“You’ve never had mac-n-cheese!?!” This was my incredulous question of my friend Ivan when he told me (somewhat sheepishly) a couple of months ago that he had never had one of the staple “I-don’t-know-what-to-cook-tonight” meals in our household. Mac-n-cheese also falls into the “comfort food” category for my wife.
So it is, that when Ivan celebrated his birthday yesterday, I made him his first ever macaroni cheese.
A note at this stage: this is a cheat recipe. Traditionally, one would make a true béchamel sauce. My experience has taught me that I suck at making béchamel. Invariably mine turns out more like a lumpy custard… I humbly ask for the forgiveness of the purists in this group… My cheese sauce is just that – a cheese sauce J
Here is how I make mac-n-cheese. As always, this is more a guideline to further experimentation than a hard and fast recipe. For me, cooking is a joy and following a recipe takes away some of that joy – I like the unpredictability of the outcome. For this little cooking session I did record quantities of ingredients just to give the reader a basis to work from but feel free to experiment with ratios and quantities. This is a dish that you would need to work hard at to get wrong.
Ingredients:
1litre milk (preferably full cream but low fat will also work)
50 gram butter
50-60g all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
Black pepper to taste (start with 1/8 teaspoon)
Herbs to taste (I used about ½ teaspoonful origanum)
A pinch of paprika (optional)
200 gram cheddar cheese (any medium cheese will work – mature cheese will add stronger flavor)
500 gram dried macaroni
1 large onion (chopped)
2 medium tomatoes (sliced into 5 or 6mm slices)
1 tablespoon olive oil (or an extra 10 gram of butter)
Method
Pour all of the milk into a large saucepan (big enough to ultimately hold all of the ingredients)
Add the butter and heat over medium heat.
While the milk is busy doing its thing, scoop the flour into a mug or cup.
Very slowly add cold water whilst constantly stirring to make a thin paste. This will act as the thickener for your sauce.
Once the butter has melted in the milk, start stirring the milk slowly to prevent burning.
Stir slowly until the first small bubbles start forming indicating that the milk is near boil. Turn the heat down immediately and possibly remove from the hot plate if you are using an old school electric hob or stove. You don’t want the milk to boil!
Slowly add the flour/water paste whilst stirring the milk and return to low heat plate. Continue stirring slowly with a whisk or fork until the sauce thickens. There should be a noticeable change in the consistency of the sauce. If you lift the whisk, the sauce should drip from the whisk in separate drops, not a continuous stream.
Remove the pot from the heat.
Grate all of the cheese
Add about 150 gram of the cheese to your sauce slowly whilst stirring. Don’t return the saucepan to the heat once you have added the cheese. The cheese will melt with the residual heat of the sauce. Stir until all of the cheese is melted. Leave saucepan to stand.
Using large pot, bring about 2 litres of water to boil. Add 2 teaspoons of table salt. Add 500 gram macaroni and cook until al dente (tender but firm to the bite.) It is important NOT to overcook the pasta as you’ll want it to absorb all of that lovely sauce later!
Remove from heat and strain pasta in a colander or sieve. Don’t rinse the pasta. The residual starch is going to help to make a firm mac-n-cheese during the baking process.
Using the same pot, fry the onions in either olive oil or butter on medium heat until transparent. Scrape the onions to the edge of the pot and add the tomatoes. You can turn off the heat at this stage. You don’t want the tomatoes to cook completely as they will just go to mush!
Add macaroni and mix in the onions and tomatoes with a spoon or spatula. You’re just wanting to mix up the contents, not break up the pasta! Now add the sauce and mix in gently until all of the macaroni is covered in sauce.
Pour the contents of the pot into two medium or one large ovenproof dish. My personal preference is to use two medium dishes as mac-n-cheese is the ideal freezer meal. In other words, one dish is for tonight and the next dish is for the next ““I-don’t-know-what-to-cook-tonight” occasion.
Add the remaining tomato slices to the top.
Add the remainder of the cheese on top of the tomatoes and pasta. At this stage you may also choose to add ground black pepper, ground coarse salt and additional herbs as a topping.
Preheat your oven to 180 Celsius (350 Fahrenheit) and bake the mac-n-cheese for 20-30 minutes or until the cheese topping has melted and turned golden brown.
Serve with fresh salad, green peas, roast veg or just as is!
Tip: I normally leave the mac-n-cheese in the oven for at least 30 minutes with the power off after baking. This means that the cheese sauce has time to really soak into the macaroni and results in a firm dish that can be sliced and served as in the picture. If you’re wanting a less firm mac-n-cheese, serve soon after baking.
Ps. This recipe serves (more or less):
5-6 normal people
4-5 hungry people
2-3 mac-n-cheese-aholics