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the world's 22,300,0001st macaroni cheese recipe

15/2/2013

18 Comments

 
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a fear of béchamel

A minute or two ago I googled 'macaroni cheese' and got 22,300,000 results. Room for one more do you think?

I love the combination of pasta and cheese. One of my favourite quick suppers is spaghetti tossed in butter, a spoonful of cream and plent of grated parmesan and black pepper. But I have issues with most macaroni cheese recipes; well two issues to be precise.

Firstly, I have an irrational dislike of béchamel sauce. Not a phobia exactly (is there a word for a fear of this culinary wallpaper paste? Probably) but such that I find it difficult to make the stuff. No doubt this stems from some maternally inflicted childhood dinner trauma. Although I have no specific memory for this, I do remember her once force-feeding me butter beans until I spewed them all out again. 
Hancock: I thought my mother was a bad cook, but at least her gravy used to move about. Yours just sort of lies there and sets.
Griselda: That's the goodness in it.
Hancock: That's the half  a pound of flour you put in it!
- from  Hancock's Half Hour: 'Sunday Afternoon At Home'
Secondly, a lot of versions of this dish are singularly lacking much in the way of one of the two main ingredients, viz cheese. And whatever you might think of the recipe below it certainly doesn't fail on that score. It is rammed with cheese. It is cheese-ageddon as far as the macaroni is concerned. But no more of a quantity than you might easily polish off from a cheeseboard at the end of a meal, or in a supper of welsh rarebit.

Speaking of the macaroni, I used cavatappi (a type of elbow macaroni) from Morrison's at 95p/500g (or two for £1.50):
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Anyway, here's my version: rich, filling, comforting, simple: cheese, pasta and cream.

the recipe

serves one

1 litre water
1 dsp table salt
75g macaroni
50ml milk
150ml double cream
1 rounded tsp dijon mustard

15g pecorino, grated
40g mature cheddar, grated

50g gruyère, grated
a splash or two of Henderson’s Relish (or Worcestershire Sauce)
black pepper


Bring the water and salt to a boil in a large pan. Add the macaroni and boil until cooked but still firm (i.e. ‘al dente’).

When it's cooked, drain the pasta then rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process and wash the starch off (so the macaroni won't stick together).

In another pan, bring the milk and cream to a simmer. Add the dijon mustard and all three cheeses. Season with black pepper and stir constantly until the cheese has melted. Add a splash or two of Henderson’s (or Worcestershire) and stir.

Turn the cooked macaroni out onto some kitchen roll and pat dry. Mix it into the cheese sauce. You could have a little taste just to check for seasoning, but it really won't need any salt adding, . Leave in the pan for at least 10 minutes (so the pasta can soak up the flavour from the sauce) or until you're ready to finish off the dish.
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Transfer the mixture into a small baking dish, reserving two tablespoons of the sauce, cover the dish with foil and bake in a 180C/160C fan oven for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven, discard the foil, pour over the reserved sauce and place under a hot grill for a minute or so until the top is bubbling and golden (keep an eye on it all the while). A bowl of salad leaves with a mustardy dressing is all that's needed as an accompaniment.
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dig that crazy mac 'n' cheese

For a wildly different, down 'n' dirty, bonkers brilliant, PORK-TASTIC version, check out this recipe from the lovely Helen of Food Stories.
18 Comments
Geoff
15/2/2013 12:55:24

So here is a different approach for you....if you really want maximise the cheese hit, then you need to avoid watering it down with the addition of the cream.

Put the grated cheese in a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of cornflour, toss together so each piece of cheese has a light coating....warm some stock in a pan, add a glass of white wine, herbs, garlic, etc if you want to infuse some extra flavour into it. The add the cheese to the stock, it will melt into the stock and the cornflour will thicken it...much easier than bechamel and much cheesier, you can also get away with a higher ratio of hard cheese pecorino, parmesan, etc

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Monica Nall
15/2/2013 14:02:44

See your bit about washing the pasta so pieces don't clump together? Sometimes macaroni wants to be with friends.

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Mikyla
15/2/2013 14:03:16

For some reason Worcestershire sauce made the culinary pilgrimage to our supermarket shelves in Australia, but I've never been able to find Henderson's. I've not felt like I was missing out until now.

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Stacy link
16/2/2013 20:05:39

This is my idea of the perfect macaroni and cheese. I always have little bits left over from a cheese board so I wrap them up and save them together in Ziploc bag in the freezer until I have enough to make exactly this dish. I don't have a fear of bechamel (or white sauce as it's called stateside) but without is definitely the way to cheesier mac and cheese. And to answer your question: OF COURSE, there is always room for one more macaroni cheese recipe. Thanks for sharing yours.

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The Skint Foodie
17/2/2013 04:36:34

Coming from one who hails from the land of mac 'n' cheese, that is encouragement indeed. Thank you Stacy!

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Robin Betts
17/2/2013 02:38:12

I don't think you're suffering amylocolloidophobia. You're just got a perfectly rational fear of eating wallpaper paste. A few years ago, I was making Béchamel the 'normal' way, and a visiting friend from an old Dordogne family came over all anxious. She politely chucked my effort away and did as follows. She very gently cooked out a syrupy roux with a bit more butter than flour, for quite a time, but allowing no colour. Then she let the roux set stone cold. Then she gradually built a sloppy sauce on the roux with scalding infused milk, still off the heat. Finally, on a low flame, she raised the sauce to a simmer,stirring gently all the time, for a good 15 minutes. The result thickened to something that felt more like mayonnaise than white sauce in the mouth - very glossy, wobbly and delicious.. I even ate some cold the next day with leftover chicken. I reckon starch can be pretty twitchy stuff - this was about more than keeping the lumps out.

Luckily .... .... .... we weren't in a hurry.

And I wouldn't use it to make Macaroni cheese!

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The Skint Foodie
17/2/2013 04:40:33

You've just made that up haven't you Robin (the phobia, not the lovely story)? I loved the fact that there was a name for the fear of being stared at by a duck (anatidaephobia) but then discovered it was from Gary Larson's The Far Side. ;^)

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Lizzie link
17/2/2013 09:14:35

I love macaroni cheese. I don't have a dislike of bechemel but gosh it's a faff to make; your version looks perfect (though I'd add a topping of breadcrumbs for a bit of double-carving crispy delight)

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The Skint Foodie
17/2/2013 21:55:35

When I made it the time before I used a breadcrumb topping, but think I prefer nothing to distract from the soft, comforting creaminess of the dish.

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Lindsay
18/2/2013 04:02:43

Double cream in macaroni cheese! I want some now. That looks so good.

My mum tops hers with a mixture of breadcrumbs and crushed crisps (walkers ready salted). It's great- better than it sounds. With some English mustard on the side.

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The Skint Foodie
27/2/2013 04:38:36

If you're going to add crisps, Walker's ready salted is definitely the way to go.

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Catherine
26/2/2013 15:24:24

Last version I made was one where I cooked the pasta in lots of milk, but I didn't have any Hendersons! Where do you buy it in London? I really enjoyed the mac and cheese I had at Spuntino, they use a 3 cheese combo.

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The Skint Foodie
27/2/2013 04:40:31

Hi Catherine. Not sure where you can get it in London. You can get it online though here: http://www.buy-hendos.co.uk/

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Min link
14/3/2013 10:42:03

Brilliant! Used to enjoy making good béchamel, heating the milk with a blade of mace while preparing the roux, etc., etc. Now, I can't be arsed/haven't the energy/life expectancy required for such slow enterprise; so this recipe sounds the business.
Wonder if it would work with crème fraiche or mascarpone ...?
Great blog, Foodie; have been lurking and drooling happily, and shall definitely be following some of the recipes. Thank you.

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Emma
3/5/2013 03:24:37

Made this macaroni cheese recipe last night and is absolutely amazing. My 5 year old son who normally has to be persuaded to eat more than a few mouthfuls of his tea ate a whole bowl without coming up for air. Once his plate was clean he exclaimed "that was yummy mummy!"

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victoria
30/7/2013 02:26:29

Your bechamel comment made me laugh, doesn't, matter what I do I can't make custard. Its now a running joke in our family of foodies. Incidentally my mum can't seem to cook broccoli!

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Andrea
5/9/2013 13:13:19

Feeling the need for comfort food today so I have this in the oven right now. It looks and smells amazing!

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Victoria
4/11/2013 05:51:32

Ooh, this looks gooood. I am a mahoosive mac and cheese freak, but always balls up the roux when I try to make it. This sauce looks easy-peasy (easy-cheesy?) and I'm definitely giving it a shot.
But I have to say: 'rinse in cold water to stop the cooking process and wash the starch off (so the macaroni won't stick together)'? Now, it might just be me, but personally I love it when you get little carby globules of macaroni, it's part of the joy!
Also, my mum always chucked extra cheese on top and grilled it, now I can't help but do the same. I also ocasionally scatter on some breadcrumbs, or crushed crisps work brilliantly (mini cheddars being a particular fave) just to add a little crunch to an otherwise kinda sloppy (but delicious) meal

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