Recipes: Halloween pumpkin soup | Honey mustard glazed sausages | Sticky Halloween gingerbread

Published on Sunday 1 November 2009 14:05

Halloween marks the beginning of winter. The clocks have gone back, catapulting us into early darkness, then comes the opportunity for bonfires. Halloween parties are, of necessity, informal, and often outside; and they can be family parties, with mixed age groups – for me, the best of all get-togethers.

The food must be easily eaten with fingers, and a thick, sustaining soup is almost essential. It can be served in a large, scooped-out pumpkin, and ladled into mugs, so it seems appropriate to use the pumpkin flesh as its basis.

Then good sausages (for me, these are pork, but if you prefer, the following glaze works just as well with beef or venison) and buttered buns, and the perfect pud consists of a sticky gingerbread, laden with ginger and plum raisins.

Halloween pumpkin soup

SERVES 6 Just double the ingredients for 12, treble for 18

3 onions, skinned and chopped

approx 1lb/450g pumpkin flesh

3 tablespoons olive oil

2in/4cm piece of root ginger, skin pared off and the ginger diced

1 teaspoon salt, about 25 grinds of black pepper, a good grating of nutmeg

1 red chilli, sliced, seeds removed from inside and the chilli chopped – optional, you will know your children and your guests, and just leave out the chilli if in doubt

1 fat clove of garlic, skinned and chopped

11/2 pints/900ml stock, either chicken, vegetable or a stock substitute such as Marigold powder made up with boiling water

2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley and snipped chives, to stir through the soup just before serving

Put the chopped onions and pumpkin flesh on a large non-stick roasting tin and mix in the olive oil. Spread the vegetables evenly over the base of the tin. Scatter the salt over and season with black pepper and nutmeg, and the sliced chilli if you are including it. Roast, in a hot oven, 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6, for 20 minutes. Then shuffle the contents of the roasting tin, spread evenly once more and continue the roasting for a further 20-25 minutes.

Scrape the roasted pumpkin and onions into a large saucepan and add the garlic and the stock. Bring the liquid to a simmer, and cook gently for five minutes. Cool, liquidise till smooth, and reheat the soup in a clean pan. Taste, and add more salt if you think it is needed. Just before serving, stir the finely chopped parsley and snipped chives through the soup. Serve in mugs.

Honey mustard glazed sausages

Allow three sausages per person with a few more for second helpings

Lay the sausages on a baking tray, preferably non-stick (or line the tray with a sheet of baking parchment) and stab each a couple of times with the point of a sharp knife. Roast the sausages in a hot oven, 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6, for about 35-40 minutes. Halfway through their cooking time, take the tray from the oven and drain away the excess fat which will have collected (if you're tipping it down the sink, keep the hot tap running). Before returning the sausages to the oven to continue cooking, spoon the honey mustard glaze over them.

For the glaze:

3 tablespoons honey, mixed with

2 tablespoons grain mustard

Smear the glaze over each sausage, turning as you do so, and repeat once more during the cooking time.

When the sausages are as browned as you like them – for me, this is very brown – take them from the oven and dish them up into a wide, shallow and warmed dish. Serve warm but not too hot so that fingers are not burned.

Sticky Halloween gingerbread

SERVES 6-8

Line a fairly deep baking tray with baking parchment, putting a good dab of butter in each corner to anchor the paper.

8oz/220g soft butter

8oz/220g soft dark brown sugar

3 tablespoons treacle – dip the spoon in very hot water for several seconds between each spoonful, so the treacle slips off the spoon with ease

4 large eggs

8oz/220g plain flour, sieved with

2 rounded teaspoons powdered ginger and

1 rounded teaspoon powdered cinnamon

finely grated rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon

6 pieces of stem ginger, drained of its syrup and diced small and evenly

4oz/120g large raisins, soaked overnight in

4 tablespoons milk

Put the butter and soft brown sugar into a saucepan and add the treacle. Stir over a moderate heat, as the butter melts and the sugar dissolves. Take the pan off the heat, and mix in the eggs, one by one alternating with the sieved flour and spices, and the grated citrus rinds. When all is thoroughly mixed, add the diced ginger and the raisins, milk and all. Mix well, then pour and scrape the batter into the prepared lined tin. Bake in a low moderate temperature, 150C/300F/Gas Mark 3, for 40-45 minutes.

Cool the gingerbread in the tin, and when cold, cut into squares. Store in a baking parchment-lined tin, with sheets of parchment between each layer.

TOP TIP:

Whole pumpkins can be stored at room temperature for one month or refrigerated for up to three months

This article was first published in The Scotsman on October 31, 2009