Halloween is almost here, and if you’re looking for a fun way to celebrate it this year, you can try incorporating Spanish cuisine into your meals. If you’ve tried eating at Spanish restaurants or have already visited Spain, you know that many Spanish dishes can be altered during special events.
So, if you’re hosting a dinner party this Halloween, you can explore the world of Spanish cuisine and turn various dishes into spooky yet.
Start with the Decoration
Before you get started with preparing the ingredients and identifying the right dishes, you should focus on the decoration. Besides, the right decorations can bind every element together, especially if you’re aiming for a more specific theme.
For instance, if you’re going for anything Halloween, you should include the typical decor that depicts the theme.
Halloween Tapas: Freaky Mini Bites
You can start with the tapas-inspired dishes that serve as evening appetisers. So, if you’ve tried taps in Spanish restaurants before, you can take them as inspirations for your dishes. However, if you can’t decide, here are some options you should consider:
1. Gazpacho Shots
Gazpacho is one of the most popular Spanish soups, especially because it’s served cold and fresh. It usually contains tomatoes, olive oil, cucumber, red and green bell peppers, onion, garlic, sherry vinegar, cumin, sea salt, and pepper. To prepare this, you must put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender, then pour each serving into a shot glass. But since it’s for Halloween, you can garnish them with creepy characters.
2. Fig Ghostly Tartlets
In this appetiser/ tapas, you need to prepare cream cheese and fig tartlets. But if you can’t find fig fruit, you can substitute fig jam. Meanwhile, if you don’t have time to create the pie crust, you can also use puff pastry instead.
For the Halloween effect, you create small ghost shapes, and since the fig fruit can be turned into something creepy like a weird mouth.
3. Octopus Tentacle Croquettes
Croquettes are one of the most popular tapas. However, instead of potatoes, Spanish croquettes are made of bechamel. So, once you have prepared the bechamel, you can easily shape them into tentacles before freezing, or the other way around.
Once you’ve created the perfect shape, you can then dip the croquettes into flour, egg wash, and bread crumbs.
4. Stuffed Bell Pepper Jack-O’-Lanterns
Have you ever tried stuffed bell peppers? Spanish cuisine contains a lot of peppers, and since it’s Halloween, this can be the right time to utilise the orange colour of bell peppers and turn them into stuffed bell pepper jack-o’-lanterns.
Main Course: Time to Feast
Now, let’s move on to the main course. Turn traditional Spanish dishes into something spooky by incorporating colours and characters.
1. Blood-red Paella
If you’ve tried traditional paella before, you may be aware that it’s usually yellow, since it’s added with saffron. But since you’re preparing a Halloween dinner, you can switch to making paella negra using squid ink, instead of the traditional version.
As for the other elements, you can utilise red bell peppers and other seafood to create the red effects.
2. Witches’ Hat Spanish Tortilla
Although Spanish became popular as tapas, you can also include it as one of the main dishes. Since the usual form of Spanish tortilla is round, based on the shape of a pan, you can cut the finished product into triangles, and decorate them similar to a witch’s hat.
Sinister Sips: Halloween Cocktails
Of course, your Halloween dinner party won’t be complete without drinks. So, here are some ideas you should try for some sinister sips.
1. Blood Sangria
Since it’s red, Sangria is always welcome to Halloween dinner parties. You just need to prepare some fruit, such as oranges, apples, blackberries, and raspberries. As for the mix, you need Spanish red wine, and brandy. If you like a sweeter sangria, you can also add some sugar and cinnamon sticks.
2. The Black Widow
Are you looking for a darker drink option? You can also try the black widow. It’s a mix of sparkling white wine Spanish cava, and blackberry liqueur. If you want a bit of a kick, you can also add a splash of lime juice. Of course, don’t forget to invest in some cool glasses, for a more creepy drinking session.
Sweet Ending
Lastly, when it comes to desserts, there’s no such thing as too spooky. So, here are a few options to choose from.
1. Pumpkin Spider Flan
Turn the traditional Spanish flan into spiders, by adding cinnamon sticks and cloves. Of course, you can be as creative as you like when making spiders out of a round flan but don’t limit yourself to the mentioned options for decoration.
2. Spanish Chocolate Churros with Red Velvet Sauce
Churros may not be considered as dessert, but it may be okay to consider it as one sometimes. So, for your Halloween dessert, you can create the traditional Spanish churros with red velvet dip. It may be too simple, but you add eyes to the churros, so it looks creepy when dipped into the “bloody” sauce.
Final Thoughts
Preparing for a Halloween dinner party can be overwhelming at first, especially if you don’t know where to start. However, with this guide, you have options for every course, so you just need to prepare the ingredients and start cooking. Remember that although it’s a themed dinner, you should still ensure that every dish is delicious.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aliana Baraquio is a web content writer who also loves cooking dishes from different countries. If you want to experience a Barcelona-style restaurant that serves high-quality food, and a modern, contemporary, fresh feel from the south of Europe, visit TAST Catala Spanish Restaurant.