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This is a method (two, actually) of making
a Halloween food item of something I call "Fleshworms".
Fleshworms look like something from a
horror or sci-fi movie. These are pretty easy to make, and they are
quite tasty! Perfect for part of a Halloween supper, because they're
also quite revolting. It's all in the presentation.
What
Exactly Are These?
Picture awful, fleshy worms with vicious
mouthes and teeth - worms that look like something you'd find chewing
on a corpse, right before it hisses at you and lunges for your face.
Picture giant, horror-show mutant maggots. Now picture the fact that
someone captured these things and roasted them in the oven to serve at
supper! That's what I'm going to show you how to do.
But that's not all! These things are all
about the presentation, but I also respect and enjoy cooking good food
- so this thing is not only completely edible, but it's actually tasty
too!
Why Make Such a Thing?
I like working with food, and
I like Halloween! A particular interest of mine is making food that
appears disgusting or awful, but is actually perfectly edible. This
recipe as well can be used alone as a dish, or as part of a larger
theme, like an
entire Cannibal-Themed Halloween Supper I made.
How To Make Awful Edible Fleshworms
To make Roasted Awful Edible Fleshworms
you'll need a few things. I have two methods of making them - one
involves ham and slightly easier cooking, the other requires bacon and
more work to prepare. They give similar results but I think the bacon
one has a slight edge in looks and flavor.
Both methods require the same
basic preparation and handling. A strip of pork tenderloin is wrapped
in Prosciutto
Ham (just the stuff from the deli counter at the supermarket - no need
to get all food-snobbish here) and baked, or a strip of tenderloin is
wrapped in strip-style Bacon,
then frozen (more on why later), then roasted.
Both are finished off with some high-heat
broiling to give the desired amount of "charred/crusty" look to the
worm. Then the mouth is cut out and the teeth are inserted. Then the
worm is given any final presentation touches that may be necessary.
Method 1 - Using Prosciutto Ham
You will need:
-
Strip of Pork Tenderloin (This is a
boneless strip of meat whose worm-like shape will be useful.)
-
About 75g - 100g of sliced Prosciutto,
depending on the size of your worm. Normal sandwich-slice thickness
will be fine - about 1.5mm - 2mm thick.
-
1 stick of uncooked spaghetti.
-
Small, sharp knife.
The Prosciutto is on the left, the Pork
Tenderloin on the right. The Prosciutto will be the "skin" and the
tenderloin will be the "body" of the worm-to-be.
Step 1 - Wrap the Tenderloin with
the Prosciutto
Start at the "head" end of what will be the
worm, and wrap the strips of ham at a slight angle so they overlap as
they wind their way down the tenderloin. Make sure they overlap, and
as you get to the end of one strip add another one before you get to
the end, so the end of one strip overlaps the beginning of the next by
at least a good inch. Handling the worm will shift the ham a little,
and the ham is a little fragile. Also, in cooking the ham will shrink
somewhat - the last thing you want is for the "skin" not to cover all
the tenderloin, so if in doubt wrap and overlap more, rather than
less.
Be sure to wrap a little over and past the
ends.
Step 2 - Cooking
Place the worm into a
roasting pan and stick it into the oven - which has been pre-heated to
350 degrees. (If you forgot to pre-heat the oven, do that now while
the worm waits in the fridge).
I cooked my worm for about 25 minutes,
after which the tenderloin is well done, and the whole worm had
pleasantly "roasted" look to the outside.
However, to give it one final finishing
touch, I cranked on the top broiler of the oven at full power and
watched carefully as the exterior of the worm got crisped-up a little
more.
I did this until it looked right to me - it
should not be more than a few minutes at most. Watch constantly
when you broil in this way because the difference between "done" and
"burned" can be only a few seconds.
Step 3 - Adding the Mouth and Teeth
To make the mouth, use a sharp knife with a
small blade. You need to cut out a semi-circle from the "head" of the
worm - use the bigger end of the tenderloin as the head-end. You may
wish to get a little experimental and creative with the shape of the
mouth as well but this gave just the right look I wanted.
Now is a good time to pick up the piece you
just cut out and pop it into your mouth. It should be tasty!
Now, take the stick of uncooked spaghetti
and break off small pieces (make them longer than the little scrap in
the picture - they need to be long enough to stick in and stay!) Stick
the small pieces into the mouth as teeth. Do the upper and lower jaws.
I found that evenly-spaced teeth of even lengths gave the effect I was
looking for.
Only about 1/3 of each tooth is visible;
the other 2/3 is pushed into the meat of the jaw to hold it in.
OK! That's shaped up pretty nicely! We have
something that looks like a vicious little roasted-up Fleshworm! Now
the remaining step is to do any final preparation work for whatever
your presentation is going to be.
Step 4 - Final Preparations
Before we can serve the Fleshworm, we need
to remove the guts.
Slice open the abdomen and allow the
innards to squeeze out. This will serve as a sauce. You may wish to
turn on a fan if you're new to this, as I understand that the smell is
really quite astonishing.
It's all about the presentation. For
example, those "entrails" in the last picture are actually just a
little bit of leftover chili. Some spaghetti sauce could work too. Of
course, it doesn't look like chili -- it just looks repulsive.
That's the kind of thing you're looking to
do in the presentation. Here is an idea for a simple, single-dish
presentation. Get creative! Those little hors-d'oevre skewers or
vicious-looking little fondue forks can really come in handy.
Now that's starting to look like something
you'd find on the dinner table when visiting a house of horrors.
Recipe 2 - Using A Bacon Wrap
(instead of Prosciutto)
The required items are very similar to the
previous version. I think it has a slight edge in both flavour and
appearance, so if you're up to it, I'd suggest this one.
Simply substitute about half a package of
North American style strip bacon instead of the Prosciutto and alter
the recipe as follows:
Step 1 - Preparation
Take the tenderloin and lay
it out. Take strips of bacon and wrap them tightly barber-pole-style
along the pork. Overlap the turns about one-half the width of a strip,
and orient the bacon strip such that the more fatty part is on the
outside (and the meatier part overlaps underneath on the next pass).
Before you get to the end of one strip,
overlap it onto a new strip. We want it wound snugly and with no
tenderloin showing through.
Next, wrap the worm-to-be in plastic wrap,
and stick it in the freezer. Take this opportunity to curve the worm
into any special position you want before it freezes. I will explain
why we're freezing it in the next step.
Step 2 - Cooking
I used my BBQ to cook mine, but you may
wish to try the oven instead or otherwise experiment (for example,
there is usually snow on the ground by the time Halloween rolls around
where I live. Not great BBQ weather.)
-
Preheat the BBQ to medium-high heat
(around 350-400 F, I would guess. No higher.)
-
Form a high-sided "pan" out of strong
aluminum foil. The worm will sit in this as it cooks. The bacon will
spit somewhat as it cooks, so the high walls are useful. If the
drippings go into the BBQ, they will surely catch fire and we
don't want that.
-
Remove the frozen worm from the freezer
and remove the plastic wrap. Place it into the foil "pan", stick it
on the top rack of the BBQ, and close the lid.
-
I let mine cook under supervision for
about 25 minutes. Then I turned it over in the pan (the bottom was
well-cooked) and reduced the heat to LOW and let it cook for a
further 10 mins.
The reason for freezing the
worm first is simple: the tenderloin cooks pretty easily, but the
bacon needs much more cooking time by comparison. To compensate, we
freeze the whole thing. The thin outside coating of bacon thaws and
cooks readily while the frozen interior takes longer to thaw, then
cook.
I tried it without freezing once, it didn't
work for me - the inside was far too cooked, and was all dried out by
the time the bacon was done.
Step 3 - Adding the Mouth and Teeth
Same thing here as the previous method -
first, cut out a mouth-shape with a small, sharp knife (cutting out a
semicircle worked well for me). Then pop it in your mouth, it is
delicious!
Then break off short sections of uncooked
spaghetti noodle and insert them to make teeth.
Now we have something that looks like a
roasted, vicious little teethy thing! Repulsive!
Step 4 - Presentation
Here's another sample
presentation using some chili as entrails (again, spaghetti sauce
could work as well). First, cut the worm up into slices.
Next, place the head onto a
plate and put a little spoonful of sauce onto it. Chili works well, as
does Marinara sauce, etc.
Repeat until you've laid
out the entire worm, then add a few garnishes as desired. Disgusting!
If you have any miniature forks or skewers, you may wish to stab one
into each slice.
Disgusting!
Repulsive! We Think it is Delicious!
majQA'
"Pictures and words are
used with permission from
IMakeProjects.com (theprojectmaker at imakeprojects.com)"
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