Sabbats Almanac: Samhain to Mabon - Kristoffer Hughes 2018
Feasts and Treats by Blake Octavian Blair
Samhain
SAMHAIN, THE THIRD OF the harvest festivals, is upon us! This harvest brings us yet another rotation of tasty seasonal ingredients available for our feasting pleasure. It also brings thoughts of the beloved dead to mind. This Samhain menu will give a nod to both of those elements. With pumpkins on our porches, it’s only fitting in my mind that we put them on our feast tables, both in the form of decor as well as in the meals on our plates. In this menu you’ll find one of the favorite savory pumpkin dishes, as well as my own adaptation of pesto, featuring seasonal greens and some modern updates to kick up the flavor. To finish it all off is a recipe for a sweet treat, left to us by one of my departed ancestors. Create a delightfully witchy feast table decor by throwing in a few skeleton-themed items among the pumpkins to hearken to the ancestral currents in the air.
Pumpkin Slow Cooker Oatmeal
It has been said breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so why not start your Samhain out in style with delicious homemade pumpkin oatmeal! This one is a cinch, just make it while wearing your pajamas the night before in your slow cooker and let it slowly cook itself into a seasonal pumpkin deliciousness to greet you in the morning! It’s so easy and so tasty that it’s sure to become one of your holiday traditions!
Prep time: Less than 10 minutes
Cook time: Overnight
Serves: 5—6
1 cup steel-cut oats
4½ cups liquid, including; water, milk, and cream
1 cup canned pumpkin
¼ cup raisins
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp ground clove
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
Combine all ingredients into a 3 quart slow cooker. Set to “warm” and cook overnight.
The cooking process will release a fair amount of natural sugars. Therefore, I do not specify to add any additional sugar to this dish. However, you can place a sugar bowl on the table when serving so your diners can add it to their tastes as needed.
Note: the “warm” setting is more than sufficient for cooking the oatmeal overnight, and this reduces the severity of burning at the bottom of the crock (as opposed to cooking it at a higher setting). There will be some no matter what but this minimizes it to the thinnest of layers. The crock is easily cleaned after by soaking in hot water.
Kale Pesto Pasta
This dish makes both a wonderful entrée as well as a delightful hearty side dish. Kale is actually in season in October, the Samhain season in the Northern Hemisphere, so for many of us it is the perfect opportunity to use a fresh seasonal ingredient in our sabbat feast. This kale pesto isn’t likely to resemble a pesto recipe of your ancestors, with inclusion of sriracha and soy sauce as rather exotic ingredients for a pesto. However, as odd as it sounds, I’ve found through my culinary adventures that this combination gives the dish a delightful kick and body that isn’t overpowering yet full of dimension.
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 25 minutes
Serves: 6
¼ cup shelled pumpkin seeds (or to taste)
Salt
5—7 large leaves of kale
1 lb spaghetti pasta
¾ cup olive oil
2 tbsp sriracha
2 tbsp soy sauce
Add the pumpkin seeds to a cold dry skillet and turn on to medium heat, stirring frequently until aromatic and a slight golden brown color and glistening appearance are achieved. Remove from heat and set aside.
Add a few pinches of salt to a large pot of water and bring to a boil. Add kale to pot and cook for 3 minutes. Place kale in ice water for one minute. Drain kale.
Add spaghetti to same pot and water kale was cooked in and cook until al dente. (Approximately 9—12 minutes.) Drain in a colander.
While the pasta is cooking, you can proceed to simultaneously prepare the pesto sauce as follows.
In a blender or food processor, combine the kale leaves, olive oil, sriracha, soy sauce, and half the pumpkin seeds. Blend until saucy, or desired consistency is achieved. You should be able to finish making the pesto sauce in the time it takes for the pasta to finish cooking. Note: you may want to adjust the ratios of oil and kale leaves to achieve the consistency you desire. Some prefer an oilier pesto, some like a thicker pesto. Similarly, you can adjust the amount of sriracha for your desired heat level. As written, I find the pesto not to be very spicy, yet it has a nice mild spice that brings out the other flavors.
Add the drained pasta and the pesto sauce back into the large empty cooking pot from the pasta and toss until all the pasta appears evenly coated with the pesto sauce.
Serve into bowls and sprinkle the top of each with some of the remaining pumpkin seeds.
Stuffed Baked Pumpkins
What is Samhain without a dish to honor this squash that serves as star ambassador of the season? This savory dish is the perfect entrée for your Samhain feast! Plus, it looks awesome and festive on the table and your family and guests will have a priceless expression when you set an entire pumpkin down in front of them.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 2 hours (mostly inactive)
Serves: 4
4 sugar/pie pumpkins (approx. 1 lb each)
Kosher salt (to taste)
Cracked black pepper (to taste)
¼ onion, diced
1 tbsp butter
2 cloves minced garlic
12 ounces vegetarian sausage crumbles
4 ounces fresh baby spinach
1 cup cooked wild rice
2 cups stuffing mix
1 cup shredded fontina, gruyere, or cheddar cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Begin preparing the pumpkins by removing the tops, seed, and loose fibers (pumpkin guts!). You can set aside and save the seeds for future roasting, they make a great snack. Season the interior of the pumpkins with a sprinkling of salt and cracked black pepper.
Next dice the onions and then place into a skillet on medium low heat, sweat the onions in butter until they are aromatic and translucent in appearance, approximately 5—7 minutes. Then add the garlic and sweat for an additional minute.
Next add the vegetarian sausage crumbles to the skillet until heated through and the crumbles are slightly browned, approximately 7—10 minutes.
Then add the spinach to the skillet and stir for 1—2 minutes until it becomes wilted, and then season with salt and black pepper.
In a large mixing bowl, add the sausage mixture, cooked rice, stuffing mix, and cheese. Mix until all ingredients are evenly distributed. Tightly pack the stuffing into each of the pumpkins and replace the tops. Place packed pumpkins into a glass baking dish and into the 350 degree oven for 1 hour. After an hour, remove the pumpkin tops and bake an additional 20—30 minutes or until the flesh of the pumpkins is tender. When done, replace tops and serve.
Grandma’s Scottish Shortbread
I’m sure we all have foods we associate with loved ones who have since passed away. This, dear reader, is one such recipe for my husband and I. His grandma was famous among her circles for her homemade Scottish shortbread. Grandma was in fact a proud Scotswoman, born and raised. She was a small woman with a formidable yet lovable personality. We too, came to love our shortbread, not purely for the happy memories associated with grandma, but also because it was so delicious. In fact, I’m willing to bet you can’t eat just one piece. It’s important to buy the best butter you absolutely can for this recipe. The entire recipe only has three ingredients, the fewer the number of ingredients the more important their quality tends to become. This is why I specify to use imported Irish butter. Trust me, Grandma would insist. This shortbread works wonderfully for cakes and ale ceremonies in ritual, as a delicious snack, or a satisfying desert. Tip from Grandma: it goes great with a cup of tea as well.
12 ounces all-purpose flour
4 ounces castor sugar
8 ounces imported Irish butter (softened)
Preheat an oven to 325 degrees F. Sift together the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl. Next, incorporate the butter into the mixture using your fingertips until an even consistency is achieved. You want the consistency of a crumbly, mealy dough.
Next, divide the dough in half and then shape each half into a round (approx. ¼ to ½ inches in thickness) on a cookie sheet.
Place cookie sheet with rounds into the oven for 20—30 minutes, until the rounds have a golden appearance. When finished baking, sprinkle the rounds with additional caster sugar while warm, and cut into wedges when cooled.