Ever wanted to try ‘Frankenstein’s Fingers’ or maybe ‘Vampire Stuffed Potatoes’ are more up your street?
Compiled by Richard Pursehouse and Ben Cunliffe here are some updated super recipes from over the years to make your Halloween go off with a fright. And if you’re planning a few treats on November 5, you can use the recipes just as easily for a Bonfire Night.
While Staffordshire and Derbyshire are now in Tier 2, and you cannot mix with anyone indoors who is not in your ‘bubble’, perhaps your party won’t be so large but these offerings will go know a treat with those in your household.
Here is everything you need to make your Halloween a little bit more scary:
Frankenstein Fingers (for eight – so there will be some left over)
Ingredients: Small wholemeal loaf, 6-7 Tablespoons of salad cream, small packet potato crisps, crushed. Two cans of tuna in oil, teaspoon of chili flakes, 1 teaspoon French mustard, lemon juice, salt and pepper, 2 tablespoons of tomato sauce, parsley sprigs.
Remove crusts, cut loaf into three lengthwise, then into four the other way to make thick fingers. Spread salad cream all round the sides and coat with the crisps. Mash tuna in the oil with the mustard, lemon juice, chili flakes, seasoning to taste and salad cream to moisten. Spread mixture on top of each finger, drizzle with tomato ketchup for the ‘blood’ and put a parsley sprig on each one.
Scary Bean Potatoes (for eight)
Ingredients: Eight medium potatoes, salt and pepper, Worcester Sauce (one tablespoon), one can of baked beans, 2-3 table spoons of mustard, yogurt or soured cream, cayenne or paprika pepper.
Set oven at gas mark 6, or electric oven at 400 F (200 deg. C). Scrub potatoes and bake for about 40 minutes until tender when lightly squeezed. Heat the baked beans. Cut a lid or ‘X’ in each potato, scoop out flesh into a bowl, mash with seasoning and mix in the beans and yogurt or soured cream. Fill mixture into the potato skins. Serve hot.
Pixies Pumpkin Soup (for four)
Ingredients: 1 large chopped onion, two grated carrots, 4 garlic cloves, paprika powder to taste, 1 oz (25gr) of unsalted butter, 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 medium pumpkin, four medium potatoes roughly chopped, 1 litre (2 pints) vegetable (or chicken) stock, 100ml double cream, 3 tablespoons of pumpkin seeds, salt and freshly ground pepper.
Scoop out the flesh of the pumpkin, add the seasoning and garlic with the chopped pumpkin and cook the vegetables in the stock for 30 minutes, adding the cream 2 minutes before serving, sprinkling the pumpkin seeds on the surface prior to serving.
Hobgoblin Ham Dango (for six-eight)
Ingredients: Half a pound (250gr) of leeks, diced, 1 large onion, diced, 1 large cooking apple, peeled, cored and chopped, 1oz. (50gr.) butter, 2 level teaspoon of sugar, 1 can of tomatoes, 1 teasp. mixed herbs, 1/4 pint (173 ml.) of stock, 1/4 pint (125ml) sweet cider or light ale, can of chopped or sliced ham, salt and pepper, 1 tablespoon of mashed potato powder.
Cook leek, onion and apple in the butter for about 10 minutes without browning until soft. Mix in the sugar, tomatoes and herbs. Stir well and add the stock and cider or ale. Simmer for 15 minutes. Add the ham and seasoning to taste. Serve hot.
Terrifying Tuna (originally Mackerel) Dip (for eight)
Ingredients: One can of tuna (add ‘bloody’ tomato salsa), salt and pepper, 7oz (198g) tub of cottage cheese, sieved, chopped garlic or garlic puree, paprika, curry paste, tablespoon of mango chutney, soured cream or yogurt, salt and pepper, vinegar and Tabasco sauce to taste.
Mash all the ingredients together and serve in a bowl with tortillas for dipping.
Vampire Stuffed Potatoes (for eight)
Ingredients: Four large potatoes, 8 pork or Quorn sausages, 6oz (150gr) grated Double Gloucester cheese, salt and freshly ground pepper, 2 tablespoons of milk, 25gr of butter, a level tablespoon of horse radish sauce.
Scrub and heat potatoes Gas mark 5 or 190 C electric oven for 80 minutes or until soft. Roast sausages for 45 minutes in oven or until brown then remove to cool. Mix cheese and other ingredients and heat slowly in a saucepan until melted. Reheat the sausages for 2-3 minutes. Scoop out contents of potatoes, add contents of the saucepan and finish with a sausage on top of each and serve hot.
A recipe in 1963:
Pumpkin pie
No need to waste all that flesh scooped out from your pumpkin as you carve them.
Ingredients: 2 cups strained cooked pumpkin; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon; 2 eggs, lightly beaten; 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger: 2 cup evaporated milk; 1/4 teaspoon ground clone; a cup of brown sugar; 1/2 teaspoon salt; half a tub of mascarpone cheese and a teaspoon of strawberry jam for each helping. Cover in a layer of pastry.
Mix ingredients. Pour into flaky pastry pie shell. Bake in a preheated oven (435 degrees) for 40 minutes. Add a scoop of mascarpone cheese for effect, topped with a teaspoon of strawberry jam.