Vampire Radish

“I vant to make your Halloween vegetable platter unusual and fun.”  Say that with a Transylvanian accent, okay?

This is a quickie project that will evoke squeals of delight when you set your vegetable platter on the table.  You don’t need to set a lot of time aside to make bunches of these.  Just a few — 3 or 5, let’s say, strategically placed among your other raw vegetables on the platter will do quite nicely.

You’ll need radishes, whole peppercorns,  a small paring knife, and a little patience.  If you can find colored radishes, those are great, because the mix always contains some white ones.  If not, buy big radishes and carefully peel a few with your small, thin knife.  You want a white “body.”

You can see that there are three components made from radishes:  the body of the vampire, the ears (I have no idea why the ears, perhaps they fill in for a cape — it’s seems vampires always have something standing up in back), and the fangs.  Now that I think about it, I think the ears make me think of a bat, like a vampire bat.  I might try doing a solid stand-up “collar” like thing  in the back instead next time.

Shape some ears from radish peel.  Use the paring knife to cut slits toward the back of the body, toward the top, just large enough to tuck your ears into so they will stay put and look cute.  Then carve some little fangs from a slice of the inner meat of the radish.  You want them thick enough to show up, but think enough that they will easily stay on.  Carve a v-shape for the nose area, so it will be above where you place the fangs.  Using the point of the paring knife, make little eyeholes, then use the pad of your thumb to slowly push the peppercorns into your eye slots.

I confess, I didn’t set out to make Count Radishula.  This silly little vampire radish happened on the way to trying to make something else, but I was happy to see him and I know he will sink his teeth into your imagination, too.