gently and politely snuck up on you after a few bites. If I was making this recipe just for us I would have used a "hotter" chipotle chili powder for more heat, but with guests I never want to spice things up too much since everyone's tastes vary.
Even though it was Halloween-y, I didn't want to just serve a bowl of chili. I needed something to make the theme more obvious
After going through nearly every recipe in our Halloween section I had lots of ideas going through my head. I decided we needed dinner rolls to go with the chili. Enter: Moldy Dinner Rolls with Blood Clot Butter
I made the butter ahead of time. It's basically just a honey butter with bacon crumbled in it similar to Marie Callendar's Honey Butter, but this version is dyed a lovely shade of red. The bacon is supposed to be the blood clots, of course. The flavor of the butter is amazing. I seriously had to stop myself from just digging in with a spoon. The taste testers agreed.
For the dinner rolls I had more of the frozen dough I used for the Breadstick Bats so I made the rolls from that. They were simply brushed with an egg wash dyed green. I didn't much care for how they looked with the wash covering the entire roll. I think having it speckled on might have been a more "authentic" touch. The recipe is based on this one simply titled "Mold"
You could very easily adapt this course to be an every-night meal. Just omit the food coloring and you have a lovely dinner. Unless you like green dinner rolls, of course.