Halloween Recipes

Creamy pumpkin soup

For four people you need one Hokkaido pumpkin of about 800 grams, one onion, one clove of garlic, a piece of ginger, one carrot, 700 millilitres of vegetable stock, 150 millilitres of cream or coconut milk, olive oil, salt, pepper and a little nutmeg.

Hokkaido does not need peeling. Wash it, halve it, remove the seeds and cut it into cubes. Soften the chopped onion, garlic and ginger in oil without colouring them, add the pumpkin and carrot, cook for three minutes, then add the stock and simmer for twenty minutes until soft. Blend until completely smooth, stir in the cream, and season generously — pumpkin needs more salt than people expect.

Serve with roasted pumpkin seeds, a swirl of cream and, if you are in Austria, a few drops of Styrian pumpkin seed oil, which turns a simple soup into something regional and considerably better.

Roasted pumpkin seeds

• Separate the seeds from the fibres and rinse them under cold water.
• Dry them thoroughly on a tea towel; wet seeds steam instead of roasting.
• Toss with a tablespoon of oil and half a teaspoon of salt.
• Spread on baking paper in a single layer.
• Roast at 160 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring once, until golden.
• Vary with paprika and cumin, or with cinnamon and a little sugar.

Mummy pizza rolls

Roll out a sheet of puff pastry and spread it thinly with tomato passata seasoned with oregano and salt. Scatter over grated cheese and any finely chopped topping. Cut the sheet into strips roughly two centimetres wide.

Wrap each strip loosely around a small sausage or a stick of cheese, leaving a gap for the face, and place on baking paper. Bake at 200 degrees for twelve to fifteen minutes. Once cool enough to handle, add two dots of cream cheese with a black olive slice in each for eyes. They are the single most reliable item on any children's Halloween buffet.

Apple and cinnamon punch, without alcohol

Heat one litre of cloudy apple juice with 200 millilitres of orange juice, two cinnamon sticks, three cloves, one star anise and a few slices of fresh ginger. Keep it just below simmering for twenty minutes so the spices infuse without turning bitter, then strain.

Serve with a thin apple slice in each glass. For an adult version, add 200 millilitres of dark rum or calvados after the pot has come off the heat, so the alcohol is not driven off.

Quick party food

• Sausage fingers: cocktail sausages with a shallow notch cut for a knuckle and a flaked almond pressed in as a nail.
• Ghost bananas: half a banana upright, two chocolate chip eyes, standing in a little pool of chocolate sauce.
• Spider crackers: two crackers with cream cheese between them and eight pretzel-stick legs.
• Graveyard dip: hummus in a wide bowl with vegetable sticks pushed in vertically and shortbread biscuit "headstones" at the edge.
• Cheese eyeballs: mozzarella balls with a slice of black olive on each, held in place with a drop of pesto.
• Toasted pumpkin bread: sourdough with pumpkin purée, feta and thyme, grilled briefly.

Pumpkin muffins

Combine 250 grams of flour, two teaspoons of baking powder, half a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, two teaspoons of cinnamon, half a teaspoon each of ginger and nutmeg and a pinch of salt. Separately whisk 250 grams of pumpkin purée with 150 grams of brown sugar, two eggs and 100 millilitres of neutral oil.

Fold the wet into the dry until only just combined — overmixing makes them tough — and fill twelve muffin cases two thirds full. Bake at 180 degrees for 22 to 25 minutes. They keep for three days in a tin and freeze well.

Planning a buffet

A workable rule for a mixed group is one hot dish, three cold items, one sweet item and two drinks. Anything more than that produces leftovers rather than variety. Prepare the soup and the muffins the day before, assemble the cold items in the afternoon, and leave only the puff pastry for the last half hour.

Label anything containing nuts, and keep one clearly vegetarian or vegan option on the table. Both details take two minutes and prevent the most common problems at a family party.