Try out these fabulously frightening Halloween food ideas this October!

Great Halloween food ideas:

Black Risotto

175g risotto rice
1l fish stock
400g tiger prawns, shelled and roughly chopped
3 sachets cuttlefish or squid ink
2 shallots, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
75ml white wine
2 tomatoes, chopped
Zest of 1 lemon
2tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Pinch of chilli flakes, optional

Gently heat your olive oil and butter in a wide pan over a medium heat. Fry gently until soft, then stir in the garlic and chilli flakes (if you’re using them). While they cook for a few minutes, bring your fish stock to a gentle bubble.

Add the rice to your shallot pan and season with salt and pepper, stirring to coat the grains with butter. When the grains turn translucent, turn up the heat slightly and add the wine and tomatoes.

Cook, stirring, until the pan is almost dry. Add half of your ink and coat the rice. When the rice is evenly inky, begin adding your stock a ladle at a time, stirring the rice constantly as you go. Each time the rice absorbs almost all of the stock, add another ladleful.

Just before you add your final ladleful, add your shrimp. Stir, cooking the shrimp and the rice, until all of the stock is gone, and your rice leaves a delightfully languid wake when you pull a spoon through it. Add however much extra ink you’d like to flavour the dish and season to taste. Serve with the lemon zest and parsley in a separate dish on the side, for sprinkling over the top.

Darker Than Dark Chocolate and Blackberry Tart

For the blackberry base:
150g blackberries
1tbsp sugar

For the tart:
450g dark chocolate
280ml single cream
175ml milk
1 ½ tbsp sugar
1tsp vanilla seeds
3 eggs plus 1 yolk, whisked
300g chocolate pastry
Blackberries and ice cream, to serve

Preheat your oven to 150C/300F/Gas 4. Now, make your blackberry layer by combining 150g of blackberries and 1 ½ tbsp of sugar in a bowl. Mash with a fork and set aside. In another bowl, break your chocolate into chunks. Set aside.

Combine milk and cream in a saucepan over a medium heat. Boil, add 1 ½ tbsp sugar and stir until dissolved. Pour over the chocolate and whisk until melted and fully incorporated. Cool slightly, then add the vanilla and the eggs, including the extra yolk.

Roll your pastry out until it’s about 5mm thick. Use it to line a tart tin around 28cm tart tin. Layer baking paper over the pastry and blind bake with rice or baking beads for 15 minutes. Remove the beads and paper, then bake for a further five minutes.

Turn the oven down to 115C/230F/Low. Take the tart from the oven and spoon your macerated blackberries into the case, spreading to the edges of the tart. Pour over the chocolate mixture and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until the filling has set. You’re looking for a slight wobble.

Cool to room temperature and serve with a sprinkling of fresh blackberries and a generous spoon of ice cream.

Black Mamba Martini

50ml gin
10ml orange liqueur
10ml lime juice
1tbsp blackberry jam
Blackberries and a basil leaf, to garnish

Combine your ingredients in a cocktail shaker and pack with ice. Shake hard and strain into a Martini glass. Garnish with blackberries on a cocktail stick and a basil leaf.