S3E7: Eat the Dead

The Spatchcock Horde brings out the dead and all their creativity to throw a zombie party, with costumes, decorations and a menu with a spooky twist. Stretching your creative muscles is a great way to break the mold and do something a little different for your people.

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Recipes from this episode

The Antidote

Dips of the Dead

Deadman's Femur

Zombie Fingers

The Antidote

Yields: 1 cocktail
Prep Time: 5 minutes

Whenever there’s a zombie outbreak, everyone starts scrambling for the cure, so we’re going to actually start our undead rager with our signature cocktail, the antidote. Tasty and refreshing, it also has to look the part - like it was cooked up in some mad scientist's laboratory, and we infuse a little madness into the drink by using Absinthe as the potent main ingredient. The concoction, however, turns those mythical green fairies into green zombies for all the ghouls and gals for your party. We use some green sports drink for color and for added hydration, and some natural fruit juices to give you a great taste and a drink that can help make your night a little more interesting, if you feel our drift.

Ingredients:

(if batching for 12-15 people, use 750 ml Absinthe, 750 ml limeade, 750 ml yellow green sports drink, 4 oz of green glory juice)

2 oz Absinthe
2 oz limeade
2 oz yellow green Gatorade
Splash of green glory juice (kale vegetable juice)
Beaker or laboratory bottle for serving
LED light or glowstick for garnish
Dry ice for garnish

Directions for Each Drink:

Add all ingredients into a shaker with ice
Agitate and shake to combine
Pour into beaker
Attach and turn on light on the bottom
Add in dry ice (be very careful, this can burn your skin)
Raise the glass and raise the dead!

Dips of the Dead

Yields:: 15 servings
Prep Time: 60 minutes

When you’re throwing down for the dead, you need some chips and dips that people can grab a quick bite before breaking a leg on the dance floor (or in the graveyard). For this dish, we dig out all the treats, and actually make a tray to keep some brightness goin’ in a dark situation, babe. We’ve got 3 dips joining forces to set up a really cool presentation. By using 2 9” cake pans and an upside-down 9” heart-shaped cake pan, we’re able to make a giant skull for a cool display on our table. The guac, pico and mole negro give a different flavor for everyone, but our unique mole combined raisins, plums, black beans, tomatillos and other fresh veggies to bring something really, really special and different, just like all the people coming to the party. For a night of the living dead, having a killer spread of dips is really going to bring some life to the party.

Ingredients:

Guacamole (ingredients/directions below)
Pico De Gallo (ingredients/directions below)
Mole Negro (ingredients/directions below)
1 Dried chorizo sausage, sliced into discs
2 Large bags of white corn chips (the type you get in paper bags)

Ingredients for Guac

4-6 ripe avocados (bought a few days ahead of time)
1 Tbsp chopped cilantro
1/2 of a diced red onion
1/2 to 1 diced, de-seeded jalapeño (depending on how much heat you want)
1 Tbsp of fresh lime juice
1 tsp of quality flake salt
1/2 tsp of cumin
1/4-1/2 cup of diced plum tomatoes
1-2 cloves of crushed garlic

Ingredients for Pico

1 lb Roma tomatoes, (3-4 medium), or garden tomatoes, diced
1/2 medium white onion, (1 cup chopped), or yellow onion or red onion
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely minced (optional)
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
2 Tbsp lime juice, from 1 lime
1/2 tsp salt, or to taste
1/8 tsp black pepper

Ingredients for Mole Negro

5 tomatillos, husks removed, and halved
3 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 diced white onion, peeled and quartered
1 ripe plantain, peeled, cut in half
1 12 oz can Caribbean spiced black beans, opened but not drained
5 cloves garlic
2 C chicken stock as needed
1 adobo pepper
½ C bacon grease
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds, plus more for serving
¼ C pitted dried prunes
1/4 C raisins
1/2 Tbsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Fill one of the round 9” cake pans with guacamole
Fill the second 9” cake pans with pico de gallo
Fill the heart-shaped cake pan with mole
On a large tray (the biggest cookie sheet you have), place the two round dips towards the top, these are the eyes of the skull
In between those two, place the heart shaped pan, pointy part up, a little lower, to be the nose of the skull
Take the chips, and surround make the rest of the skull – picture a big circle of chips around the two round pans, and a rectangle of chips around the nose
After that, take the cuts of chorizo and make some teeth on the bottom of the skull
Present a trio of dips that’s to die for!

Directions for Guac

Cut the avocados in half, pop out the pit, but set a few aside to store as needed)
Put the avocados in a glass or wooden bowl, and mash but leave it kinda chunky
Add in the garlic, tomatoes, jalapeño, lime juice and cumin and stir again
Before serving, top with the salt
Dip a chip and eat it all up

Directions for Pico

Mix the tommy, pepper, cilantro, onions
Add the salt, pepper and lime and rest over night

Directions for Mole Negro

Roast tomatillos, tomatoes, onion, plantain, and garlic on an aluminum foil–lined baking sheet, cut side down.
Broil until charred and blistered on one side, 4 to 8 minutes
Transfer to blender. Add 1 cup chicken stock and blend, starting on low and increasing to high, until completely smooth, about 1 minute
While the veggies roast, heat the bacon grease in a pan
Cook the raisins and prunes and cinnamon in the bacon grease, for 5 minutes, stirring frequently
Add in the adobo pepper and cook for another 2 minutes
Throw those in the blender, blend again
Add a can of the Caribbean-spiced black beans into the blender (juice and all)
Transfer all of it to a pot to heat through
Slowly add chicken stock until desired consistency, keep heating until thick

Deadman's Femur

Yields: 12-15 servings
Total time: 75 minutes (plus 12 hours of sous vide)

For a big party like this, we wanted to bring out something eye-catching, feel us? For a horror-themed party, it needs to be scary and awesome and delicious at the same time. So we are goin’ all out, and you should too. We got a beef shank, and had our butcher friends butcher it up into the Thor’s hammer, which we think looks an awful lot like a femur, and it tastes awful good, especially after we sous vide it up, to the perfect medium rare, then make a delicious gravy with the fat, marrow and all that good stuff. With some toast points and the sauce, it makes any party meaty and saucy in the best of ways. Big proteins can come up big when feeding a hungry horde, but ya gotta make it right, and that’s what we doin’. When you’re feedin’ the masses, make it interesting and different, just like your friend group, baby.

Ingredients:

Thor’s Hammer, Sous-vided (instructions/ingredients below)
Beef shank gravy (instructions/ingredients below)
Toast points (instructions/ingredients below)
Sliced peppers and onions for garnish

Ingredients for Toast Points

12 Slices white bread, cut into square shapes, then diagonally cut

Ingredients for the Cut of Meat

1 3 lb bone-in beef shank (ask the butcher for the “Thor’s Hammer”)
6-8 sprigs of fresh rosemary sprigs
12-14 sprigs of fresh thyme sprigs
½ C garlic butter (2 sticks of softened butter, melted, and some fresh cloves of garlic pureed in food processor with that softened butter, or just mashed up with the back of a spoon), then melt it
Salt & pepper

Ingredients for the Beef Gravy

3 Tbsp butter
½ C finely chopped carrots
½ C finely chopped shallots
4 fine chopped fresh 3-4 garlic cloves
2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
½ Bottle of a dark red wine, we used Pinot Noir for this one
1-2 C Demi glaze or beef stock if needed
1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme
1 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 Bay leaf
(if it isn’t thickening the way you’d like, make a cornstarch slurry, which is evenly mixed Tbsp of cornstarch and Tbsp of water)

Directions:

Just before serving, you can roast in 450-degree oven to sear meat and release marrow from bone (about 7-10 minutes), on a a lined sheet tray or roasting pan on a rack, so that marrow released from bone can be retained for use as condiment
Once golden brown, remove from the oven. If marrow is still suspended in bone use a long metal skewer to coax it out of the bottom of the bone. Serve on the side to spoon onto toast points and sliced hammer
If you’d like, sear it again in butter on a hot stove top (or use a blow torch, like we do)
Place it meat down, bone up, and surround with sliced peppers and onions
Serve with any leftover bone marrow and toast points

Directions for Toast Points

Preheat your grill or preheat the oven to 400
You can grill these on your grill for a few minutes each side on indirect medium heat, or (throw it in the oven for 3-4 minutes, and flip ‘em over and 3 more minutes)

Directions for the Meat

Shellac the cut of beef with the garlic butter (you can use your hands)
Tie the rosemary and thyme sprigs tightly to hammer using butcher’s twine
Get your sous vide, and place the meat in a vacuum seal back and seal per manufacturer instructions (or in a big food storage bag and put in water and push out all the air)

Set your sous vide stick (an immersion circulator) to 145 and cook for 12 hrs
Remove the hammer from bag and chill until you need it (and you can do this the day before, too)
Strain all juices from bag and set aside

Directions for the Beef Gravy

In a saucepan, sauté carrot, onion and garlic until lightly browned in the butter
Add tomato paste and sauté until slightly thickened
Deglaze with the wine and gently reduce until thick and syrupy
Add strained beef juice and additional herbs and bay leaf (if you need to, supplement with demi-glace if available or add beef stock if needed)
Simmer gently until reduced to desired consistency and flavor, 1-2 hours (if you’re impatient, add two tablespoons of a cornstarch slurry, which is just 1 Tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 Tbsp water)

Zombie Fingers

Yields: 20 servings
Prep Time: 35 Minutes (plus 30 minutes resting time)

For big ol’ parties, we love throwing out some sweet treats, especially when we’ve got drinks flowin’ and people dancin’. Something you can hold in your fingers and nosh on quick then get back into the mix, but since we’re celebratin’ with the dead, we need something to match our zombie theme, so we are whippin’ up some special cookies that look just like zombie fingers. These are sugar cookies with a little evil dead magic. As tasty as they are scary, they have almonds and all sorts of good stuff that have a nice crunch, great flavor and something a little different, just like we imagine a zombie finger tastes like, though we actually have never had a real one to find out… They bite us, we don’t bite them. Kinda like your dog and your mail carrier. Imagine walking out and seeing the mail man biting your dog! This recipe is courtesy of our friend Jackie Hanifin, founder of Mama’s Sugar Slate.

Ingredients:

4 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp cinnamon
1 C granulated sugar
1 C unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2-3 Tbsp green food coloring
Slivered almonds
1 C melting chocolate (red)

Directions:

Mix flour, salt, baking powder and cinnamon together in a bowl and set aside
With some beaters, beat the butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and green food coloring until creamy and smooth, (thirty seconds to a minute)
Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet mix until just combined
Wrap this mixture in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes up to 2 days)
Once you take it out, work quickly…
Scoop a Tbsp size of the dough, and work it into the finger shape
Using a paring knife, cut in your finger marks for the knuckles (Jackie’s tip – have flour nearby to dip your knife into the help the cuts happen quicker)
Place the sliced almond onto the end of the finger like a fingernail
Set these completed fingers aside to chill for another 30+ minutes
Heat oven to 375
Bake for 3-4 minutes
Let them chill for a bit in the freezer
Meanwhile, melt the chocolate in a small pot
Dunk the cookie end (not the pointy end) into the chocolate
Remove the fingernail, add a drop of chocolate, and add the nail back on
Start pointin’ fingers!