Homemade Macaroni and Cheese

First, a picture of the end result…

That’s macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli and roasted chicken. And now, the story of how I ended up cooking this. Or to be more precise, blame this to…

I am not sure how familiar (or unfamiliar) are people outside of North America of this dish. When I was living in Panama, I don’t recall ever seeing a package of mac ‘n’ cheese. Of course, there are Italian restaurants down there serving almost all kind of pasta (whether they are “fresh made” or not, I can’t say); however, Panamanians seem to prefer tomato based sauces over cream/milk based. As a result, you seldom see alfredo sauce or carbonara. When I moved here, there were a lot of ads for this, usually targeting children (KD!). As a result, I seldom paid attention to it. For some odd reason though, while grocery shopping, I noticed this package… Or rather, a shelf just for this and similar products! So, I decided to buy a package to give it a try… Here is a serving after cooking it according to the package’s instructions.

Colourful? Agree… But, after a bite, I wondered myself: How can kids eat this?! OK, OK, somebody could say “well, you oriental people could eat instant ramen almost every single day!”. True but I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Anyway, the taste was really odd. Not sure how to describe it. Probably the butter-y taste (it asks for two tablespoon) and some weird sweetness. The first couple of ingredients looks fine but then a list of weird ingredients follow. Lipase? Calcium Chloride?? Colour???

So I thought myself, how easy/difficult is to make this dish from scratch? After looking a couple of recipes on-line, I settled for one in particular: Laura Calder’s Macaroni and Cheese. And ingredients shopping I went…

• A pack of pasta. I chose rotini because the shape seems to hold sauces a bit better. CDN $1.50.
• 375 mL (1.5 cup) of milk. The original recipe calls for 250 mL (a cup) but I chose with some extra as a test. And I used 2% but I think any type (other than buttermilk?) would work. CDN $1.75 for the quart.
• A block of aged cheddar. CDN$5 but used somewhere between 1/3 and half the block.
• Two tablespoon of butter.
• Garlic or onion.
• Flour, salt, pepper and a bayleaf.

The recipe itself, I started by boiling some water to cook the pasta. Then…

Steep the milk with some garlic cloves or an onion and a bay leaf for at least 15 minutes. Grate around a cup of cheese. Feel free to add more if you feel. Wait for the water to boil and cook the pasta according to package’s instructions.

Prepare a bechamel sauce by melting the butter and, when it starts to “bubble”, whisk in two tablespoon of flour. Cook for a minute and then slowly whisk the milk (just the milk! Discard the garlic/onion and bay leaf). Keep on whisking until it cooks and starts to thicken. Stir the grated cheese and let it melt.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and toss the pasta in. Season with salt and pepper.

Again, I served it with roasted chicken (from a grocery store/supermarket, CDN $7/$8) and some steamed broccoli ($1). Wait, I did not bake it? Well, I am trying to compare it to the box version. And, needless to say, it was way better. I could taste the cheddar and could “tweak” the sauce consistency if needed.

Would I change this recipe? Well, I made just ONE mistake: after I melted the cheese, I did not remove it from the heat. As a result, the sauce kept of cooking after I tossed the pasta. While it did not overcook the pasta, it did make the sauce a bit too thick. Of course, some people would like it that way… But, other than that, I like it!

And the most important thing? The cost! The big bowl of mac ‘n’ cheese was just under $6, enough for 5 large servings. Add the roasted chicken and broccoli (additional $9 at most), for $15, you can feed four!

Tagged under: Home Cooking