The Big Cheese

Somehow over the years, macaroni and cheese became a dish only suitable for children. Worse yet, the public cognizance of it was pretty much confined to boxed pasta with powdered, colored cheese product. Bleah. No wonder its popularity decreased below the bottom line, right down there with green Jell-O.

None-the-less, those of us old-timers who remember mac and cheese with fondness are tickled to find that it is suddenly reinvented as a gourmet dish,  served in restaurants at every level of culinary class from buffets to experimental fusion glamour. One restaurant menu even calls their dish “adult mac and cheese.”

The fact is, just about everyone loves mac and cheese, although many kept the liking as a guilty little secret. Well, the secret is out and mac and cheese is in -- which is a boon to potluckers.

So the other night we attended a surprise birthday party arranged by the wife of the “birthday boy” to take place at a local motel meeting room and “potluck” in participation. Since the family has a couple of about-to-be-teen children, I figured that there would be a bunch of kids. So I finally decided to take a large casserole dish of mac and cheese and some chocolate chip cookies. No matter what other “adult” fare showed up, I figured the kids would be happy with that.

Sure enough, when I waited a bit for the “rush” to the food table to die down and walked through the room to get into the line, I passed tables of kids with heaps of mac and cheese on their plates. Three boys under 12 had nothing but mac and cheese, and others had a healthy helping. Most adults had a serving as well. I had to dig around the edges of the dish by the time I got there. I will say that I make some of the very best mac and cheese I have tried, including offerings at restaurants (I’m always curious to compare).

My “recipe” conjures up enough for a small crowd (10” square casserole dish or approx. 13”x 9” baking pan, about 4 quarts. You can adjust amounts up or down or any size or to any taste.)

INGREDIENTS: (amounts are approximate according to taste)

* 1 pound macaroni (elbow, shell – your choice but something that holds sauce well)

*1 pound cheddar cheese (medium or sharp) or combination of cheeses (good way to use up bits and pieces).

*1 quart milk

*6-8 tablespoons butter, softened

*Flour: about 1/3 cup, plus 3 tablespoons

*½ to one each red and green bell peppers and yellow onion (amount depends on size and taste)

*about 2 teaspoons mustard flour (this mixes with tossing flour, but you can use regular mustard in the sauce itself if you don’t have the powdered version, about 1-2 tablespoons)

*red pepper flakes or seasoning

*granulated garlic or fried dry garlic or garlic powder or 2 finely-chopped garlic cloves  – if you wish. Dry stuff goes in tossing flour, chopped goes in sauce.

*dried breadcrumbs, enough to cover surface of dish (seasoned crumbs are OK. I used some garlic/herb crumbs that I made from a leftover hunk of a loaf.)

Method:

Heat oven to 350

Oil your casserole dish or baking pan liberally, included sides.

Put on a large pan or kettle of water. You add a bit of salt if you wish. When it comes to boiling, add pasta. Add some oil to keep foaming down if you wish. Cook to semi-tender, drain and set aside.

In a large bowl, mix approx. 1/3 C flour with mustard flour, dry garlic product, pepper flakes. Set aside. (If using fresh garlic, add to processed veggies per below.)

Shred cheeses (food processor is great for this) and put in the bowl with the dry ingredients and toss to coat cheese.

.

Finely chop vegetables (processor is great – but don’t over-process: you want colorful bits to show in the sauce. Process fresh garlic with the veggies if you are using it.) Set aside.

In a large heavy pot, melt about 3 T butter until bubbly, then carefully and quickly stir in flour one spoonful at a time. Stir until thick and golden. Add milk SLOWLY (even better if you heat it first) and stir constantly to avoid lumping. When sauce starts to thicken a bit, add cheese one handful at a time, stirring rapidly until it is incorporated. Add chopped veggies and stir. Add mustard here if using prepared. When it has all incorporated, taste and add salt and/or pepper if you wish. Add “optional” items (see below). Add drained pasta and stir to heat.

Pour it all into your baking pan or casserole. Sprinkle bread crumbs across the top and dab with butter.

Bake at 350 for about half an hour, or until crumbs are starting to brown to your liking.  You can hold this in a warming oven set to medium for several hours. Cover with lid or foil and go take a nap.

Variations:

Add canned chile con carne with or without beans.

Add some fresh or frozen or canned corn kernels.

Add robust red wine or mellow beer (gradually and taste as you go, some can be overwhelming).

Add balsamic vinegar (but not with wine or beer), about 1/3 cup, but taste as you add little at a time since strengths and flavors differ widely.

Be creative with herbs, but don’t overdo. A little parsley or dried celery leaf or dill can add a bite of flavor.

Sprinkle chopped green onion over the top.

Add some chopped kalamata olives to the sauce, or sprinkle over the top.

Sometimes simpler is better. The kids got the unenhanced version above, and loved the simplicity and familiarity of it. You can challenge adults a bit more, but keep it “comfort food.”

Hot Days Call for Leftovers and Grilling

I try to cook only as much as the two of us can eat at a meal, but of course there are always exceptions. A roast chicken, for example, can provide a number of meals for two people. Rice and beans are hard to cook for two (unless the beans come out of a can, which is not wicked). And I sometimes cook more than we need for one meal  in order to freeze or repurpose for others.

So, with the heat hitting us this week and the AC broken beyond repair, leftovers are a blessing. As is the grill. I admit to being a bit unskilled with the grill, but as time and need demand I get better.

I didn't take a photo, but I figured that Cuisinart wouldn't mind my using theirs.
I recently puchased one of these, and it's wonderful!

Monday I had coupons for a fresh loaf of Artisan bread from a local market for 99 cents. It was still warm when I picked it up. Ahhh….I had some cheeses in the fridge to use up – a chunk of Swiss and a chunk of very aged cheddar. I decided to make fondue for lunch (I’ll address the making of fondues another time) and, since it was for lunch and included cheddar, I elected to use beer. Some fried crumbled garlic (from the Indian section at the Asian store – I could have rubbed the fondue pan with fresh garlic, but I like a good garlic flavor with cheddar and beer), a shot of hot sauce, some red pepper flakes, a little nutmeg, broken French bread, and we were good to go. I added a small salad of shredded lettuce and a piquant tepanade-style mixture of olives and a few other veggies, for contrast. I figured the extra fondue sauce would make good mac and cheese, or some other dish.

Tuesday I still had some pieces of broken bread. So for breakfast, I melted a couple of tablespoons of butter in some olive oil in a heavy skillet, sprinkled in an herb mixture (Italian) and the bread pieces, and tossed them around over medium heat until they were golden brown and crunchy.  A poached egg over the croutons and we were in heaven.

At lunchtime I sliced the butt of the loaf that I hadn’t used the previous day and toasted the slices (whole) in the skillet in much the same way only with flavorful olive oil and less butter. I sautéed some bits of roasted red pepper and sun dried tomato in olive oil in a heavy saucepan (the oil on the tomatoes was enough for this) and heated the leftover fondue in the same pan (added a bit of milk to loosen it up a bit) and poured over the toast. I had boiled some eggs in the morning, so made stuffed eggs (mayo, mustard, capers, salt and pepper mixed into the yolks) – two halves each – and browned a few pre-breaded butterfly shrimp in the toaster oven. A couple pieces of fresh pineapple and we were good to go.

By suppertime it was too hot to cook in the kitchen.  I had some leftover roast chicken breast, and a cupful or so of brown and wild rice with chopped veggies, so I added chopped chicken and a raw egg to the rice. My goal was to use a large green pepper that was languishing in the fridge, so I cut it lengthwise, removed the seed head and pith, and made a “nest” of heavy aluminum foil for each half, leaving a flap of foil to fold loosely over the top so I could check to see if the pepper was done, as well as to open it up for browning on top if needed.  Stuffed it with the chicken and rice mixture. I put these on the heated grill and closed the lid, keeping the heat around 350. After about 15 minutes I moved the foil-wrapped peppers off the heat.

When they seemed about done (the tops browned nicely without exposure) I prepared some fresh asparagus by washing, snapping off the ends, and rolling in some melted butter and Italian bread crumbs (used my glass bread pan to melt the butter in the microwave and roll the spears.) Gave some spears of fresh pineapple a roll in the butter as well. Those I just put on the grill over medium flame. Added a pear-walnut-gorgonzola salad using a commercial mix of herbs and baby greens. Slices of purchased Black Forest roulade (way too much frosting!) for dessert.

Now I am running low on leftovers so will dig through the freezer for some that I put away for future use. The future is NOW.

I’m not sure why I get the cooking urge when it’s hot. Perhaps because I’m too lethargic to do much else!

Some Intentions, plus a Chinese Omelet

With Pride From Oregon

Chinese Omelet, or something like that...

I don’t intend to cater to diets, fads, gourmet food preparation. While I like to talk about kitchen tools – sometimes unusual ones – it’s often a matter of reassigning unexpected tasks to simple tools, or describing some of my favorites, some of which fall into the categories of “ethnic” or “antique”.

This should never have
happened to asaparagus!

I will be talking about foods, food history, everyday cooking (with and without recipes), condiments and spices, food ephemera , some food stories and memories, possibly some food fiction and art, and some blatantly subjective preferences, reviews, and remarks. Not to mention what I hope will pass as humor.

A rather suggestive title
for a Jell-O booklet!

I like to read cookbooks, but rarely stick to a recipe (except for baking: baking is chemistry and I don’t mess with the recipes much –except to add or change an exchangeable ingredient or flavoring). When I do share recipes they are often based on common sense rather than strict measures or ingredients.

Take today’s lunch, for example. My impetus was to use up the last of some fresh bean sprouts. We had already had sprouts in stir fries, salads, and sandwiches (I bought this enormous bag of the suckers at the Asian market, since they only come in a big bag. One-pound? Lots of sprouts, whatever. Tip: blanche them in boiling water for about 30 seconds, immerse immediately into very cold water, and they’ll keep for several days in the fridge. Tip, part 2: I just pour the hot sprouts into a large sieve or colander and shake and toss it under cold running water until they are cold.)

So for lunch I decided to make something akin to eggs foo young, but I didn’t want to mess with making little pancakes. So I made my mixture by cracking two fresh eggs (from local pasture-raised chickens) into a bowl, added about a couple of shots of soy sauce (a little more than a tablespoonful, but to taste) a dash of toasted sesame oil (to taste) and a tablespoonful or so of flour, just enough to thicken the batter a bit. Beat that together, then added chopped sprouts, chopped green onions (three or four average size, with green tops), a dash of pepper. Hold off on the salt, the soy sauce is probably enough. Heat a 10” skillet on a stovetop burner, add some peanut oil (about 2T) when hot, let the oil heat, shake it around to coat the bottom of the pan evenly, and pour in the mixture. Let it brown nicely on one side then flip (OK, I flipped in two halves) and cook on the other side just until the eggs are set.

Spousal review, “Mmmmm, that’s good. Still nice and crunchy.” (He uses an epicurean scale based mostly on crunch.)

Of course you can add to this for a large cake, or make two. Use a smaller pan for a one-egg omelet.

An Excellent Book on Culinary Ephemera