When you are preparing for Halloween, no matter how attractive the idea of excessive decoration of snacks and food may be, we must not forget that, in the end, the taste is what matters the most. Decorations can be placed everywhere around the house, including among the plates on your table, so it is more important to preserve the Halloween spirit than to miss a spectacular taste for the sake of the image.
Halloween wines readily available
Since Wines of Romania deals primarily with wines, we have to start with the end – no matter what you are cooking, you will find suitable wines at Liliac Winery (the winery is about bats, not the flower, both called “liliac” in Romanian), with labels fit for the spirit of this celebration.
A short list would include the obligatory black Feteasca neagra, good for meat-based main courses, but also for cheese platters, a Feteasca Alba for starters, a Private Selection Sparkling for the whole evening, but also a Nectar of Transylvania perfect for dessert.
If you have foreign guests, who are less sensitive to subtleties, you can always have a Feteasca neagra Prince Vlad from Vanju Mare or the explicit labels from Transylvania Wine (Castellum Dracula, Tower of Dracula, Legend of Dracula, Draculea, etc.).
Classic Halloween drinks
In addition to wines, you can prepare cocktails in tune with Halloween, from green ones (mint cream, skimmed cream, whiskey or cocoa cream) or dark blood ones (black rum, a few drops of white vermouth, a black olive, in a Martini glass with sugar-coated rim).
Don’t forget the dry ice, an ingredient that makes any glass spectacular, without affecting the taste.
Campari, red vodka, any white alcohol sprinkled with grenadine, but also the infamous absinthe can also find their place on the list of Halloween ingredients.
Tasty decorations during Halloween
If you haven’t prepared in time for the Halloween meal, know that it’s easy to turn any snack, no matter how trivial, into a smile. A thing which, by the way, you can do every day, not just when you want to impress your friends.
The most mundane burger becomes an intergalactic visitor when you put small pickled cucumbers for ears and olive&red bellpepper on toothpicks for eyes. Eyes are usually one of the favorite themes of Halloween, and mozzarella balls and round or whole olives (pitted) suddenly turn into horror ingredients, without any effort.
You can carve not only pumpkins, but also bell peppers, which you can fill with whatever you find in the fridge.
The centrepiece of the Halloween dinner
It’s easiest to choose a meat that goes well in combination with a sweet sauce, either a game piece or a pork loin, which you prepare normally, then carve it and decorate it with a cherry juice sauce and glucose syrup, with red jelly or even red fruit jam. You can adapt our recipe for venison and wild mushrooms rolls, but skip the truffells in the puree.
If you are preparing chickens, turkeys or other birds, you can turn them into something spectacular using a pea puree sauce and a splash of cream. The alien chickens invasion has been successfully prevented!
Traditional Halloween snacks
Pea soup and pumpkin soup, pumpkin pie and even slices of baked pumpkin go well with Halloween, both aesthetically and in taste, but candied apples, rather associated with Christmas, should not be missing either. Especially since you can fill them with surprise fillings, sweeter or spicier, so that the guests never know what they are getting (this can also be easily done with chocolate truffles with various recipes).
In the end, it’s just a matter of atmosphere and imagination. The most banal meatballs marinated in red sauce, any cheese spider spread on a pizza, any white cake filled with red jams and any soda with carbonated ice are enough to make a spookie night unforgettable!
