Hello friends,
Halloween is just around the corner and as you probably know I not sure to be able to joint a Halloween Party due to the fact that my baby girl could decided to be my cute trick or treat!
By the way i deeply love Halloween and the magic days before it and I cannot give up to make some Halloween decorations and to manage my personal Halloween party at home.
For this Halloween only a little party at home: a dinner maybe a horror film with some close friends (and maybe my newborn girl).
It’s pretty easy for me to arrange a party at home (How to arrange a Halloween Party at home part 1 and part 2) but each party means a new menu.
For this reason in these I tested some new recipes for my friends.
Today I’m here for share with you my new menu approved by NoPanic family (a special thanks to my lovely husband who tested all my experiments).
Let’s see what I’ve done
Because it’s Halloween and because in this periodo of the year in which you can find delicious pumpkins, the main ingredient of all following dishes is pumpkins.
Appetizer: Speck and pumpkins swivels
This dishes is really simple to prepare but it requires a lot of rest time. So it’s a good idea to prepare it early in the afternoon and bake it few minutes before the dinner.
Ingredients for 4 person
- 300 gr pumpkin;
- Rectangular puff pastry (almost 250 gr);
- 150 gr of speck (or other smoked ham);
- 80 gr of pecorino cheese;
- Vegetable soup;
- Extra virgin olive oil;
- Salt, pepper, garlic and a stick of rosemary.
You also need a mixer.
The preparation is pretty simple:
I put some oil and a slice of garlic in a frying pan. In the meantime I took off the skin of the pumpkins and I chopped it in little cubes. I put the pumpkin in the pan with some rosemary and I cooked it for few minutes. I added some vegetable soup, salt and pepper and I cooked for additional 15 minutes.
I mixed the pumpkin and I added the half part of pecorino cheese and I mixed it until it begun a cream. I let it cool down for half an hour.
I stretched out the puff pastry and I cover it with speck, I spread the pumpkin cream and the residual pecorino cheese. I rolled the puff pastry and I let i rest in the fridge for almost an hour.
I cut my roll and I put the pieces on the oven pan covered by parchment paper. I put it in the oven at 180 Celsius degrees for 15 minutes.
Trick: pay attention to cooking time. I forgot to check my swivels and I cooked them a little too much (as you can see in the pictures).
Main dishe: Pumpkin and Gorgonzola cheese risotto
This recipe is a restyling of one of my favorite risotto (risotto with pumpkins and sausages) and I should admit that’s really delicious!
Ingredient for four person:
- 320 gr of rice;
- 600 gr of pumpkin;
- 170 gr of gorgonzola cheese;
- 30 gr butter;
- Extra virgin olive oil;
- 100 gr onion;
- Vegetable soup;
- Salt, pepper and a stick of rosemary.
I started peeled the pumpkin and chopped it in cubes. I chopped out the onion as well. In a frying pan I put some oil and the onion and after few minutes I added the pumpkin. I cooked it for 20 minutes adding vegetable soup all the times the pumpkin started becoming dry.
n a different pan I put the rice for toasting it few minutes and after them I added few vegetable soup. I moved the toasted rice in the main pan with the pumpkin and I cooked until the rice is ready adding vegetable soup if it necessary
When rice was ready I started the “cooking until creamy” at the beginning with the butter and after that with the gorgonzola cheese. I melted it until the cheese was completely melted.
The rice was ready, I put some rosemary on it and I served it.
Second dish: pork scaloppine with pumpkin and apple
- 600 gr of pork loin;
- 300 gr of pumpkin;
- 2 apples;
- 100 gr of onion;
- fluor;
- 30 gr of butter;
- salt and pepper;
- extra virgin olive oil;
- Lemon juice.
As usual I started peel off the pumpkin skin. I chopped a part of it in small cubes and the other part in bigger slices (this last part will be the garnish). I chopped the apple in tiny slices and I put some lemon juice and some pepper on the apples. I chopped the onion.
I warmed the pan with some drops of oil and I put the apples slices for lightly cooking them for 2/3 minutes. I made the same with the slices of pumpkin
In a second frying pan i put some oil and the onion. I added the pumpkin cubes and I let the cook for 10/15 minutes adding some vegetable soup.
In the meanwhile i started preparing the pork. I puto some flour on the both sides of the pork slices. I melted some butter in the frying pan and I cooked the pork for few minutes each sides.
The three parts of my dish were finally ready (pumpkin base, the pork and the pumpkin and apple garnish) for being served. I suggest to make a foundation with a couple of spoons of pumpkin, put on it two pork scaloppine and some apples and pumpkin slices for garnisher.
This is my result
Dessert: muffin chocolate and pumpkin
You need:
- 250 gr of flour;
- 10 gr baking powder;
- 180 gr of sugar;
- 2 eggs;
- 190 gr of pumpkin puree;
- 130 gr oil;
- 150 gr of chocolate drops.
As usual I removed the peel from the pumpkin and I chopped it. I boiled the pumpkin and I smashed it. I let it cool down
I put the pumpkin puree in a bowl with the eggs, sugar and oil. I mixed it until it was homogenized.
I added the baking powder to the flour and I put them, little by little, in the bowl with the mixture of pumpkin, eggs, sugar ad oil. I mixed all the ingredients well and at the end I added the chocolate drops.
Now it was baking time!
For baking my cupcake and Muffin I used this tool. Whit it cooking time are reduced, the cupcakes are simply amazing and all of them have the right shape, I don’t use the oven and the tool is really easy to clean up… I truly suggest to buy it if you mind to cook cupcakes sometimes!
If you don’t have the same tool you can bake your cupcake in the oven at 200 Celsius degrees for 20 minutes.
Bloopers….
In my mind I wanted to cook pork scaloppine with pumpkin and pear. I tried this recipe but i don’t know exactly why but something went really wrong and the results was awful. I mean the taste was not so bad but it looked like so terrible….
As you can see… I couldn’t serve them to my friends….
Here I am, this is my Halloween menu.
Form the pictures maybe you noticed that I used less ingredients. This is due to the fact that the pictures are about my dinner test and these dinner are for only two.
Let me know if you plan to test these recipe and tell me about your Halloween recipe. Keep in touch for some creepy Halloween decoration!
Stay tuned!
Tricks in this post: 1. Halloween 2019 my menu: Appetizer swivels with speck and pumpkin; 2. Halloween 2019 my menu: Main dishes risotto pumpkin and gorgonzola cheese; 3. Halloween 2019 my menu: Second dishes pork scaloppine with pumpkin and apples; 4. Halloween 2019 my menu:Dessert chocolate and pumpkin muffin.
If you enjoy this post maybe you could be interested also in
Home made Halloween Party part
Home made Halloween Party part 2
Risotto With Pumpkin And Sausage
Halloween decorations ideas 2015
Halloween decorations ideas 2016