Food/Recipes

(KDKA) This week, Rania Harris is getting ready for a "spooktacular" holiday with her Halloween-themed recipes!

Brainy Potatoes with Romesco Sauce

Sauce:
1 Ancho Chile – stemmed and seeded
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup whole blanched almonds
½ medium onion – thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic – smashed
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 teaspoons sweet paprika
¾ cup roughly chopped Pepadew peppers
1 slice stale white bread – roughly torn
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar

Brainy Potatoes:
1 pound baby red potatoes

For the sauce:
Toast the Ancho Chile in a small dry skillet over medium high heat, turning and flattening with a spatula, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Put the chile in a medium bowl and over with boiling water for about 10 minutes, to soften. Drain, chop roughly and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat and add the almonds. Cook, stirring, until toasted, about 3 minutes. Transfer the almonds to a plate, leaving the oil in the skillet. Add the softened chile, the onion, garlic, salt and pepper to taste. Cook until the onions are lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Add the paprika and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute longer. Scrape the onion mixture into a sieve set over a bowl and reserve 3 tablespoons of the strained olive oil.

Pulse the onion mixture, almonds, peppers, bread and vinegar into a food processor until coarse. With the motor running, drizzle in the reserved olive oil. Scrape the sauce into 4 small serving bowls, cover, and set in a warm place while you cook the shrimp.

For the Brainy Potatoes:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Place the potatoes on a parchment lined baking sheet and toss with enough olive oil to coat lightly. Season the potatoes with sea salt. Roast until the skins a crisp and the potatoes are tender, about 1 hour. Allow the potatoes to cool so that the skins begin to wrinkle.

To serve:
Place a bowl of the Romesco Sauce on a platter and surround the bowl with the brainy potatoes. Stick decorative toothpick into the potatoes to assist with the dipping.

Serves: 6



Brain Freeze

Honeydew melon
Four 3-ounce packages Cherry Jello

Directions:
Using an X-Acto knife or sharp paring knife, carve a realistic brain design out of the melon. Place the melon in a large deep mixing bowl.

Prepare the cherry jello according to package directions and pour over the melon until it is fully covered. Refrigerate overnight and then lift the melon out of the bowl, scraping away some of the gelatin, to create a gelled brain matter look on the outside of the melon.



Scary Cupcakes

Cupcakes iced with white frosting
Licorice twists
Licorice lace
Black jellybeans
Candy wafers
Mints
Red hots
Sour belts

Directions:
Assemble the candy on a large tray and invite the kids to decorate their cupcakes to replicate scary faces, using the candy for eyebrows, eyes, noses, mouths and hair. Place the scary cupcake faces on a platter with sides. Completely fill in the cavities between the cupcakes with black jellybeans to create a black ground.



Skeleton Bones

11-ounce tube refrigerated breadsticks
Coarse salt

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Unroll the tube of refrigerated breadsticks and separate the rectangular pieces. Working with one piece at a time, stretch the dough to lengthen it a bit and using kitchen scissors, cit a 1½ inch slit in the center of each end. Shape the four end flaps into knobs that look like the ends of a bone. Place the dough bones on a parchment lined baking sheet, a few inches apart and sprinkle them with coarse salt. Bake them until they turn golden brown, for about 12 minutes.

Yield: 12 Skeleton Bones



Banana Ghosts

4 bananas
1 package white chocolate chips
Popsicle sticks
Mini dark chocolate chips for eyes
Dried currants for mouth

Directions:
Peel the bananas and cut them into halves width-wise. Push a popsicle stick into each half through the cut end. Cover them with plastic wrap and freeze them until they are firm, about 3 hours. Heat the white chocolate in the top of a double boiler until melted. Remove the bananas from the freezer and peel off the plastic wrap. Either dip or spread the bananas with the chocolate and set them on a tray lined with parchment paper. Press on the mini chocolate chips for the eyes and the dried red currant for the mouth. Return them to the freezer until serving time.

Yield: 8 Banana Ghosts



Ghostymole

2 ripe avocados, pitted, peeled
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and minced
1 tomato - chopped
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons chopped onion
1 clove garlic - minced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
Sea salt to taste
Frank's Red Hot Sauce to taste
1 can black beans – drained, rinsed and drained again

Black tortilla chips

Directions:
In a bowl, mash all of the ingredients together with a fork until blended and still chunky. You may also use a food processor using on/off turns.

Remove from bowl of the food processor and place in serving bowl. Add the drained black beans to the bowl and cover tightly by laying a sheet of plastic
wrap directly on the surface of the guacamole and gently squeezing out any air bubbles. Seal the wrap to the edges of the bowl and refrigerate until ready to use.

Serve with black tortilla chips.

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