Savory Halloween Treats

I love Halloween.  Demonic worshippers and the psychotically-disturbed aside, it seems to be a holiday that is often confused with the glorification of violence and evil.  On the contrary, I think it celebrates our triumph over FEAR.  For once, we look at fear in a different way, and make light of it.  It's as if we take time once a year to shake off our fearful inhibitions to not only examine them, but to laugh at them.  How silly are we to be afraid of all the things that we're afraid of on a daily basis?  Come on, do you think people are really going over to the Dark Side, if they dress up as a prickly demonic half-vampire, half-werewolf, brain-sucking alien? [insert Darth Vader's breathing here]  If anything, it shows how wonderful it is that we DON'T live in a world where a creature like that exists, and I don't think anyone would ever, ever, want to be one (well, maybe- if it becomes sexy like vampires). 

The other side of Halloween, which I LOVE, is how it encourages us to be creative- to tap into that childlike wonder of the world of Pretend.  Something adults are mostly discouraged from expressing, due to and an overwhelming fear of being sent to the psycho ward, or worse yet- defriended on Facebook. It is perhaps the only socially-acceptable day of the year when we get to find out what it's like to be Robert Englund.

On Halloween, nothing is as it might seem, and we allow ourselves to walk around in someone (or something) else's shoes for a change.  To me, nothing is more irresistibly delicious than to be frightened without danger.  Call me twisted, but I think a zillion people in costume this year will agree with me!  

Here's some clever ways to dress up your food too.

This is simply store-bought puff pastry (I used a quarter of a sheet per coffin and they turned out to be about 4 inches long) that is cut into coffin shapes and scored with a paring knife.  The weight of the asparagus keeps the center from puffing, thus creating coffin walls!  I baked them at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, and removed the asparagus (saving for later) from the coffins to let the centers sink down and cool.  I then spread a roasted garlic cream cheese to line the coffins, and cut and arranged the cooked "asparagus bones" to make skeletons... delicious and creepy at the same time!

Asparagus Skeletons with Roasted Garlic Tofutti Cream Cheese in a Puff Pastry Coffin

Deep Fried Wonton Ghosts with an Asian Tempeh Filling

This is just a store bought wonton skin- yes I was lucky to find a vegan one at an Asian market! The brand is called Myojo, but I couldn't find it online to order...boo.  I love the light crispness of these skins when fried.  They're pretty much just flour and water, so you could try to make them, but the key is to get them super thin which is a pain to do by hand. Maybe it could be done with a pasta maker.  The filling consisted of tempeh, carrot, onion, green onion, and garlic, which were minced in a food processor, then sauteed in a little oil with a few slices of ginger (later removed).  I then added some soy sauce and a cup of water to reduce.  I could've eaten a whole plate of these!  And, they're great boiled if you want to make Ghost Soup (evil laugh)!

Depending on how you fry them, you can also get some of these to stand straight up!

Lastly, just dot on the faces with the end of a skewer or toothpick dipped in Hoisin sauce.  The middle one is made with Siracha sauce (I like mine spicy). 


...Now I gotta get my pumpkins ready!!