Monthly Archives: September 2007

RECIPE: Mac and Cheese 2

Food & Booze, Recipes

1 pound elbow pasta
8 tablespoons unsalted butter plus more for dish
3 cups panko flakes
2 pounds extra sharp cheddar, grated
8 ounces Monterrey Jack, grated
5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 teaspoon black pepper
3 cups whole milk
1 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Note: the only salt I used was in seasoning the water for cooking pasta, so don’t forget to salt the water before you add the noodles.

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees, butter a large baking dish and grate the cheese while pasta is cooking. (For the love of God, buy a food processor. The 11-cup Cuisinart is the perfect size for grating two and a half pounds of cheese)
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, melt 3 tablespoons of butter and integrate panko and two cups of cheese. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. Return pan to heat and melt remaining butter.
4. Add flour, red pepper flakes and pepper and stir constantly over medium heat for three minutes.
5. Whisk in milk, bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly and simmer for 3-5 minutes to thicken.
6. Add cream, cheese and mustard and turn off the burner. Stir until sauce is a uniform consistency.
7. Incorporate cooked pasta and pour into the buttered baking dish.
8. Spread panko mixture across the top and bake 20 minutes or until golden brown on top and bubbly throughout.

JOURNAL: Mac-sterpiece

Food & Booze

There was wisdom on those post-its stuck in the book next to the elBulli 7 Bowl System (my birthday is this week, wink wink). I made a batch last night, and it was ggggooooooooooddddddd. That’s “good” not “god” by the way.

I only had a pound and a half of Cabot extra-sharp Hunter Cheddar, so I had to supplement with a half-pound of Tillamook Extra Sharp and a half-pound of Tillamook Monterrey Jack. The notes called for 5 tablespoons of butter in the roux, so I went with five of flour, like I planned and I bumped the dijon up to a tablespoon. I really should have gone with more red pepper flakes and remembered black pepper, because it was surely under-seasoned, but it is so tasty.

My only concerns are that the sauce might just be too dense, and that some of the topping clumped, so the bigger chunks browned and hardened faster. Simple solutions: 1/2 cup of reserved pasta cooking water in the sauce next time and taking an extra 30 seconds to chop up the topping before I put it over the mac.

My mother makes a mac and cheese from four ingredients with a recipe that takes all of five minutes to prep, and I can’t say that mine is any better, but if nothing else, it’s thicker. This one is my best yet, if you want to give it a shot. I’ll post the recipe soon.

RECIPE: Cran-Pear Chutney

Food & Booze, Recipes

1.5 pounds bosc pears (about three on the larger side of average), peeled, seeded and diced
3 cups water
1/2 lemon, seeded and diced (rind and all)
1.5 cups brown sugar
1 medium sweet white onion
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1.5 cups cider vinegar
1 cup dried cranberries
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon cayanne
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon garam masala

1. Heat water to a boil in medium saucepan and add pears, cooking until soft (10-15 minutes).
2. Strain pears, and set aside in a mixing bowl, returning cooking water to saucepan.
3. Bring water back to boiling and add sugar and lemon. Cook down to a syrup on medium heat (20-30 minutes).
4. While syrup simmers, grate ginger, dice onion and combine all ingredients not currently cooking.
5. Mix everything into the saucepan and simmer for about 1/2 hour, until liquids have reduced, cranberries have plumped and onions have become translucent.

It’s great on poultry or fish, sandwiches, with a cheese plate and of course with Indian food.

JOURNAL: Indian Weekend

Food & Booze

Over the weekend, I got my cooking mojo back and made a little Indian feast for a small group of friends.

I created two kinds of chutney (the cran-pear went over much better than the peach-pepper), vegetarian samosas, and Chicken Tikka Masala (with a vegetarian tofu variant). We bought naan from Trader Joe’s, and somehow I forgot to make rice.

I will put up the recipes soon.

JOURNAL: Feast of Fools

Food & Booze

In an online discussion, someone asked, should I be forced to choose, what single food could I not live without. Unable to narrow it down to a single dish, my first response was Chicken Tikka Masala over Mac & Cheese, and the more I thought about it, the more I thought that my humor/horror show of an answer might have actual potential.

I’m hoping to make both this weekend, so we’ll see how well they combine and in what way. I am hypothesizing that Chicken Tikka, without the sauce, would be an easy addition to the Mac and even a little Masala integrated into the cheesy sauce with chunks of chicken might just work. I’ll let you know how it goes.

ARTIFACT: Lost Mac And Cheese Recipe

Food & Booze, Recipes

Of all things, I was flipping through a book on ecologically sound design practices, and between the pages, stuck to a drool-stained magazine page featuring the 7 bowl system from elBulli designed for Ferran Adria, was a pair of post-its labeled Matt’s Mac. I can’t be sure how many refinements and tests went into this recipe, and it isn’t complete, but I think it is the ingredients and measurements that I used to love, so I am going to compare and integrate it with recent attempts next week.