The Thing... We Ate For Dinner (#95)

Our October film this year was The Thing (1982). I themed this meal very closely to the movie. The creature in the film has transformation abilities and when it transforms, it unfolds and opens up a bit like a fleshy flower. This gave me the idea to do a stuffed roast, which I would slice in an untraditional way, so that when it was time to serve, I could unfold it like flower pedals. For dessert, I decided to recreate the scene where they burn everyone's blood and serve a blood dessert in petri dishes. Originally, I was planning to do a red jello, but I've done jello for other Halloween desserts and so I decided to get more creative with it by making a thick "blood pudding" instead. You can find the recipes for both below.

The Fire-Roasted Thing

So, as I explained, my goal for this dish was to make something that resembled the thing. I know that it looks gross, but that was by design.

Ingredients:

3lb chuck roast

11oz package of baby spinach

16 oz Kraft Creamy Melt shredded mozzarella (or regular mozzarella and cream cheese)

mushrooms (optional)

olive oil

garlic, kosher salt & pepper

cayenne and smoked paprika (optional)

grated parmesan cheese

food coloring

Also needed: cooking twine

Directions:

1. Sautee the spinach in olive oil until cooked. Don't over cook it, because you will be cooking it more later.
   
   
   
2. Add mozzarella and optional mushrooms to pan and stir into spinach until ingredients are combined and cheese is melted. To enhance the "gross" factor, stir in red and black food coloring. Season with garlic. Remove from heat and prep the meat.
   
   
   
3. Starting at one end of the chuck roast, use a sharp knife and slice down the center of the chuck roast, but do not cut it the whole way through. Stop a half an inch from the edge. Originally, my plan was to then slice each half, making a four pedaled flower shape. Instead, as I was slicing, a natural third piece formed which was separated by some fat. I cut along the fat and ended up with a three flaps like a Y or T.
   
   
   
4. Before we continue, you'll want to flatten the meat to make it more manageable. Put some plastic wrap over it and beat with a meat tenderizer or mallet.
5. Oil the inside of the roast with olive oil and rub in salt and pepper. Cayenne and/or smoked paprika can be used instead of black pepper if you want some extra kick and to give it that "fire" flavor.
   
   
   
6. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and spread your cheesy spinach across the meat.
   
   
   
7. Using the string, fold the meat together into its "closed flower" shape and tie it closed with the string. Try to keep the cheese inside as best as you can. Oil the outside of the roast with more olive oil and seasoning.
   
   
   
8. Roast at 375°F until the internal temperature of the meat reaches around 160°. I cooked mine with in a pellet smoker, letting it smoke for an hour before bringing it to temperature.

Red "Blood" Pudding

When I first decided to base dessert of the blood testing scene, I had planned to make it out of red jello. After deciding that jello was simply not exciting enough, I did a search for red pudding recipes, thinking that I could make something that was closer to a blood consistency. What I ended up finding was several recipes for a Nordic dessert called red pudding, rødgrød, or rote grutze. Considering that the creature first attack a Norwegian camp, I thought that seemed fitting.

From what I can tell, there are many variations on Red Pudding. It is made from red fruits, but which fruit you use is pretty flexible. I used 12oz of raspberries, 8oz of strawberries, and two plums. The flavor is a bit tart, so it is often served with a cream, such as ice cream or whipped cream.

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs sweet and tart red fruits

1/4 cup sugar (if you are making the sugar topping, you will need additional sugar)

2 cups water

1/2 cup rum (optional)

1/4 cornstarch

Also needed: sterile petri dishes without agar and strainer

Directions:

1. Combine fruit, water, sugar, and rum in a pan and bring to a boil. Larger pieces of fruit should be cut into smaller chunks. I used Kraken black spiced rum because I thought it would add good color and flavor to the dish.
   
   
   
2. Bring to a boil and stir constantly. As the fruit softens, mash it in the pan. You will be straining soon, so you want to get all of the juice out of the fruit and not have any whole pieces. Once all the fruit is cooked and mashed, strain it.
   
   
3. Return the strained liquid to the pot, stir in the cornstarch, and return to a boil. Stir until liquid thickens.
4. Remove liquid from heat, spoon into petri dishes, and let cool at room temperature. You can refrigerate if it will be a long time before serving, but the gel will thicken a lot more, so I don't recommend unless you want that gelatin sort of consistency.

At this point the pudding just needs time to cool and thicken, but it is essentially done. I decided that I wanted to make an additional sugar topping though. In the film, they burn the blood to see if it reacts. That made me think of how with creme brûlée sugar is added to the top and then torched to harden into a crispy caramel. I thought it would be a fun touch to add something like a creme brûlée sugar topping to the red pudding. I reasoned that putting sugar on it and torching it would likely just cause the pudding to melt, so instead I decided to make the caramelized sugar separately. Here's how I did it.

1. Combine sugar and water. Exact quantities don't matter. The goal is to add just enough water that all the sugar dissolves.
2. Pour the sugar water into muffin pans or round molds.
3. Broil until all the water dissolves and the sugar darkens to a caramelized color.
4. Remove from oven and let cool. Once cooled, the caramelized sugar can be removed. If it breaks, it not that big of a deal.
   

When you are ready to serve the blood dessert, put the caramelized sugar on top. I made the mistake of putting them on too early and they melted into the pudding by the time the dish was served. It still tasted great, but we didn't get that sugary crunch that I was hoping for. Since red pudding is typically served with a cream, I had whipped cream available for guests to add to the snack.

Overall, the entire night was a big success. The food was all enjoyed. I did make some mashed potatoes as well as a side for the roast, but that was not unique. I think people were most impressed by the dessert. It looked great and tasted amazing. If I was to do it again, I would probably put some tape on each petri dish with guests' names. I might also add a game to the night, something like Among Us or Mafia where we have to decide who the killer is and it could be any one of us.