Baked Macaroni & Cheese Recipe
Tried it? Rate this Recipe:
|
Category: |
Category: |
|
Ingredients: |
Ingredients: Pasta, Cheese, Butter, Milk, Eggs, Pepper, Salt, Olive Oil, Lard
|
|
Directions: |
Directions:Note: Read the Addendum in the Personal Notes for the latest adjustments before making this.
Loosely based upon a few canvased recipes. Parts 2 & 3 can be done in either order or in parallel once Part-1 is underway.
PART-0 Before we begin
Preheat Oven to 350*F
Target: Baking Dish: 7.5 round x 2.5 tall; about 2 quarts
Butter the dish; about 1 tbsp.
Add a good squirt of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the center of the dish and call it good.
PART-1 Noodle prep
1-1/2 cups dried elbow noodles, Barilla ProteinPlus
~2 quarts water
Dash of Salt
Squirts of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Garlic would help, but Im out.
Bring water, salt, oil to boil. Add noodles, reduce heat and let go for about 7 minutes to al dente.
Drain & let cool when complete.
PART-2 Liquid prep
In a 2-Pyrex measuring cup, add the following:
2 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. Lard (this was rendered from Ham hocks and Beans recipe)
1/3 cup whole milk, initially
A goodly grind of fresh black pepper to suit
2 dashes of fine ground red pepper
1 dash of Oregano for aromatics
Garlic, if I had some would also work.
Heat for 90 seconds in the microwave to melt butter & Lard.
(We can pause this process here and work on something else while the butter melts)
Add one whole egg to Pyrex; note that the mixture must not be hot or it will set the egg.
2 tbsp. whole wheat flour; note to self: This was a gloppy mess that settled at the bottom. Ask Mothers how they do this.
This should bring the liquid up to about 1 cup.
Top off with 1 more cup of whole milk.
Reheat for 60 seconds to keep the butter from setting. Stir frequently to keep from separating/settling. Arrrg - messy.
PART-3 Cheese Prep
There is no way to accurately measure the cheese added. However, roughly 25 passes with the grater produces about 1 full cup of loosely packed cheese.
Use a very large mixing bowl and grate into it the following:
30 passes of Tillamook Sharp Aged Cheddar (black label, Marigold-yellow)
40 passes of Tillamook Sharp Aged Cheddar (bourbon-colored label, White 18-month aged); trust me - they taste different!
25 passes of Tillamook Pepper Jack
~1/3 cup Grated Parmesan cheese
PART-4 Combine it all together
With the Cheese & mixing bowl, add drained __cooled-off__ noodles; important - if noodles are warm to touch then they will melt the cheese and it makes a mess when trying to mix.
Carefully pack it into the baking dish. (I lucked out and had just a tiny heap above level with the dish!)
Add the liquid; in a circular pattern leading towards the center, dispense the liquid evenly. When about ½ is dispensed, add Ό cup more whole milk and mix prior to the final dispensing. This should be enough liquid to reach about ½ to 3/8 inch from the top of the dish.
Optional: Top off with grated cheese. I actually forgot to do this.
Place dish in oven and wait 30 to 40 minutes. Check frequently; what you want are crispy browned edges, but not burnt.
Note: Because of the liquid being close to the top of the dish, it might be prudent to place the dish on top of a cookie sheet, aluminum foil, or pie plate.
BAKING
Inspect at 30 minutes. I noticed initial browning on the highest tips. There is no spillage; everything is perking along modestly.
At 50 minutes it looked very close to being where I wanted it.
One Hour: Stopped and pulled from oven. Very good crisping on peaks. OK that I did not add the topping of cheese.
At the very end, the contents had risen to nearly the top of the dish, but after cooling for 10 minutes, it has settled down back to the start.
After cooling 30 minutes, it dishes nicely; before that - not so nice.
TASTE TEST
Good to very good. I had two helpings (about 1/3 of the pie). It was a tiny bit soupy on the first (10 minutes), but the second had firmed up after cooling more (30 minutes).
I thought it might be too salty, but it was very balanced. Definitely could handle more cheese. The Pepper Jack was not noticed; next time -> Im adding the Serrano, Garlic, and Bacon!
The butter was spot-on; not enough that I noticed it, but anymore - and it would have gone too rich.
The water came from the milk and had me thinking to use cream instead - but I think it would make it too rich. The water was much less than the custard I made earlier, but still noticeable. Now that it has cooled over an hour, there is no water in the bottom of the dish.
OPTIONS
Add zing with Serrano peppers instead of Pepper Jack.
Use Monterey & Mozzarella cheeses to tone down the extra sharp cheddar.
Bacon/ham bits
Use a small mixing bowl instead of the 2-cup Pyrex dish. Live and learn.
2 eggs instead of one. This would roughly replace the last Ό cup of milk.
Fresh Garlic
Corn Starch can be used in place of Flour.
Consider adding dry Jasmine Thai rice to sop up the water; probably 1 to 2 tbsp. might do it. Or - swap the flour for dry rice 1:1. Rice would get blended in with the cheese.
Wild Rice instead of Thai Rice for chewy texture.
Corn. Some people like it. I think fresh-shucked corn would work must better than froze. |
|
Number Of
Servings: |
Number Of
Servings:6 |
Preparation
Time: |
Preparation
Time:1 hour |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: THOUGHTS on Comfort Food
This is a test recipe for Thanksgiving. It took me an hour to prep this, mainly cos I was diddling with the dang flour glob.
Total Fat: Butter = 3 tbsp. + ~1 tbsp. of Lard, + cheese is also fatty as is the whole milk.
This was messy from beginning to end. Let noodles cool; might even help to refrigerate so mixing with cheese is less gloppy. Struggled with keeping the flour in solution; it kept wanting to agglomerate and solidify; obviously I am doing this part wrong. I was concerned that I had too many noodles AFTER boiling and was on a mad hunt for a second dish (found a ceramic microwave _&_ conventional oven loaf pan. Not really a pan because its composite, but it is oven-safe. Ended up not needing it. Excited about having to try the Lard! After pulling from the oven I can see why folks add breadcrumbs as a topping and might consider that in the future - but Id want to make my own, not store-bought ;o)
ADDENDUM:
Arrg, later in the evening my body reacted to the richness and had me feeling sluggy. I therefore shall make the following adjustments for next time:
Do not butter the serving dish; use Olive Oil or non-stick spray instead.
Cut butter from liquids my half.
My Mom says that to reduce mess follow KISS;
1. Dont blend cheese with pasta; instead, alternate layers of pasta and cheese starting with the pasta at the bottom.
2. Dont use flour as a thickener (simple rice can do the same job. Probably 1 to 2 tbsp. would be enough, and sprinkle that in with the cheese).
3. Use large egg shell instead of elbow pasta.
Forgot to add that it is important to select the correct Cheese brand because they are not at all the same: A simple test of melting cheese will show how it reacts to heat. Lucerne-brand for example uses oil as a filler, and melting will cause the oil to separate. Tillamook in comparison perspires very little oil; the sharp white aged cheddar produces even less than the sharp marigold-yellow aged cheddar. Both melt quite nicely though.
|
|
This recipe for Baked Macaroni & Cheese is from