eating as a fine art: craving mac & cheese

Thursday, May 7, 2009

craving mac & cheese

we were craving mac & cheese.
i remember in my early 20s when i lived briefly in linda & david's basement. david made the most amazing mac & cheese and i used to get up in the middle of the night and steal a forkfull. i'd see mackenzie there, sneaking big mouthfuls of chocolate from the chocolate block they kept above the fridge, for baking.
i still use a variation (as cooking varies as the years and whims go by) of david's recipe.

2 comments:

David Summers said...: gosh Briana, is that my macs and cheese?? I'm honored, and humbled that you taken it so much farther; May 7, 2009 at 9:58 PM
briana linden said...: it is your mac and cheese! and now you know why those leftovers went so fast...
i'm glad you found it on my blog, and happy to have such a great, historical (for me) recipe for my first recipe post.; May 8, 2009 at 1:14 PM

Post a Comment

Recipes

David’s mac & cheese, as re-interpreted over the years

Preheat oven to 350*

Boil in salted water (should be like sea water) until just before al dente: 1 lb pasta (like macaroni shaped or penne or whatever you like)

Grate 1 lb+. cheese of choice. I like to use some jack, as it melts well, and is a good medium for the other highly flavored cheeses you should consider using like: sharp cheddar, gruyere, pecorino, goat cheese etc.

Meanwhile, sauté a small diced onion in a few TBSP butter until soft over medium heat. Add a couple cloves of garlic, smashed, and sauté another minute. Add another TBSP butter and four TBSP flour, sauté to lightly toast the flour, about a minute (should be the consistency of wet sand). Add, oh, 1 cup milk slowly and whisk to break up clumps. Slowly add milk until you get a sauce with the consistency of heavy cream or campbell’s tomato soup, just out of the can (should be about 3 cups total). Add salt; I like to add some smoked paprika and woscheshire sauce. Taste for seasoning (should be highly seasoned). Add oh, ½ the cheese.

Now, layer in a buttered casserole (I actually make this recipe in 2 dishes and freeze one): pasta, roux (milk/cheese sauce) and cheese in about 2-3 layers.

In David’s version, you’d put some pats of butter over your pasta layers, then sprinkle on wheat germ. That’s good—the germ is kind of sweet, and yummy. What I do is sauté some breadcrumbs very lightly in butter and garlic and toss in some wheat germ at the end and sprinkle this (liberally) over the pasta.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly. If you’ve made two casseroles (you smart thing), take the one you’ll freeze out of the oven after about a half hour, let cool, wrap in foil then in plastic, label and freeze.

eating as a fine art

Thursday, May 7, 2009

craving mac & cheese

2 comments:

Blog Archive

Recipes

make/believe