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Recipe Mon Oct 29 2007
Brain on a Platter
We have a Halloween party every year. And while the food we serve varies from year to year, the one constant is the gelled cheeseball I make with a brain jello mold. The first year I made it, I followed a recipe I found online that combined canned mushroom soup, cream cheese and shrimp, along with some unflavored gelatin (and lemon juice and tabasco sauce). It was tasty, and there wasn't much left by the end of the night. The next year, I tried making it with crab meat instead. It didn't taste as good or, more importantly, have the right texture or the right shade of pinkish gray to look like a brain. This year, since my son won't eat meat or seafood, I used sun-dried tomatoes instead of shrimp. Again, the color and the texture weren't quite as brainy as they were the first year, but it was a good vegetarian version. Plus, the yellow oil that the sun-dried tomatoes came in formed a little pool around the brain, which was a nice effect. The recipe for the shrimp version follows.
Brain Cream Cheese Mold
a can of cream of mushroom soup
8 oz package of cream cheese
a packet of unflavored gelatin, dissolved in 1/4 cup of warm water
2 pounds of cooked shrimp, cut into small pieces
1/2 cup of mayonaise (optional; I often don't use)
tablespoon of lemon juice
Tabasco sause to taste
Heat the soup (without adding water) and cream cheese, so they blend. Stir in dissolved gelatin, then the lemon juice and tabasco. Put a little oil in the brain mold, then pour the mixture in. Chill for several hours or overnight. Serve with crackers or bread and disgust your friends.
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Rachel / October 5, 2012 1:01 PM
I just wanted to say that while I appreciate the vegetarian option, gelatin is not vegetarian, as it is a pork by-product.