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I try to fly the flag for grotesque mis-shapen turnip lanterns at Halloween, as being more "traditional" like. Though this year there's a couple of events I want to take a lantern to so I'm going to try using LED tealights as a nod to the twenty-first century.
Anyone else favour the smell of burning neep and danger to your fingers over the new-fangled pumpkin?
I was going to attempt a turnip (to be lit with a bike light rather than a flame) whilst the eldest does the easier pumpkin. My plan was to slice off the flat end, jigsaw out a big chunk then pour a kettleful of water into the middle and leave it to soften for a while before the fine-tuning.
Softening it up seems worth trying!
I found a working rear bike light lying on Craigmillar Hill yesterday. It will now have to be installed inside a carved turnip - excellent prompt @dougal, thanks.
Next up - trick and treat OUT penny for the guy IN. Christmas OUT Hogmanay IN. Local festivals for local people.
But I won't hesitate to use a Dremel on it.
LED tealights
Great idea. I still have a very fond memory of the time Dev from Up The Brae lifted the lid off my neep and blew, only to find a small torch instead of a candle. :-)
Pumpkins are MUCH easier to carve. The downside is, they don't taste of anything.
@Min
"Dev from Up The Brae"
Who from what? Not even Googly helps me here.
Roasted pumpkin seeds are delicious though...
I thought everyone knew Dev. You know, from up The Brae.
@cb
I once met a lady who knew nothing about the years 1985 to 2012 but she'd just escaped from a rather sinister convent.
Aye indeed. His name was Dev and he lived up the brae as opposed to myself who lived doon the brae.
Brae meaning hill.
I've traditionally always gone for turnip, but the o/h said that it wasn't possible to buy a whole turnip at Meadowbank Sainsburys, only those half/quarter, shrink-wrapped portions.
So we went with an edible pumpkin as a compromise so at least we can eat the innards.
I was at dinner at a colleague of my girlfriend's last night and she presented us with a roast squash stuffed with macaroni cheese as part of the main course, which proved to be delicious. I'm glad it wasn't a turnip...
There's nothing as evocative of a 70s childhood than the smell of burning neep lantern lid!
Down with the rampant Americanisation & commercialisation of Halloween and bring back guising and guisers, neep lanterns and dookin' for nuts and apples!
Burnt neep is THE smell of Halloween! I still like it better, even though as the oldest of four I spent a fair part of later childhood Halloweens charged with the task of hollowing out a series of the rock-hard things, at some risk to my fingers.
Baking potatoes make cute mini-lanterns. Ironically middle class brother once made a celeriac lantern.
@Min
"Brae meaning hill."
I prefer 'monadh' or 'cnoc'. Scots is so limited.
"There's nothing as evocative of a 70s childhood than the smell of burning neep lantern lid!"
Power cut anyone?
Bell pepper lanterns are quick to make and limit risk to fingers.
Best tool for excavating the inside of a neep is a melon baller.
(What do you mean you don't have a melon baller? Try looking in the cutlery drawer - it's the kind of thing that generates spontaneously into existence of its own accord. Like pen caps or odd socks.)
Co-op on Bruntsfield Place had whole swedes. I assume one of the vegetaria on Argyle Place might do them with their roots more intact.
The spicy pumpkin soup offered by Coyaba was magnificent; it will one day be reverse-engineered from the memory of the taste. Might make some pumpkin and turnip soup this evening if I have enough cumin and turmeric left.
In the past I've used a spoon with some degree of success. I suppose a melon baller is a spoon with a sharp edge and a tight curve to really maximise effectiveness.
Got a whole-ish swede of acceptable size at Sainsburys Cameron Toll. I've got an apple corer, a zester, a mandolin, a pasta machine and a kitchen blow-lamp when what I really need is an artistic mouse.
They also had real pumpkins at £3 and plastic ones at £12. Kids these days.
Just for reference:
Apply pressure to stump and elevate.
Place severed digit in cling film, then tea towel, then ice. Not directly in ice.
Navigate oneself to the nearest A&E, remembering to take packed digit along too.
For bonus points, make the most of the blood with a really authentic costume...
@Darkerside
Used a teaspoon, so now have a pleasantly resonant hollowed shell and all my fingers.
Now to incise the design with a razor-sharp Japanese kitchen knife....
Weeny solid swedes in Sainsbury. Huge soft ones in the Marchmont veg shop.
I prefer 'monadh' or 'cnoc'. Scots is so limited.
I'll see your monadh and cnoc and raise you loan, fell and law.
We don't have a lah-di-dah melon baller, but the lemon zester worked quite well on the soft Argyle turnip. Occurs to me that an excavated turnip would be a good decoy serving vessel for mango sorbet.
I used to be so chauvinistic about always carving a real neep at Hallowe'en. In recent years, I've been converted to pumpkins: they are just so much easier to carve! Alas you canna make haggis and clapshot with the innards... :-(
Got the bairns to draw designs. I did the carving. Two slightly used birthday candles suffice for light sources. A smiley cat and an undead thingamabob.
@crowriver, colour might be easier to spell without the u too. Likewise Humour.
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