Witchy Kitchen

Category: main dish

  • Vegetarian Shami Kebab Burgers with Shiitake Bacon & Pakora Fries

    Vegetarian Shami Kebab Burgers with Shiitake Bacon & Pakora Fries

    Spicy, savory shami kebabs make awesome burgers, and go just as well with ketchup as they do with green chutney. It seemed like the perfect thing to make as a main course for our Ms Marvel menu, Pakistani food that an American teenager can get excited about. And since on the very first page of the comic we find our heroine drooling over “delicious, delicious infidel meat,” I thought I’d make some shiitake bacon that everyone from Muslims to vegetarians can enjoy – because we have both in our house.

    In fact, though I’ve made Chef Vah’s shami kebabs many times (delicious, and I love how excited he gets about food in his videos), since we’ve shifted to eating vegetarian at home I decided to convert these to meatless. They have double the chana dal, and are well-spiced with jammy tomatoes and soy sauce to up the umami. They came out zabardast! Chef’s kiss!

    And duh, pakoras are the best, who can turn down fried potatoes?

    For the shami kebabs

    Adapted from Chef Vah

    • 1 cup uncooked chana dal (split chickpeas)
    • 2 tablespoons ghee, plus more for frying
    • 1 onion, diced
    • 4 cloves garlic, grated
    • 1 1/2 inch ginger, peeled and grated
    • Half of a 14 ounce can of diced tomatoes (or 2-3 romas, diced)
    • 1 teaspoon cumin
    • 1 teaspoon coriander
    • 1 teaspoon garam masala
    • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
    • 1/2 teaspoon red chili (lots more if you’re not cooking for kids or wimps)
    • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
    • Salt to taste
    • Handful mint, chopped
    • 1-2 tablespoons besan (chickpea flour), optional
    • 1 egg

    Cook chana dal in 2 cups of water until soft, adding more water if necessary.

    Meanwhile, heat ghee and cook onion until very golden brown. Add garlic and ginger and stir for a minute or two, then add tomatoes, cumin, coriander, garam masala, turmeric, red chili and soy sauce. Cook until tomatoes are completely broken down and jammy. Add dal and mint into the pan and warm through.

    Transfer everything to a food processor and pulse until well combined. Don’t over mix, and don’t worry if there are unmashed lentils, a little texture in these is nice. Transfer to a mixing bowl and mix with a spatula. If the mixture is very wet, add a tablespoon or two of besan to help them hold together. They will be delicate, but once cooked they should hold together fine.

    Heat a few tablespoons ghee, and mix an egg on a plate with a pinch of salt and a tablespoon of water. Make patties from the lentil mixture, dip both sides in the egg, and fry on both sides until golden brown. You can rewarm these in the oven before serving if necessary.

    Serve alone with green chutney, or on buns with a slice of cheese, ketchup, and shiitake bacon!

    For the shiitake bacon

    Adapted from Olives for Dinner

    • 2 cups sliced shiitakes
    • 1 tablespoon olive oil
    • pinch salt
    • 1 teaspoon liquid smoke
    • 1 teaspoon sesame oil
    • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika

    Whisk together olive oil, salt, liquid smoke, sesame oil, and smoked paprika. Toss shiitakes with the mixture and marinate for at least 20 minutes.

    Heat oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and arrange mushrooms in a single layer. Bake for 10 minutes, flip, then bake 15 minutes more. Increase heat to 375°, flip, and bake 10 minutes more. Serve hot.

    For the pakora fries

    • 1 cup besan (chickpea flour)
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • 1 teaspoon coriander seeds
    • 1/2 teaspoon red chili
    • 1 large Russet potato
    • oil for frying

    Mix together besan, salt, coriander seeds and red chili. Mix in enough water to make a medium thick batter. Peel the potato and cut into batons and place in the batter to coat.

    Heat an inch or so of oil. Fry the potatoes in batches, turning gently, until golden and cooked through. Drain on a paper towel and serve hot with mint chutney or ketchup.

    Check out the whole Ms Marvel Menu

    See more of the The Comic Vault’s Comic Kitchen

    Photo credit: Jonathan Hartzell

  • Linguine with Clam Sauce

    Linguine with Clam Sauce

    You are in my blood. I cant help it. We can’t be anywhere except together.

    Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block is a glittery glam fairy tale, full of enchanting characters living deliciously on a sparkling sun-soaked LA backdrop. Though it views the world through neon pink colored glasses, it sensitively takes on some very real issues. I loved this and the rest of the Dangerous Angels books as a young adult, and adored revisiting it for our podcast.

    Illustration by Jill Lydon

    Weetzie, her boyfriend Secret Agent Lover Man, her best friend Dirk and his partner Duck, and babies Cherokee and Witch Baby, make a beautiful if unconventional family. Toward the end of the novel, after ups and downs and all being said and done, there is a lovely dinner scene with everyone around a table, with Weetzie feeling perfectly content with her chosen family.

    And what’s the dish? Linguine with Clam Sauce, a classic family dinner. I believe on the podcast I said old school, because it feels like in the days before carb aversion and when Italian was “exotic,” everyone’s idea of a fancy dinner was pasta. (But isn’t classic a classier way to say that?) It’s elegantly simple, exactly the type of thing My Secret Agent Lover Man would be making. It’s the type of food that makes you feel warm and safe, surrounded by the people you love, comfort food with style – because Weetzie never does anything without style.

    Linguine with Clam Sauce

    Adapted from Anne Burrell’s Linguine with White Clam Sauce

    • 1 pound clams (I used steamer, next time will probably use littleneck)
    • 1 pound linguini
    • sea salt or kosher salt
    • 3 tablespoons olive oil
    • 5 cloves garlic, sliced
    • Good pinch red chili flakes
    • 1/2 cup dry white wine
    • 2 tablespoons butter
    • handful finely chopped parsley, grated parmesan, olive oil and lemon wedges for garnish

    Clean your clams well. I have heard if you soak them in a bowl in the fridge with a couple spoonfuls of flour it will help get all the grit out – I don’t think this is true? But I tried it anyway.

    Heat a pot of well-salted water, and cook your linguine to even less than al dente (it will finish in the sauce). If you are some sort of time wizard, you can try to coordinate finishing cooking your linguini with finishing your sauce, so you can directly transfer it to the pot, but I just reserve a mugful of the starchy cooking liquid before draining the pasta. Don’t rinse, the starch will help the sauce stick to the pasta.

    Meanwhile, rinse your clams and have them ready. In a pot with a cover (or a wok, as I did), heat olive oil on medium high and add garlic. Cook for a few minutes, stirring, until garlic is golden (being careful not to burn). Add white wine and another half cup of water and bring to a boil. Throw in your clams and cover the pot or wok.

    After two minutes they should be steamed open – remove clams and reduce liquid to more than half. Reduce heat to medium and add in the butter and stir to make a silky sauce. Using tongs or forks, toss your pasta in the sauce, adding some of the reserved cooking liquid if necessary. When the linguine is thoroughly coated and cooked, transfer to a large plate, arrange the clams around the edge, and top with finely chopped parsley, grated parmesan, and drizzles of olive oil. Serve with lemon wedges.

    Recipe for Fiction Kitchen Episode 15: WEETZIE BAT in which Diana and Carrie discuss the slinkster cool world of Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, including classic LA eateries, ubiquitous avocados, “fancy” family meals, questionable burrito contents, and strawberry sundaes with marshmallow topping.

  • Rye Popovers with Welsh Rarebit Sauce

    Rye Popovers with Welsh Rarebit Sauce

    I adored Tim Burton’s 2016 film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children based on the book of the same name by Ransom Riggs. I can attribute most of my love to the film’s charming and spookyl atmosphere, from the Burtonesque settings, to the paranomal abilitied children I’ve described as X-Men through an Instagram filter, to the hauntingly lovely Florence and the Machine song that plays through the credits. I can attribute the rest of my love to the luminous Eva Green as Miss Peregrine.

    Illustration by Andrew Tarusov

    Miss Peregrine’s school is located in Wales, and to my American sensibility the most iconic Welsh food is Welsh Rarebit (please comment and school me if there are more dishes I should know). As far as dishes go though, this is a good one, the sauce is simply amazing. One of my peculiar children declared “dis is yum!”

    I made the lovely rarebit creamy cheese sauce flavored with dijon, worcestershire sauce and ale (I used pumpkin beer!) but rather than on rye toast, I made some light and airy rye popovers to evoke Emma (yes in the book it’s Olive) who is lighter than air. I wonder if she’s a good cook – she’s probably great at things like popovers, soufflees, meringues, puris, foams and lattes.

    Just a note, in a rare twist I adapted nothing this time, both unaltered recipes came out really nice.

    Rye Popovers with Welsh Rarebit Sauce

    For the popovers
    Recipe from Food.com

    • 3⁄4 cup rye flour
    • 1 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
    • 1 cup milk
    • 1 tablespoon butter, melted
    • 2 eggs, lightly beaten

    Heat over to 450° and grease a muffin tin.

    Whisk together flours and salt, then add milk, butter, and eggs. Mix well and divide between muffin cups.

    Bake for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 350$deg; and bake for another 5 minutes. Cool on a rack. Serve with rarebit sauce, below.

    For the rarebit sauce
    Recipe from Alton Brown

    • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
    • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
    • 1 teaspoon dijon mustard
    • 1 teaspoon worcestershire sauce (vegetarian sauce to make vegetarian)
    • 1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
    • 1/4 teaspoon freshly cracked pepper
    • 1/4 cup beer (porter is best, I used a lighter pumpkin beer, also good)
    • 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
    • 3/4 cups shredded cheddar

    On low heat in a saucepan, heat butter and flour, whisking continuously for several minutes (do not let flour brown). Whisk in in dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper until well combined. Whisk in beer and cream, and add cheddar. Cook, whisking constantly, for 5-7 minutes until cheese is melted completely and mixture has slightly thickened. Remove from heat and serve warm with popovers.

    Recipe for Fiction Kitchen Podcast Episode 48: MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN in which Carrie and Diana discuss the 2016 Tim Burton film and the novel by Ransom Riggs that it’s based on. Giant carrots, weird little back-teeth, eyeball munching, carnival food; all very peculiar.

  • Codfish Pudding

    Codfish Pudding

    Just always be waiting for me.

    I reread Peter Pan by JM Barrie, a book I loved as a child, a couple of years ago; it was just as sweet and funny as I remembered, but it’s now layered by my adult experience. There’s some unfortunate misogyny (poor Wendy), and now knowing that it’s about the death of a child, much of it is just so unbearably sad.

    But from unbearable tragedy comes a charming and awfully big adventure, and I made a recipe to match. This is equal parts British nursery food for darling little children and the worst insult to effeminate one-handed pirates.

    I based my dish on this recipe from Cook it Simply with several adjustments in ingredients and cooking method (Do I look like I have suet? Or a pudding basin? But I got through it, oh the cleverness of me!). The result was like a crustless mini quiche – super tasty, and I think the lemon zest brought out the pleasant fishy flavor and brightened it several shades above stereotypically tasteless nursery fare.

    It was very good warm the night of, my kids loved it, and, because I am a monster who eats straight from the fridge, can offer that it was even good cold the next day.

    Codfish Pudding

    Adapted from Cook it Simply

    • 1 pound skinless cod, sliced into small cubes
    • 1 stick butter, melted
    • zest of one lemon
    • 1 teaspoon salt
    • fresh cracked pepper
    • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
    • 1/2 cup milk
    • 2 slices bread
    • handful parsley

    Heat oven to 350° and grease a muffin tin.

    Combine cod, butter, lemon zest, salt, pepper, eggs, and milk. In a food processor, blitz bread and parsley to fine crumbs. Stir into cod mixture.

    Divide evenly between muffin cups. Place the muffin tin on a large rimmed baking sheet in the oven, and add water to the baking sheet to about three quarters full.

    Bake for one hour (start checking at 50 minutes, it’s fine for the tops to brown but if they start getting too done cover with foil) until the mixture is fairly solid. Remove to a rack and cool 15-20 minutes.

    Gently remove each pudding, I spooned around the rim to loosen it and used two spoons to lift it to the plate. They’ll get less delicate as they cool.

    Garnish with a little extra chopped parsley and serve warm, or enjoy later room temp or even cold.

    Recipe for Fiction Kitchen Podcast Episode 45: PETER PAN, in which Carrie and Diana discuss the novel and various adaptations. Diana dreams of cakes, Carrie gets emotional, and there’s pretend feasts, medicine, panpipes and nursery food to go around.

    Lovely artwork by Renae De Liz

  • Leg of Lamb with Mint Pesto

    Leg of Lamb with Mint Pesto

    Twin Peaks is weird, wonderful, and absolutely full of food. Beyond the iconic cherry pie and damn fine coffee, characters are constantly cooking, eating, and waxing poetic about their favorite meals.

    It’s so full of brilliant food scenes and mentions in fact, that I have a full Twin Peaks Archive of recipes and food recaps.

    Second-tier wacky character and his nutty shenanigan Jerry Horne is the source of several good food moments. In one particular one, he bursts into Ben’s office, swinging a huge leg of lamb, gifted by the lovely Icelandic Heba. “Garlic, a little mint, that’s rotisserie heaven!”

    I’d never cooked a leg of lamb, or even a beef roast (gaping hole in my repertoire I just discovered and closed, bam), so I looked to The Kitchn for guidance. It assured me that this is one of the easiest cuts, hard to mess up if you follow the guidelines. I adjusted the cooking time since my leg was smaller; where says to cook for an hour, I did mine 45 minutes.

    It came out perfectly cooked. Thanks to the Kitchn and creepy, amusing Jerry Horne, we enjoyed it, we even enjoyed this recipe along with a mint pesto a couple years ago for Christmas Eve dinner!

    Leg of Lamb with Mint Pesto

    From The Kitchn’s How to Roast a Leg of Lamb

    For the lamb

    • 3 pound, bone-in leg of lamb
    • salt & pepper
    • 4-5 cloves garlic, chopped (I could have chopped it a little more finely)
    • Fresh or dried herbs, such as mint or rosemary. I used about a teaspoon of dried mint

    Trim as much fat as you want – I removed the thick layer of fat (the fell) which has a strong muttony flavor, but I wasn’t very thorough about trimming the rest.

    An hour before cooking, take lamb out of the fridge to allow to come to room temperature (I also left mine uncovered, I think by drying out a little it helps it to form a crust?) Generously sprinkle with salt and pepper and place in a large roasting pan.

    Heat the broiler, move a rack close to the top, and broil the leg for 5 minutes on each side. Remove from oven and lower the heat to 325° and move the rack to the middle of the oven. Cover lamb with chopped garlic and herbs, and tent with foil. Once the oven has reached the right temperature, cook for 45 minutes and begin checking the temperature. I cooked mine to 340° (it will keep cooking once you remove it from the oven) for medium rare.

    Remove from the oven and let rest for at least 15 minutes before carving. Carve by cutting slices perpendicular to the bone, then cutting off the bone.

    For the mint pesto

    • 1 bunch fresh mint
    • 4 ounces blanched almonds
    • 2 cloves garlic
    • salt & pepper
    • 1/4 cup+ olive oil
    • squirt of lemon juice

    In a food processor, combine mint, almonds, garlic, salt and pepper. Slowly drizzle in olive oil to make a paste. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Before serving, freshen it up with a squirt of lemon juice.

    We ate this on Christmas Eve as sandwiches – whole wheat bun, mayo, mint pesto, slices of lamb, slice of tomato – I think Cooper would have liked it as well!

    Recipe for Fiction Kitchen Episode 5: TWIN PEAKS, in which Carrie and Diana discuss quirky characters (mostly Jerry, he’s the best), meatloaf, giant ice cream cones, soup of the day, The Great Northern’s interesting clientele, awkward family dinners and inappropriate jokes. Join us for a slice of cherry pie and some damn good coffee.

  • Tough Guy Future Noodles

    As reality and dystopian fiction become closer to indistinguishable, it’s no surprise that it is #DISHTOPIA Month: Eat Like It’s the End of the World, Fandom Foodies theme hosted by the lovely Catherine at The Gluttonous Geek – check out the linkup for more foodpocalypse!

    Blade Runner (1982) gives us the most charming retro-futuristic world, where Turing Test-passing AI and flying cars exist but people are still using noir tropes and pay phones. As we learned during the Blade Runner episode of our Fiction Kitchen podcast, the future has heavy Asian undertones, food is nonperishable, and as Cracked claims: tough guys eat noodles.

    This dish inspired by the film was really an excuse to try out Momofuku Ginger Scallion Sauce which I’ve had my eye on for awhile – and it did not disappoint! – so I made a bowl of ramen to be tossed with that and other goodies.

    Blade Runner Tough Guy Future Noodles

    For the ginger scallion sauce

    • 2 1/2 cups thinly sliced scallions (greens and whites; from 1 to 2 large bunches)
    • 1/2 cup finely minced peeled fresh ginger
    • 1/4 cup grapeseed oil
    • 1 1/2 teaspoons soy sauce
    • 3/4 teaspoon sherry vinegar
    • 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, or more to taste

    Toss all ingredients together, let sit 15 minutes.

    For the carrot kinpiri
    Recipe from Just Bento

    • 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into matchsticks
    • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
    • pinch red pepper flakes
    • 1 tablespoon soy sauce
    • 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

    Heat oil, and saute carrots until soft, about 8 minutes. Add red pepper flakes and soy sauce, cook another few minutes until liquid evaporates. Toss with sesame seeds.

    For the mushrooms
    Clean and slice 8oz cremini mushrooms. Heat a tablespoon oil and 1 grate clove garlic, then saute mushrooms until liquid evaporates, add a 1 tablespoon splash soy sauce, cook another minute or two.

    For the cucumbers
    Peel and slice two large cucumbers, toss with 2 teaspoons sugar and 1 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste) and let sit 10-15 minutes.

    For the boiled eggs
    Put 6 eggs in a saucepan and just cover with cold water. Bring to a boil, remove from heat, and sit, covered for 7 minutes (10 for fully hard eggs). Dunk eggs in an ice bath, peel and slice.

    For the noodle bowl
    Boil and drain 9oz ramen, toss with other goodies!

    This dish was first posted for Fiction Kitchen Episode 37: BLADE RUNNER in which Carrie and Diana discuss the 1982 cyberpunk neo-noir film, eat some tough guy noodles, make some edible origami, and cry into their peaches.

  • Eclipse Pizza

    Eclipse Pizza

    Who should I summon with my pizza?

    It’s finally here!! It’s #Witchtober, hosted by Fiction Food Café. THAT’S RIGHT WITCHES!! Check out the tag for Witchy recipes from fiction all month long.

    The House of the Devil (2009), written and directed by Ti West, is a bit of a haunted house movie, a bit of a slasher, and a bit of witchy movie rolled in to one. What’s otherwise a basic tropey horror movie gets elevated by it’s full 80s style. From the titles to the soundtrack to the camerawork to the feathered hair and Satanic Panic, this movie feels like the cover of a VC Andrews novel and I loved it.

    An eclipse features heavily in the film, being both the occasion for the final ritual as well as inspiration for the special of the day in the pizza parlor that our final girl Samantha (Jocelin Donahue) and her friend Megan (Greta Gerwig) have lunch. “Eclipse Pie” is detailed on the chalkboard: white sauce, garlic, tomato, olives and feta. I put together such a pie using a few techniques I’ve collected over the years: those for New York pizza dough, white sauce, and deliciously slow-roasted romas that I make all the time and use for everything (you know, salads, pastas, drawing pentagrams). And voila: pizza fit for a demon.

    Eclipse Pizza

    For the white sauce
    From Serious Eats

    • 2 tablespoons olive oil
    • 1 small onion
    • 2 cloves garlic
    • 1/4 cup heavy cream
    • 2 sprigs thyme, chopped
    • salt & pepper

    Heat olive oil. In a food processor, blitz together onion and garlic (alternately you can finely chop both), and cook until softened and most of the moisture has evaporated, being careful not to brown. Add heavy cream and thyme and a pinch of salt & pepper, and cook for a few minutes until reduced and thick. Remove from heat.

    For the tomatoes (slices or sauce)

    • 2 pounds roma tomatoes, trimmed and medium sliced lengthwise
    • 4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
    • olive oil
    • salt & pepper

    Heat oven to 300°. Toss tomatoes and garlic with generous olive oil, salt and pepper, and spread in a single layer in a couple roasting pans or a couple baking sheets. Cook for 1 1/2 hours. They can be used as is, OR if you want to make a sauce for drawing symbols and such, transfer to a food processor and blend with just enough water to get a thick but squirtable consistency. Transfer to a squirt bottle.

    For the pie

    • One New York-style pizza dough (recipe from Serious Eats)
    • white sauce & tomatoes (above)
    • 4 ounces ricotta
    • 4 ounces mozzarella
    • salt & pepper
    • palmful kalamata olives, sliced
    • palmful basil, small chop
    • palmful feta

    Heat oven to 500°

    Grease a pizza peel, stone, or baking sheet, and gently stretch the dough to a 14 inch round. Top with white sauce.

    Mix ricotta and mozzarella, season with salt and pepper, and spread over the pizza. Add olives, basil, feta, and either the whole tomatoes or draw a pentagram (or heart or happy face, whatever).

    Cook for about 15 minutes (start checking at 12) until golden and bubbly. Allow to cool slightly, slice and serve.

    Bonus: Samantha bopping around the spooky house like an 80s music video!

  • Kuku Kadoo

    Kuku Kadoo

    Under the Shadow is the story of Shideh (Narges Rashidi, brilliant) and her daughter Dorsa who become haunted by a djinn. It’s currently on Netflix, I enjoyed it a lot and suggest checking it out!

    Under the Shadow

    As a 2016 mother-child horror movie, it’s comparable to The Babadook, but whereas Amelia in the Babadook is haunted by her internal grief, the djinn that haunts the collected, ambitious, and modern Shideh seems to compound the ways she’s already being suffocated in her everyday life – ways there are no shortage of in 1980s Iran. Her dreams of becoming a doctor have been crushed, she and her neighbors live almost casually with the daily threat of missiles, and the morality police are more concerned with how she’s scandalously uncovered when she bolts outside in fear than by her and her child’s safety.

    Add to that the folkloric element of the tricky and unnerving djinn, who seems to target Shideh’s deepest insecurities. I cried hot tears as it takes the form of her husband telling her what a horrible mother she is, and almost applauded its pettiness as it destroys the only thing that seems to relieve her frustration: her beloved Jane Fonda workout video. So 80s. So culturally forbidden.

    Shideh doesn’t seem like a character that cares much about cooking, but at one point in the film, she’s seen in the kitchen chopping what looks like zucchini and potato, and then sweeps it into a pot. I took this as opportunity to try kuku kadoo, sort of an Iranian frittata which uses those ingredients. It’s a portable dish that works at all temps, so it’s good to take either to the apartment basement during an attack or as a road snack while on the run from supernatural forces.

    Kuku Kadoo

    Adapted from the defunct Lucky Peach

    • olive oil
    • 12 eggs, lightly beaten
    • 1 pound zucchini, grated and squeezed of moisture
    • 3/4 pounds potatoes, parboiled, cooled, and grated
    • 1 bunch green onions, sliced
    • 2 tablespoons yogurt
    • 2 tablespoons flour
    • 2 teaspoons baking powder
    • 2 teaspoons coarse salt
    • 1 handful parsley, chopped
    • 2 cloves garlic, grated
    • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
    • black pepper to taste

    Heat oven to 400°. Line a baking pan with parchment and grease with olive oil.

    With a spatula, combine eggs, zucchini, potatoes, green onions, yogurt, flour, baking powder, slat, parsley, garlic, tumeric, and black pepper. Spread into the baking dish an dback for 35 minutes, until top is golden. Check that it’s cooked through by inserting a knife into the center, should come out clean.

    Cool, remove from dish and slice into squares to serve.

  • Jamaican Banana Curry with Shrimp and Coconut Rice

    Jamaican Banana Curry with Shrimp and Coconut Rice

    Live people ignore the strange and unusual. I myself am strange and unusual.

    I’ve enjoyed the 1988 creepy comedy Beetlejuice since I was a kid, and was into the animated series too – so much so that I dressed up as Lydia one Halloween (as a spooky little kid I related to her quite a bit). It was a frightfully fun rewatch, full of snakes, ghosts, and shrimp, not to mention a Winona Ryder fix which I needed after Stranger Things.

    The scene where Recently Deceased Adam and Barbara possess the Deetz’s garish dinner party with the Banana Boat song – culminating in attack of the shrimp cocktail – is pretty delightful. It inspired this Jamaican-style banana curry, with shrimp of course.

    I’ve never met a curry I didn’t love. I consulted this Jamaican Curry Powder recipe for an authentic mix of spices. The result was a haunting balance of sweet, salty and spicy; with some simple coconut rice, it was to die for!

    Jamaican Banana Curry with Shrimp and Coconut Rice

    For the banana and shrimp curry

    • whole spices: 1/2 teaspoon coriander, 1/4 teaspoon each cumin, mustard, and fennel, pinch each fenugreek and allspice
    • 2 tablespoons butter, divided
    • 12 ounces shrimp, peeled and deveined
    • 2 green onions, whites and greens divided and sliced
    • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and grated
    • 1 inch ginger, peeled and grated
    • 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
    • 1/2 teaspoon cayenne (or you can leave out if you’re cooking for kids and add some sriracha later)
    • 2 large bananas, mashed
    • zest of 1 lime
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 1/4 cup water
    • lime wedges to serve

    On a dry pan, toast the whole spices until fragrant. Grind and set aside.

    In a wok or frying pan, heat the butter on medium high. Cook the shrimp until just pink (about 2 minutes) and remove to a plate.

    Heat another tablespoon butter. Stirring, cook the onions until softened, add the garlic and ginger and cook another minute or so, then add the ground spices plus the turmeric and cayenne if using and cook for another minute. Add the bananas, lime zest, and salt, and cook, stirring, until the mixture is very thick and golden. Add the water and mix well. When it is back up to heat, add the shrimp and cook gently until they are just heated through.

    Serve garnished with green onions, with a lime wedge and coconut rice.

    For the coconut rice

    • 2 cups short-grain rice, washed and soaked for at least 30 minutes
    • 1 cup coconut milk
    • 1 1/4 cups water
    • good pinch salt

    Combine rice, coconut milk, water and salt in a pot and cover. Bring to a rolling boil, then reduce heat to low and cook for 15 minutes. Remove from heat but keep covered, steaming for another 20 minutes.

    If you want a slightly more elaborate side, try this Hara Masala Coconut Rice.

    Beetlejuice fits perfectly into our month of Tim Burton-inspired recipes (see the darkly delicious #Burtoween link-up hosted here on Witchy Kitchen) and is also the movie of the month hosted by Deb at Kahakai Kitchen for Food ‘n Flix!

  • Zubat Blackberry BBQ Wings

    Zubat Blackberry BBQ Wings

    While I just missed the Pokemon craze when I was younger (#old, although the kids I babysat were into it), I’ve definitely gotten caught up in the cultural phenomena that is Pokemon Go. It’s been so fun to play with my kids – even though their aim sucks and they waste all my pokeballs! – and I fight my army of Vaporeons at the public library gym. Mostly I’ve enjoyed going on peaceful walks at night, catching dem Pidgeys and listening to Last Podcast on the Left or my The 1975 Spotify station. I had kind of a rough early part to the year, but somehow this weird little routine really contributed to clearing my mind and lifting my mood.

    zubat

    Zubat inspired this recipe; I love that creepy flappy fangy little guy! Catherine at The Gluttonous Geek joked that she was the only one so far twisted enough to make a play on actually cooking the little creatures. I laughed to myself because oh yeah, I’m going there too! These BBQ wings have the wing and drumette intact to look battier, and the Asian-inspired blackberry BBQ sauce is both sweet and spicy and zubat-tinged purple. With a garlicky buttermilk dipping sauce, they turned into a dish we could really sink our teeth into.

    🎵 I wanna be the spookiest
    Flap around, drink some blood and train,
    Sunlight is my real test
    But at night, feel my Poison Fang! 🎵

    Zubat Wings

    • 3 pounds chicken wings (wings and drumettes intact (you could of course do them split apart, just slightly lessen the cooking time)<br />)
    • salt & pepper
    • 2 cups blackberries
    • 1 cup chicken broth
    • 2 inches ginger (grated)
    • 1 cup ketchup
    • 1/4 cup honey
    • 2 tablespoons soy sauce
    • 2 cloves garlic (grated)
    • fresh ground black pepper (about a teaspoon)
    • 1-2 tablespoons srirach ((I left this out until I had dipped half the wings in order to make not-spicy wings for the kids))

    1. Preheat oven to 400°. Position a rack over a baking sheet and spray or rub with oil. Wash, dry, and season the wings liberally with salt and pepper, and arrange in a single layer on the baking sheet. Bake for 40 minutes or so, flipping once, until cooked through and golden.

    2. Meanwhile, prepare the bbq sauce. In a saucepan, bring chicken broth, blackberries, ginger and a sprinkle of salt to a boil, and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring/smashing occasionally, until blackberries are completely broken down.

    3. While the blackberries are simmering, in a mixing bowl whisk together ketchup, honey, soy sauce, garlic, pepper, and sriracha (if you are doing a split batch like I did, wait until after you dip half the wings to add the sriracha). Strain the blackberry mixture through a mesh strainer into the ketchup mixture, pressing to get most of the liquid out, whisk everything together and return to the sauce pan. Simmer another 15-20 minutes until thick.

    4. When the wings are cooked, dip each in the bbq sauce and return to the rack, brushing a little more over the top. You can reserve the leftover sauce for another purpose. Bake another 5 minutes or so, then let cool slightly, garnish with green onions, and serve with garlicky buttermilk dipping sauce (below).

    Garlicky Buttermilk Dipping Sauce

    • 1/2 cup buttermilk
    • 1/2 cup sour cream
    • 1 clove garlic (grated)
    • coarse salt to taste (about 1/2 a teaspoon)

    1. Whisk together all ingredients and serve!

    More batty BBQ recipes:

    Originally posted for #PokeNOM month! Catherine at The Gluttonous Geek hosted this theme for Fandom Foodies. Her awesome pick sparked so many creative and delicious-looking recipes! Head over to the linkup, or look for #PokeNOM on social media to check them out – gotta eat ’em all!

    Update, June 2019 The Cupcakedex is hosting #PokeNoms to celebrate Detective Pikachu!