Halloween Themed Food – Witches Finger Chilli:
I don’t normally bother trying to make Halloween themed dishes. But, if you’ve ever been invited to one of those pot-luck events as a food-blogger you may well feel my pain. For some reason people assume I can cook (that’s OK – I can) and that I can food-style (here we start to depart from the truth) and that I’ll have a portfolio of things I can make which fit every seasonal occasion. The last, well, it’s something of a myth. I can do Christmas and that’s about it!
This year, in an attempt to get it right, I’ve been trying some simple ideas for Halloween.
Naughty Nachos actually started off as one of those spider web nacho things you’ll find – just google and there are thousands of them out there – all with preposterously accurate spiders web toppings made from sour cream or mayo. I tried, for about 20 seconds, before deciding that I’d add Heinz sweet chilli sauce to the sour cream to make what you might call ‘car-crash nachos’ or (because it is an alliteration) naughty nachos. Much easier…you just squirt at random from the squeezy bottle to create something abstract and slightly horrific!
Witches finger chilli comes a lot closer to looking convincing. Again, the idea came from the internet – though the chilli base is my own recipe made a little milder for the sake of infants and nursing mothers who might be at the pot-luck. The fingers are fat little chipolata sausages topped with red pepper fingernails. And, actually they taste pretty good in the context of a chilli. Adding a little barbecue sauce makes for a smokey slightly sweet taste that is perfect comfort food for a cold autumn evening. Other than that, the basic recipe is the one I’ve made for the last 30 years or so.
Here’s the recipe if you need inspiration for tomorrow night. Or, if you just fancy making a chilli, with or without fingers…
[gmc_recipe 42510]
Do you have any ideas for Halloween dishes? Preferably ones that don’t require professional food styling skills…
If so, do let me know in the comments below.
Disclosure: I was sent some Heinz sauces to make this dish – Heinz tomato ketchup is a must in my Chilli con Carne anyway – and the barbecue sauce added a little ‘seasonal’ flavour – of bonfires and witches cauldrons!
The witches’ fingers kinda freak me out! But, I guess that’s the point of a Halloween dish. I do love a chili though, so I’m sure I could get over it to eat. Very festive idea!
What a brilliant idea for a Halloween recipe – they do resemble witches’ fingers at a glance! I also love recipes with chili in them, yum. 🙂
I think someone better at food styling would do a tidier job of the witches fingers…but it’s a good recipe
I really love anything with a Mexican twist – this looks smashing, and even though Halloween is long gone now I will definitely give it a try. I don’t really care about accurate toppings on nachos, or any food styling – as long as it tastes good 🙂
What a brilliant idea for next year, or even any party x