Halloween Recipes - Creepy Kool

Gory Halloween warning! Time to get squeamish with the Ghoulish Gourmet's creepy imagery of raw meat and viscera. I'm about to get medieval for Halloween and the following Dia del los Muertos or Day of the Dead.

This Sinister Cheap$kate's ghastly recipes are laid out like a bloody scene from a Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe story. Once you've digested this macabre blog post, your taste buds may nevermore be the same.

And if you're a vegetarian, avert your gaze! Or peak through hand-covered eyes to read my queasy prose. I'm sure to be on Morrissey's #hit list if he ever sees this - he's pop music's most morose vegan. (And I'm a big fan of his songs with The Smiths.)

Some of my most spooky recipes may make your skin crawl, while others will have your taste buds baying at the moon with pleasure, mouthful after mouthful.

Witches Brew - a bubbling cauldron of Pozole.

So read on, and don't forget to click on any recipe name that will bring you kicking and screaming to my original blog post to see all the hair-raising details -- presented with gory gifs, bloodcurdling photos, grisly videos, and eerie text.

Right off the bat, I like my Chupacabra Carne Asada steak and hamburgers medium-rare. Oozing is fine by me - E. coli be damned!

Grilling meat supercharges the flavor and brings out the knuckle-dragging Neanderthal in this Paleo Chef.

The Terminator T-bone

Raw bloody carcasses of meat have been disturbingly depicted in fine art. Rembrandt van Rijn is primarily known as a Dutch painter of moody portraits during the 17th Century, and I am especially influenced by his "Carcass of Beef" (flayed ox) study - just check out the audacious composition with gory details.

And here's the British artist Francis Bacon's 20th Century version, below.

The Chiaroscuro Chef photographs flesh against dark backgrounds lately (shot on a blackened cookie sheet) - usually lit from a single direction, with deep shadows, very much inspired by Caravaggio. An artfully dark and forbidding example is my recipe for Pasta alla Genovese, where I slice and dice cheap beef shank, slaughterous enough to make a zombie weep.

Offal is not so awful to this Carrion Chef. After watching a classic horror flick on the big screen, I cruise LA's fog-shrouded boulevards and alleyways during the midnight hour looking for ways to quell my ravenous appetites...for tacos, that is! 

Buche (stomach,) lengua (tongue,) and tripas (intestines) are on the menu at sidewalk taquerias and taco trucks throughout Los Angeles. Watch the shuddersome viscera-splattered video below to see what stops me in my tracks.



On a sweeter note, while not meat, the gooey insides of a Halloween special edition Oreo cookie are like sweetened bone marrow. You don't smash it to get to the finger-licking orange frosting, a simple twist will do.

Get your hands dirty knawing on my Rosemary's Baby Back Ribs. You'll need extra napkins to soak up the BBQ sauce smeared on your lips and dripping from your fingertips.



My Silence of the Lambs Curry is creepy-delicious. And my video cooking directions are as easy to follow as leading a lamb to the slaughter.



It can get messy cooking with meat. You have to have an iron stomach. Try breaking down a pork shoulder sometimes, like I do below for my ghastly Texas Chainsaw Carnitas video recipe.

It's probably the most artistically nauseating footage I've ever shot - but, boy does it taste heavenly when you cradle a stuffed tortilla, plump with citrus and cola-marinated, slow-cooked pork.



Ground chicken and turkey are mushy and wet, more so than ground beef or pork...ugh.

Check out my ground poultry The Blob Patty Melt video to see what I mean -- yuk!



After chicken, pork is the cheapest flesh. When hacked, mangled, and minced into sausage, it's delicious for breakfast or added to stir fry like my Garroted Green Beans and Gruesome Ground Pork recipe below.

This may sound perverse but it's actually fun to animate with ground meat, it's like playing with Play-Doh, just greasier. Check out my video below to see the messiness.



Are you still with me? Man, are you hardcore! I'm getting extra creeped out just assembling this blog post.

Ever gut a fish? Whoa, that is one freaky task! Slice the belly open, yank out the internal organs then chop off the head -- oh, I'm feeling faint just remembering the slimy viscera and the nauseating smell - barf !!

If you want to scare the bejesus out of your dining guest, then serve them a Jaws Whole Grilled Fish - head on!

This tin-framed, bloody-looking slaughter scene comprised of tomato-sauced fat fingers of sardines is one of my most visited food blog posts. And the morbid visitors are mostly from Europe (Transylvania?) - go figure. My pasta dish, Suspiria Sardines in Tomato Sauce with Olive Oil over Pasta, is a delicious mouthful worth sinking your incisors into.

Sushi is typically made with freshly butchered raw fish. It's so artfully presented that you miss the gore that goes into each delicate slice of aquatic flesh.

Here's one of my tastefully shot Sushi recipe videos, the simply presented, Mothra Tuna Sushi.



Shrimp would not seem spooky, right? But, buy head-on jumbo shrimp and try beheading, peeling, and removing the digestive tract/backbone sometimes...yuck! But, man are they delicious when my Mom serves them up in her Stephen King Shrimp & Rice recipe.

Halloween has a dark streak of humor and some of my recipes do, too. Take my wacky Orange Trump Chicken Nightmare on K Street....please. It's the color and shape of a pumpkin and looks like a McDonald's Chicken McNugget, just like our former Twit-in-Chief, but my entree is made with real chicken pieces, not a pink slime meat composite.

How about a recipe where a slice of Bride of Frankenstein Turkey Bacon swallows up a Brussels sprout like a disembodied human tongue...yikes!

I like to cook a whole chicken or leg quarters. There's nothing like the carnal pleasure of ripping apart a cooked poultry carcass and sucking every piece of succulent meat off the bones. My Tingler Chicken Tinga and Paranormal Poached Chicken are some saporous examples.

 Below is the Eviscerating Cuisinier's squishy butchering of a chicken breast and leg quarter. It's the cheapest flesh you can get and I have all kinds of poultry recipes, here.

So get out there and have an entertaining Halloween holiday. It's not all blood and guts! So, I'll leave you with an appallingly tasty ghost story.

Meatloaf with Spinach & Mushrooms - Video Recipe

Let's face it, meatloaf is boring -- but oh so tasty. It is the only entree that goes well with soggy canned sweet peas and everyone and their granny has a Meatloaf Recipe. Allow The 99 Cent Chef to throw his whisk into the ring with a version loaded with veggies!.

I was raised with a traditional Meatloaf, that is just ground beef, sauteed onion and garlic, some bread crumbs, egg, and dried herbs. It was baked with a ketchup topping. I loved it. 

Over time I've added mushrooms, then finally mixed in sauteed spinach. These veggie additions work wonders to typical Meatloaf. Plus it's almost a one-pan meal with protein, carbs, and veggies. 

All the veggie ingredients come cheap enough. I get packages of cleaned spinach and small 4 or 5-ounce packages of mushrooms from my local 99c only Store. If you can't get mushrooms cheaply, then just buy a few loose button mushrooms. Add or subtract ingredients as you like.

Ground turkey or chicken is a light alternative to a typical beef Meatloaf.  I look for ground meat on sale then snatch up a few 1 pound packages to freeze. 

I find 1 pound packages of cheap ground turkey and that's enough meat for this Meatloaf.

I like fresh garlic, but use it from a jar, too. Dried garlic, celery flakes, and onion are fine variations.

There is a bit of veggie chopping to do but you are only using half an onion, a stem of celery, and half a bell pepper. I've made this Meatloaf without celery and bell pepper, so use what veggies you have on hand. Make this recipe your own. 

I also get a lot of my favorite fresh veggies from a local Latin market, Superior Grocers, at great prices. 

A couple slices of toasted bread add extra heft, a little milk gives richness and an egg binds it all together.

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl then form a loaf in a baking dish. I like to top my Meatloaf with a mix of ketchup and soy sauce. Finally, bake it for an hour - that's it.

You can feed the family with my Meatloaf with Veggies. And if you have leftovers they freeze well to make a meal later, or put a thick slice between toasted bread for a yummy Meatloaf Sandwich -- that's what I do.

Meatloaf with Spinach & Mushrooms - Video

Play it here, video runs 5 minutes, 1 second.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

Ingredients for Meatloaf with Veggies (serves 2 - 3)

• Ground meat 1 pound - beef, chicken, or turkey.
• 1/2 onion chopped. 
• 1/2 bell pepper - chopped.
• 1 celery stalk - chopped.
• Mushrooms sliced or chopped - about 8 button mushrooms or a 5-ounce package. Any favorite mushroom.
• Spinach - one bunch washed and chopped. Okay to use a 6-ounce package of cleaned spinach. I remove most of the stems.
• 1 teaspoon garlic - chopped from the jar or fresh.
• Herbs - 1 teaspoon fresh or dried. Any combination of oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, and/or sage. A dried Italian Herb Mix in a jar is an easy way to go.
• 1/4 cup half-and-half cream or milk - optional.
• 1 egg
• 2 slices of bread cubed or shredded - I like to toast mine. Use any favorite like whole grain, white, or even a whole bagel.
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce - optional. Okay to substitute with Soy Sauce.
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil - for sauteing veggies.
• Black pepper to taste - no salt for me as Worcestershire Sauce is salty enough.

* Extra veggies - half a cup of frozen/fresh green peas, a cooked chopped beet, and chopped or shredded carrot. 

Meatloaf Ketchup Topping

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce - or Worcestershire Sauce.

Directions

Prepare veggies by copping them. I like the pieces on the smaller side, but okay to have some chunky pieces. A rough chop is good enough. I like my mushroom slices larger.  

Saute onions, bell pepper, celery, and mushrooms in a tablespoon of oil until tender, about 5 minutes. Veggies will cook some more when you bake the Meatloaf. 

Add garlic and saute one minute more.

Add a bunch of cleaned spinach. Remove most of the stems. You can have one plastic package of fresh spinach that's cleaned, Usually about 6 ounces. Spinach will soften and cook down quickly in about 2 minutes as you stir veggies. 

If you use frozen spinach then defrost and squeeze to remove excess water. No need to saute, just add to the mixing bowl.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl add raw ground meat, sauteed veggies, herbs, and bread. I like to toast the bread and slice or shred it into small pieces. 

Add one egg and pour on the milk or cream. Mix all ingredients.

Add the Meatloaf mix to a baking dish or pan. I like to use a 2 1/2 to 3-inch deep dish so I get a thick meatloaf. If you use a thin sheet pan then the meatloaf can dry out. If your pan is large just pile up the Meatloaf into the center in the shape of a small loaf of bread.

For the Meatloaf topping, stir together ketchup and soy sauce then spread over the top of the Meatloaf. If you don't like a ketchup topping, it's okay to leave it off.

Bake uncovered for about 1 hour at 350 degrees, depending on how "thick" the Meatloaf is. 

The Meatloaf will render a lot of liquid as it bakes, so leave an inch of clearance at the top of the baking dish, so it doesn't overflow. Okay to put a shallow and wide pan underneath the baking dish in case the rendered liquid overflows.

When done, remove Meatloaf and let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving. Slice into the thickest part of the Meatloaf to check for doneness - no pink juices. The Meatloaf will continue to cook as it cools.

Resting it will allow time for the Meatloaf to reabsorb juices like a sponge and create a divinely moist entree.

Ground poultry will render very little fat, however, if you use ground beef you may want to pour off some fat, once the Meatloaf has reabsorbed some of the liquid.

 My Homemade Mashed Potatoes are a tasty accompaniment, just click here to see it.

Swamp Chef's BBQ Sausage Po'boy - Recipe Video

My brother from another daddy, the Swamp Chef, hung out with the family at my Mom's house and manned the BBQ grill. And what's the perfect accompaniment to a family gathering but BBQ Sausage Po-boys!

It's an easy and tasty recipe if you can rustle up some good-quality sausages. Well my nephew Chef Matt has a connection in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the meat purveyor is called Iverstine Farms Butcher. You can read all about them a click away here.

They've been around for a decade and they butcher and smoke their own meats. And you can believe the Swamp Chef on this one, Iverstine Smoked Sausages are the bomb, yeah!

Just show up at the deli counter and take your pick. The Swamp Chef went for it and got three different types of smoked sausage: Green Onion, Jalapeño,  and Flyin Hawaiin (sic.) 

The flavors are subtle, so the meat and smoke dominate. There's a little heat from jalapeno, some onion flavor, and sweetness, too.

These sausages are rough-ground just the way I like it. And since they are smoked and cooked all the way through all you need to do is char them a little bit on the grill.

Now for a Po'boy, it's all about the bread, and most grocers here in Gonzales, Louisiana sell large loaves of fresh French Bread. Local French loaves are a bit softer than typical crusty and chewy loaves you might get at a French restaurant. 

Jason & his brother Chef Matt

Normally a Po'boy Sandwich is dressed in mayo, lettuce, tomato, and pickle slices. But since the Swamp Chef had the grill going it was easy to throw on some bell pepper and onions for the Po'boys - sausage with grilled veggies and a smear of Dijon mustard are a great combo.

Check out the video below. If you have a fave local sausage then you can make your own Swamp Chef BBQ Sausage Po'boy.

Swamp Chef BBQ Sausage Po'boy - Video Recipe

Play it here, video runs 7 minutes, 14 seconds.

My YouTube video link for viewing or embedding, just click here.

If you're looking for a tasty side for the BBQ Po'boy then look no further than my Mom's Cajun Potato Salad. Click here to see the tasty recipe and yummy photo illustrations.