Halloween is upon us – but it doesn’t have to be all about pumpkins, chocolate and candy.

 

To help ensure that everyone benefits from this year’s celebrations (and not just those with a sweet tooth), we’ve pulled together our favourite fun Halloween recipes that are just as likely to impress your guests, as they are scare them!

 

Halloween smoked salmon sushi brain

 

Yes, you have read it correctly. And regardless of how unappealing it sounds, this step-by-step video will not fail to get you thinking about the possibilities for ‘grown ups’ when it comes to Halloween party food ideas.

 

The video, which is less than a minute long, can be viewed here.

 

Whilst there’s no quantity given for the smoked salmon, we would recommend that you purchase a 200g pack of our Traditional Smoked Salmon just to be on the safe side (and assuming that you’ll only be preparing one!).

 

Halloween sushi coffins

 

This is another creative crowd pleaser that looks fantastic and offers a fun take on traditional sushi. Thanks to netmums for this one, however to make it easier for you we’ve listed the ingredients and the ‘how to’ information below.

 

Serves 6

 

Ingredients

 

• 125g sushi rice
• 5 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 x tablespoon sugar
• 5 teaspoon of salt
• Black sesame seeds
• 1 x Nori sheet
• 1 x 100g pack of John Ross smoked salmon

 

Method

 

Wash and drain 125g of sushi rice with a sieve four times. When thoroughly rinsed, place in a pan, cover with water and boil for around 10 minutes, with the lid on, before turning off the heat and leaving to stand for 25 minutes – making sure that the lid is left on at all times.

 

Mix the vinegar, salt and sugar and then mix this into the rice once cooled. Shape the rice into mini coffins and leave to set in the fridge.

 

When ready to use, sprinkle a few spoonfuls of the seeds onto a plate of board and ‘dip’ the sides of the coffins into them. Take a piece of smoked salmon, around a mouthful in size or enough to cover the length of the coffin, and place on the top of the coffin. Repeat until all coffins are topped.

 

Finally, cut the shape of the lid of the coffin out of the nori sheet and loosely place on top.

 

Mackerel witches brooms

 

Despite the fact that this recipe, which we stumbled across on Fish is the Dish, is SO easy to make, it’s so visually effective and a great party food snack.

 

The concept is simple. For the broomsticks you use breadsticks, long batons of carrot and celery sticks. For the broom heads, you used flaked mackerel.

 

Ingredients

 

• I x pack of John Ross Jr smoked mackerel fillets
• Small pan of mashed potato
• Breadsticks, long carrot slices and celery sticks

 

Method

 

For the breadsticks, snap them into the desired ‘broom’ length. Then cut the vegetable brooms to the same size.

 

Flake the mackerel into pieces that are approximately a quarter of the length of the ‘brooms’.

 

Take a plate, and place small dollops of mash at various points on the plate. These form the ‘glue’ for the broom heads so make sure they’re not too big or not too small in relation to the sticks. Gently push the broom handles into each of the mounds of mash and then shape in a triangular shape, similar to the end of a witch’s broom.

 

Finally, take the smoked mackerel flakes and gently stick/lean them against the mash potato so that they resemble twigs.

 

Serve when ready.

 

We love the smoked salmon sushi brain. So much so, in fact, then anybody who makes one and shares an image of it with via our or Facebook or Instagram pages will be sent a 200g pack of our Scottish smoked salmon – for FREE.