Goblin Fingers

Halloween is almost here and I hope you have your costume planned and almost finished!
I’m just going as Marceline again this year.  She’s just so moody and funny at the same time.
See my post from last year about how to make the best oven fries with ghost pepper salt.

On to this year’s recipe! GOBLIN FINGERS!

I have been dehydrating lots of tasty morsels for our camping trip to the Smokey Mountains in November. My goal is to not use any prepackaged meals from REI or camping stores. Tecolote Farm’s CSA also started at the beginning of October so I will have ample produce to make our meals special while on the trail. Last week we got a happy surprise in our basket: the last OKRA of the season! I love, love, love Okra!  Have you ever seen an Okra flower?  It is stunning!

So instead of cooking it up for our regular Indian night, I decided to dehydrate them. I’m so glad that I cut them in half lengthwise because when they dried, they became these creepy curls. I’ve had to keep my daughter’s fingers out of this stash.  They are that tasty!

Speaking of fingers, okra pods are sometimes called lady fingers.  Maybe a green lady like Elphaba from Wicked!  When they are dried they look like little goblin fingers to me.  My daughter wanted to call them sea monster tentacles.  I’ll let you decide! They make a great edible decoration on the side of a bowl. I made an easy Indian-inspired dip for them. The okra would also taste good tossed in a little coconut oil and some Chaat Masala.

Since I’m working on my Indian pickle recipes I still like to buy pickle occasionally. I really enjoy the Ashoka brand as they have a line of pickle made with olive oil instead of weird vegetable oil blends that contain cottonseed oil. Cottonseed oil is a byproduct of the cotton industry and may have a lot of pesticide residues. You can find the Ashoka line of pickles online or at Man Pasand and Gandhi Bazaar in Austin.

I hope you have some savory food planned for Halloween before the sugar fest begins. I know it’s better to have a belly full of healthy food to keep away the creepy crankies! If your kids are young and you want to start a new tradition of keeping only some candy, you can always mention that the Pumpkin Fairy will take it and leave them a little surprise instead.  Lots of dentist offices will take candy and send it off to military troops too.

Have a Happy Halloween!
Cristina