Weekend food with Darina Allen: Scary Halloween treats to make with your kids
WE’RE all set for Halloween, squash, pumpkins and gourds of every size, shape and colour are piled precariously on the cookery school table tops, window ledges, in baskets and boxes. They look so beautiful.
It has become a bit of a tradition now for children from the local schools to come to the farm to harvest the squash and pumpkin every Autumn. They have the best fun and are intrigued by the names, Hubbard, Turks Turban, Little Gem, Delicata, Hokkaido, Crown Prince, Kobocha, Cocozelle, Jack be Little, Red Kuri… Some are the size of a child’s fist, others so enormous that is takes two sturdy lads to carry them.
Everyone loves carving the pumpkins into scary faces for Halloween, the festival that apparently originated in Ireland over 3,000 years ago when the pagan festival of Samhain marked the end of the Celtic year and the beginning of the new year, the natural transition from lighter Summer to the darker Winter.
At this time of the year it was believed that the division between this world and the other world was at its most fragile, allowing spirits to pass though. So as in the Mexican tradition of the ‘Day of the Dead’ the spirits of the ancestors were invited back home and evil spirits were warded off. Bonfires, food, costumes and masks were all part of the festivities.
After the famine, the Irish carried their Halloween traditions to America where it is now one of the major holidays of the year. Similarly, here in Ireland, it is fast becoming as big as Christmas. For several weeks now children have been whipped into a lather of excitement by all the Halloween temptations on TV and in the shops and the anticipation of dressing up as ghouls and witches to do the rounds of their neighbourhood for the annual ‘trick or treat’.
You may be amused to hear that we were inadvertently removed from the ‘must visit’ list a number of years ago when word spread among the ‘trick or treaters’ that Ballymaloe Cookery School was no good because you only got fruit and nuts.
The fact that they were home-grown apples and fresh hazelnuts, cobnuts and walnuts from the nut garden did not remotely impress the scary little dotes who were hoping for proper sugar laden treats. So I think we’ve been black-listed!
The spider web cup-cakes did actually impress as did the ‘spooky puca’ meringues but they were scarcely worth the effort of schlepping up the long avenue for.
Here are a few more scary Halloween treats for you to have fun making with your children and their friends.
Devilled Spider Eggs
Hard boil the eggs for 10 minutes in boiling water, drain and put immediately into a bowl of cold water. (Eggs with a black ring around the yolk have been overcooked.)
When cold, shell, slice in half lengthways and sieve the yolks, mix the sieved yolk with mayonnaise, season with salt and pepper to taste. Fill into a piping bag and pipe into the whites.
Put the egg yolks into a bowl with the mustard, salt and the white wine vinegar (keep the whites to make meringues). Put the oil into a measure. Take a whisk in one hand and the oil in the other and drip the oil onto the egg yolks, drop by drop whisking at the same time. Within a minute you will notice that the mixture is beginning to thicken. When this happens you can add the oil a little faster, but don’t get too cheeky or it will suddenly curdle because the egg yolks can only absorb the oil at a certain pace. Taste and add a little more seasoning and vinegar if necessary.
Bend the chives for spider legs, three on each side. Use nigella seeds or slices of black olives for scary eyes.
Serve on a bed of shredded lettuce or baby spinach.
Ballymaloe Halloween Barmbrack
This is a more modern version of barmbrack, now commonly called a ‘tea brack’ because the dried fruit is soaked in tea overnight to plump it up. Even though it is a very rich bread, in Ireland it is traditionally served sliced and buttered.
Put the dried fruit and cherries into a bowl. Cover with hot tea and leave to plump up overnight.
Next day, line the loaf tin with parchment paper.
Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.
Add the whisked egg, soft brown sugar, flour and mixed spice to the fruit and tea mixture. Stir well. Put the mixture into the lined loaf tin. Tuck the various charms into the loaf.
Cook in for about one-and-a-half hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool on a wire rack.
Brush with a little ‘bun wash’.
Keeps very well in an airtight tin.
Halloween Chocolate Pops
Put the chocolate into a Pyrex bowl over a saucepan of hot water (the base of the bowl should not touch the water). When the water comes to the boil, turn off the heat and leave until the chocolate melts.
Spoon into the moulds. Insert a lollipop stick into each one.
Tap the worktop to smooth over the top.
Decorate each chocolate pop with freeze-dried raspberries, nuts, dried fruit or pipe white chocolate on to the set chocolate to make scary faces.
Allow to set. Unmould.
Stephanie Alexander’s Spiced Pumpkin Cake
This pumpkin cake has a special place in my heart. The teachers and students at Collingwood College in Melbourne baked the cake from pumpkins they grew in the school gardens as a special treat for me, all part of the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation. www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au
Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4.
Chop the pumpkin into 2 cm pieces. Place in a bowl with olive oil and cinnamon; give a good toss making sure all pieces are coated. Place on a lined baking tray and bake for 30-35 minutes. Allow to cool, then blitz with a food stick blender or in a magimix.
Line the loaf pan with baking paper.
In a large bowl, whisk the brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until thick and combined. Pour in the olive oil and combine. Stir through the puréed pumpkin. Sieve over the flour and spices, stir together until all incorporated.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 35-40 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.
Meanwhile, make the icing. Sieve the icing sugar into a medium bowl, gradually add the lemon juice until you have a thick runny consistency. Pour over the cake and decorate with fresh thyme sprigs.
Hot tips
A new Farmers Market has opened in Castletroy, on the east side of Limerick city on Fridays from 10am - 2pm. There’s Sean O’Farrell’s Cloncannon Biofarm–meat, Crafted Crust sourdough, Céile (kombucha, kefir, home broths), Sandwich Sisters, Green Saffron, Trevor McNamara-fresh fish, and so much more… @castletroymarket
Did you know that the in Cork is now open for brunch on Sunday morning? The word on the street is that it’s certainly worth a detour, 11am to 3pm. www.crawfordgallerycafe.com
The increase in is staggering but there seems to be general agreement that the condition can be controlled by a change in diet. Drastically reduce sugar and ultra-processed food, change to organic or chemical free food, eat real food rather than ‘edible food like substances’ – the result can be dramatic. The recently published, the Low-Carb Diabetes Cookbook by Dr David Cavan and Emma Porter from Diabetics.co.uk may be a help, published by Vermilion.
Bake Your Own Christmas Cookies and Bring Them Home on Friday, November 23, at 2.30pm. During this practical, fun and hands-on session in the kitchen you will cook from scratch under the guidance of our expert teachers. www.cookingisfun.ie
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