Halloween: Scary Savories to Eat Before Treats
Looking for a meal that will get keep your little goblins at the table long enough to lay down a layer of vitamins/solid good food before the trick or treat sugar onslaught? Or perhaps you are entertaining and want some treats that are tasty but terrifying (ok, maybe not terrifying, but at treats that at least evoke the spooky season). There are plenty of cake and cookie options that fit the bill. However, when it comes to savories, the options are not as obvious. Reaching back into my own experience for solutions and with help from some two of the Grand Strand’s restaurateurs, this article offers pre-treat dinner treats and Halloween savory tidbits to dazzle your guests.
Brentwood restaurant owner, Eric Masson (father of two of trick or treat age), and Croissants Bakery and Bistro owner, Heidi Vukov, both offered suggestions. Vukov provided three fun recipes that will do double duty of filling up kids and act as yummy cocktail party fare.
When my own two were at the peak of trick or treat age, my own twin cooking goals were to make a dish that did not require attention (we got some really early ones at the doorbell) and that it would entice my two to eat. Several years I succumbed to hot dogs because they were fast and easy.
If only Heidi Vukov had been there to advise me! She suggested simply making something that the kids really liked, a favorite dish. She says, “We always had spaghetti before they went trick or treating. It was a favorite, so I knew they would eat it before they went out collecting candy. I think it is a good idea to have a meal that they like that way you know they will eat it despite the anticipation of all of the candies they will collect that night.”
Knowing what I know now, I should have made macaroni and cheese—pumped up with pumpkin for extra vitamins. I could have stirred half a cup of canned pumpkin into each bowl or dotted their serving with cut up butternut squash cubes arrayed like a pumpkin face, two eyes, a nose and a smile, and called it “jack-o-lantern” macaroni.
Masson, also went for pasta, but slightly more elevated. He suggested serving boiled, then sautéed in butter with sage, pumpkin ravioli topped with a blood red beet coulis. Sounds tasty and looks terrible on the plate—just right for a pre-teen! Masson, of course would make his own pumpkin ravioli, but there are plenty of good pre-made options in the grocery. To simplify the topping, you could take some pickled beets and whirl them in the processor a moment before spooning some onto the ravioli.
Along those same lines, I plan to make a blood and guts salad for Halloween supper for my husband and myself. Even though we have no one to send out, it’s still good to have a dinner that is not fussy and can be eaten at room temperature if you anticipate having to jump up and down during the meal to answer the door and hand out candy. For the salad, using my spiralizer, I will churn out long curly strips of beet, steam them for a minute and then mix them, juice and all with the slimier, softer spirals from a zucchini squash. To make it more terrifying, I am considering peeling the zucchini first so that there are no reassuring hints of green—only the blood and guts flavored with olive oil, a bit of wine vinegar, salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. For a main course, I will either go to the ravioli or the mac and cheese (use your favorite recipe or mix) with butternut squash squares or added pumpkin options.
Vukov graciously offered some more inventive, but simple to make, Halloween feast savory temptations for eyes and tongue. She has shared her three go-to savory (and healthy!) treats for a Halloween party of just to offer your little ones a grazing table of holiday themed savories before they load up on treats:
Demon Eyes (taco bites)
Ingredients:
Tostitos Shells (The kind for dipping) one bag
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, finely grated
1 lb chicken, cooked and diced
Taco seasoning (Note from Joan. I make my own using red pepper, black pepper and chili seasoning from McCormick all natural seasoning)
1 can Black beans, drained
1 can Sweet corn, drained
1 can Black Olives, halved
Sriracha sauce (to taste)
Sour cream (amount depends on you!)
Method
Layer each Tostitos ™shell evenly with a little bit of cheese, then add a layer of your diced cooked chicken. Sprinkle a dash of taco seasoning on top of the chicken, if not already seasoned. Next, layer black beans, corn and cheese. Bake at 350° F for 5-7 minutes, or until cheese is melted. Garnish with sour cream. Fill each olive half with Sriracha sauce. (They make the eye on the top of each filled shell).
Devil Eggs (10 devil halves)
Ingredients
5 eggs
2 tablespoons beet puree (make your own by putting a couple of pickled beets in a blender)
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
Method
Hard boil the eggs for 20 minutes.
Once cooled and peeled, cut them in half and place the yolks in a bowl. Keep whites intact
To this bowl, add 2 tablespoons beet puree, spicy mustard, paprika, salt, and pepper and mix well
Pipe beet-egg-mustard mix into egg white “shells.” (Not from Joan, you can achieve a good effect by spooning in with demitasse spoon if piping is not in your skill set—like me!)
String Cheese Witch Brooms
Ingredients (no amount given, but I would start with one package of string cheese.)
String cheese
Mini pretzel sticks, one for each boom you are making
Chives (several bunches of fresh) or upper half of green onions
Instructions
1 Cut each piece of string cheese in 2” strips. (About half to three quarters of the way up the piece)
2. Insert a mini pretzel stick into one end of the string cheese. Carefully pull or cut the bottom half of the string cheese into strips.
3. Tie on a chive or green onion stalk to finish.
This story was originally published October 27, 2016 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Halloween: Scary Savories to Eat Before Treats."