The Pirate’s Fate —A Cook-and-Tell Story on Halloween's Eve

This Halloween’s Eve, I initially decided just to cook, but the dish led me to tell a li'l bit of scary story.

Here's my not-so-creepy recipe that will nevertheless give that feeling of Halloween.

Pirate’s Ghost Soup

Ingredients:

20 pieces  medium size breaded meatballs

150 grams egg noodles

1 medium head Bok Choi, leaves separated and washed well

1 medium size red onion, chopped

½ head medium size garlic, crushed

Salt and pepper

Vegetable oil

Fish sauce and monosodium glutamate (optional)

Ready-to-fry breaded meatballs can be bought from supermarkets

Misua or egg noodles

Bok Choi is a relative of cabbage, also rich in vitamin C and anti-oxidants

Onion and garlic are rich in anti-oxidants that fight cancer

Heat oil in the pan.  You’ll know the oil is already hot if it turns transparent and emits some smoke.  Fry the meatballs until brown on all sides.  Set aside.  Reserve the oil.

Fry meatballs on sides, no need to deep fry

Pretty fried meatballs

In a casserole, pour around 2 tablespoons of oil from the frying pan.  Sautee onions and garlic at the same time, stir until the skin of the garlic separates from the flesh and the onions are wilted.  Pour approximately 10 cups of water, let it boil.  The soup will now produce an appetizing garlic-onion smell. 

Put in the bok choi leaves and simmer for 3 minutes until the bok choi leaves turn greener.  Pour in the meatballs and continue simmering for 2 minutes.  Put in the egg noodles and stir, simmer for 2 minutes until the noodle strands separate.

Put salt and pepper to taste.  You may add fish sauce or monosodium glutamate to enhance the taste. Simmer for 1 more minute and turn off heat.

To make a ghost form in your soup:
In a bowl, pour 2 cups of soup.  On the upper portion, arrange some noodles in the shape of hair.  Put 2 meatballs to form the eyes, then some bok choi leaves to serve as brows, nose and lips.  The way I arranged the leaves into lips made a kind of mustache.  It looked more of a pirate's ghost appearing in the soup.

 

A pirate's face in your soup

For drinks, pomegranate juice will best serve as blood juice.

Dessert of round cake will serve as the twilight moon.  My sister got 2 delicious cake rounds from Lia's Cakesinseason in Kapitolyo, Pasig City.  This bakeshop is known for fruit flavors.  Their bestseller is avocado cake.  Unfortunately my sister was not able to catch one.  All is sold out for the hallow occasion.

So, here’s that original halloween story I was able to concoct as a result of my cooking. :)

The Pirate’s Fate  (A Halloween story you'll tell from now on...)

Once upon a Halloween’s Eve, the full moon was so silvery bright.  Only an unseen howling wolf was disturbing the silence of the night.  Suddenly, as if summoned by the howling, a pirate’s ghost appeared in the moon.  He floated in the silvery backdrop of the moon as if looking for something. 

The moon over the howling wolf....

...turned out to be a Calamansi (Philippine lemon) tea cake-- a yellow cake base with calamansi flavored white sugar frosting

When at last he did not find what he wanted, he walked over the moon’s craters.  He was disappointed because he also did not find what he was looking for in the craters.   

The craters of the moon....

...are actually the textured caramel icing of the Banana-Caramel Cake-- a chiffon base cake with bits of banana and light creamy caramel icing and frosting

So the pirate went down to earth and haunted the first house that he saw.  The house turned out to be an ancient castle in Transylvania.  The night is deep and the majestic castle is empty and silent.  The pirate roamed around the castle until he reached the dining hall.  There was a long sturdy mahogany table, with an elegant red silk table runner.  In the middle of the long table, stood four statuesque silver candelabras with softly lit red candles.  The melted wax looked like drops of blood.  The pirate sat on the large cushioned oak chair at the head of the table.   

The pirate noticed a wine glass half filled with red liquid in front of him.  The pirate lifted the glass and smelled it.  His eyes dilated, it’s blood juice!  

The red of the pomegranate will pass as blood juice

He’s been looking for blood juice to give him flesh once more.  So he gulped the contents of the glass and slowly his ghostly form was filled with flesh.  He was human again!  The pirate rejoiced, but not for long.  

It was already dawn.  There was a rustle of wings and a large bat entered one of the tall grilled windows of the castle.  Once inside, the bat transformed into a tall man in black suit and flowing red cape.  It was the owner of the castle-- Count Dracula, back from his human impaling in the night.  

"

"Who dared intrude my castle?"  Count Dracula asked in a low deathly voice that echoed in the silent castle

The Count was mad at the sight of the pirate with the empty glass on his hand.  But soon the Count was glad that he has an early ‘breakfast’.  The pirate stiffened as soon as he saw the fearsome Count.  "You took my morning drink, you have to pay for it", the irate Count told the pirate.  The Count, being an aristocrat, customary drinks cold blood juice in a wine glass every wee morning before he retires to his coffin for a day long sleep.  Count Dracula succumbed the pirate, bit his neck and sucked all of his blood.  Count Dracula did not want the pirate to be one of his vampires because he only prefers beautiful brunette and blond women in his herd.  So the pirate turned to ghost again.  Talk about good luck and none of it. :)

The pirate's ghost went to Carribean

And that was the real end of the pirate. His ghost traveled to Carribean where he haunted the islands.

The End..... :) 















It doesn't matter how simple or extravagant our celebration of Halloween is, what's important is we don't forget to pray for our departed loved ones and friends.