Mac and Cheese マカロニチーズ

"Macaroni and cheese" a.k.a. "Mac and Cheese" is a quintessential American comfort food. Most  people  in the U.S., including my wife, have grown up eating Kraft "Mac and Cheese" in the blue box. The product is bright yellow and sweet, made of powdered cheddar cheese--kids love it. In recent years, gourmet versions of "Mac and Cheese" started appearing in many good restaurants. We (mostly my wife) tried several and pronounced them "very good". Besides these restaurants, my wife had "Mac and Cheese" at a semi-gourmet fast food restaurant/cafeteria "Wolfgang Puck Express" at the the Denver airport. Since airlines no longer serve food, she found the nice, big, still warm, comforting bowl of really good "Mac and Cheese" especially gratifying and reported to me that she liked it. Sometime later, I too, had a chance to try Wolfgang Puck Express "Mac and Cheese" at the Denver airport during a business trip but I found it way too greasy and I did not like it. When I reported this to my wife she replied,  "for those who do most of their praying during take-offs and landings even greasy Mac and cheese is ethereal". Thus, mostly for my wife, I made my version of "Mac and Cheese".

I think that the quality and types of cheeses are most important. My recipe is nothing unusual.  I first make béchamel sauce and add cheeses, combined with cooked elbow macaroni and bake. This recipe is for about 6 oz of macaroni, which makes about 4 small servings. We cooked one box (16 oz) of elbow macaroni and we used about 2/3 for macaroni salad and 1/3 for Mac and cheese.

Macaroni: As per the instruction on the package, cook Macaroni (al dente, since this will be further baked). I season it with salt  and pepper in a colander immediately after draining and coat it with a small amount of olive oil. The macaroni alone at this stage should be well seasoned and taste fairly good.

Sauce: I first make béchamel. I finely chop shallot (one medium or 1/2 large), and saute in olive oil (3 tbs) and butter (1/2 tbs) and add flour (3 tbs). Cook flour for 1-2 minutes (do not brown, we are not making brow roux) and add about 2 cups of milk (I used 1%) at once and whisk to resolve and keep stirring until it thickens. Add more milk depending on the consistency of the sauce. I keep this rather loose since the addition of the cheeses makes the sauce thick. I season it with salt, pepper, and freshly grated nutmeg. Using freshly grated nutmeg makes a big difference in taste.

Cheeses: Use decent quality cheeses. Cheddar cheese is an absolute "must". Unfortunately when it is cooked for a long time at a high temperature, it becomes grainy, so I mix it into the béchamel just before baking. Besides cheddar, I also use a combination of different cheeses depending on what we have in our refrigerator. This time, I made the mistake of using too much fresh goat cheese in the sauce. It made the sauce a bit grainy. I usually use any combination of Gruyere, Pecorino Romano, and Raclette. Tonight, I had Gruyere, Raclette, fresh goat cheese, and Parmigiano reggiano. The amount of the cheese is arbitrary but I used a total of 1 cup of shredded Gruyere and Raclette in addition to fresh goat cheese (1/4 cup). If the sauce becomes too stiff after the cheese is incorporated, you could add more milk. The sauce should be a bit runny because the macaroni absorbs some of the liquid while it bakes and the sauce may end up dry rather than creamy.

I poured the sauce into the cooked macaroni and mixed in shredded cheddar (1/2 cup, I used aged sharp cheddar). I tasted the mixture and adjusted the seasoning. I apportioned the mixture into 4 small individual ramekins. I grated Parmigiano reggiano cheese on the top. You could use bread crumbs on the top as well, but I did not. I baked it in a 400F (toaster) oven for 7-10 minutes or until the surface browns and the sauce is bubbling.

This was not bad (my wife's opinion was much less reserved but, then again, she may be biased). Nonetheless, to me, the sauce was a bit too grainy and I blame it on the goat cheese. Next time I will have to be more moderate in using it. In any case, this was far better than Kraft's or Wolfgang Puck's mac and cheese. This dish goes well with wines and beer (although we drink beer extremely rarely). I would suggest Izakaya in Japan consider serving this. It may become a big hit.

P.S. We had this later in the week as leftovers reheated in the toaster oven. Strangely enough, the taste and texture were much better and the graininess of the sauce disappeared.

Mac and Cheese version 2 マック アンド チーズ 第二弾

This is a variation on "Mac and Cheese". I saw this recipe in the NY times and mentioned it to my wife which was a mistake. Being a devotee of mac and cheese, she immediately wanted me to make it. The amount of cheese included in this recipe is a bit intimidating (a lot) but un-cooked macaroni goes in with the sauce and then the whole thing is baked, which makes it much easier to cook than my variation of mac and cheese.

The picture below shows what it looks like when it came out of the oven (this is a 7 inch diameter rather deep baking dish).



It is very cheesy but not as creamy as we expected. We may have over cooked it a bit, or maybe it needed some more milk.



This is very good but my original Mac and Cheese may be better (and probably less deadly). But adjusting the cooking time and amount of milk, this may really work. The recipe below is just replicated from the original recipe in the NY times. This is just for our record, please refer to the original for details and accuracy.

Ingredients:
Butter 2 tbs
Cottage cheese 1 cup
Milk 2 cups (or maybe more to achieve the desired texture)
Dry mustard 1 tsp
Cayenne pepper a pinch
Nutmeg, freshly grated a pinch
Salt 1/2 tsp
Black pepper, freshly ground 1/4 tsp
Sharp Cheddar Cheese 1lb (set aside 1/4 cup for the topping).
Elbow pasta, dry, 1/2 lb

Preheat the oven to 375F. Using half of the butter, butter the baking dish (the original recipe called for a 9 inch diameter, ours was a bit smaller and deeper but we had to put the overflow into another smaller ramekin).

Puree the cottage cheese, mustard, cayenne, nutmeg, salt, black pepper and milk in a blender. Mix the pureed milk-cheese mixture to the grated cheddar cheese and then mix in uncooked dry elbow pasta.

Cover the baking dish tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Uncover, stir, top it with the reaming cheese, dot with the 1tbs of butter (at this point, the mixture is still very liquid) and bake another 15 minutes. Let it stand for 15 minutes before serving.

This is very easy to prepare and really cheesy but was not as creamy as we expected. Also the leftovers solidified into an almost solid block of cheesy pasta that we had to slice with a knife. We also had to add a lot of milk to reheat the block we sliced to have it separate into its component parts. Not bad for a quick mac and cheese fix.

Mac and Cheese with cauliflower puree カリフラワープピュレー入りマックアンドチーズ

When my wife made baked cauliflower with cauliflower puree, we were impressed with how creamy the puree was without much fat. My wife suggested making Mac and Cheese with cauliflower puree instead of Bechamel sauce. So, one weekend, we made this new cauliflower puree Mac and cheese. We made two versions. One was topped with a mixture of panko bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese (see below). It came out nicely browned with a crunchy crust.

Under the crunchy topping was a creamy cheesy sauce clinging to the macaroni.

The second version was topped with grated cheddar cheese.

Again, underneath was the warm, cheesy sauce with macaroni.

Ingredients: (this makes about 8 servings in small ramekins such as the one seen above).

One head of cauliflower, separated into small florets.

Enough milk to cover the florets.

1 tbs unsalted butter

One large Jalapeno pepper, seeded and deveined, finely chopped (optional)

Cheeses (we used smoked gouda, fresh goat cheese, parmesan and cheddar) grated (#3)

Elbow macaroni, half box, cooked, drained, seasoned with salt, rice vinegar and then coated with olive oil (#5).

Directions:

Making cauliflower puree is exactly the same as posted before. Briefly; separate a head of cauliflower into florets, cook it in milk until tender with a pat of butter and red pepper flakes. I added one medium onion sautéed (instead of baked), adjusted the amount of milk to attain the right consistency while blending using a immersion mixer (#1). For variation, I added sautéed and finely chopped Jalapeno pepper (seeded and deveined) (#2). For cheeses, I used smoked gouda,  fresh goat and parmesan (#3) and mixed into the puree and cooked over the lowest flame until the cheeses incorporated (#4). I added the cooked macaroni (#5) into the cauliflower puree cheese mixture (#6). Then added the cheddar cheese (#7).  The reason for adding the cheddar at the last moment is to prevent it from being over cooked and getting grainy in texture. Meanwhile, I mixed panko bread crumbs, grated parmesan and olive oil (#8).

I placed the macaroni mixture in small ramekins (#9 and 10). I topped one with the panko/parmesan mixture (#11)  and the other with grated cheddar (#12). Baked in 350F oven for 15 minutes. If the top is not browned enough, place it under the broiler until the top browns nicely.

The end result: Both version were good but the sauce/puree was a bit grainy as compared to the cauliflower puree we made before. We were wondering if this is something to do with the cheeses we used, although we took precaution not to overcook cheddar cheese which get grainy after long cooking. We do not know how much calories/fat we are saving by substituting bechamel with cauliflower puree but certainly this is a good alternative. Compared to bechamel based Mac, this cauliflower puree did not get thick even after baking. We liked the one topped with bread crumbs and Parmesan cheese.

PD Noodle Mac and Cheese variation マック アンド チーズ ヴァリエーション

We had leftover barbecued chicken from the weekend, leftover Pennsylvania Dutch noodle (egg noodle) and this was a leftover control dish. This is similar to my Mac and cheese with some variations.

The below will make a 9 inch casserole.

Sauce: This is a type of Morney sauce (or Béchamel sauce with cheese). I try to make Béchamel with the least amount of fat possible. To do this I start with finely chopped onions before adding the flour. Because the flour coats the surface of the chopped onion, it will make a smooth Béchamel without much fat.

I sautéed 1 medium finely chopped onion in a frying pan (2 tbs of light olive oil instead of butter) and seasoned it with salt. I then added shiitake mushroom (optional 3 big ones, stem removed and finely chopped). After mushrooms were softened, I added flour (3 tbs) stirring until dry flour was no longer visible and the pieces of vegetable were coated with flour. I added cold 1% (instead of cream or 4%) milk at once (about 1 cup and add more later). I stirred the mixture with a silicon spatula until the sauce thickened. Since cheeses will be added and the noodles may absorb moisture, I wanted this sauce to be rather runny. I added more milk until the desired consistency was attained. I seasoned it with salt, white pepper and freshly grated nutmeg (we like lots of freshly grated nutmeg).

Cheese: We added two cheeses; sharp Cheddar (1/2 cup grated) and Gruyere cheese (1/2 cup grated). If the sauce became too thick, you can add more milk to loosen it.

Chicken: This is optional but one of the reason for this dish was to use the leftover barbecued chicken. I used about 1/2 cup of cooked and shredded chicken which was mixed into the sauce. Since the chicken was hot smoked, it added a nice smoky flavor.

Noodles: This was Pennsylvania Dutch noodle (wide noodle) cooked. I added about a cup to the chicken cheese mixture. I placed the sauce mixture with noodles into the casserole and placed it in a 400F preheated convection (toaster) oven for 15-20 minutes or until the surface started showing brown spots. I grated Riggiano Palmigiano cheese and chopped parsley on the top. I let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.

This was a quite wonderful “comfort” dish for leftover control. Often Cheddar cheese cooked too long becomes "chalky" but the addition of Gruyere and the rather loose sauce appeared to prevent this from happening. The nutmeg and smoky chicken added nice flavor. I could have added bread crumbs on the top to make crunchy surface but even without it this was a fine dish.

Surf-and-turf Valentine’s Day Dinner ロブスターとステーキ（サーフアンドターフ）

We rarely have a surf-and-turf dinner but since it was Valentine’s  day, we decided to have a steak and lobster dinner. The filet mignon came from Omaha steak and we got frozen lobster tail from Whole Food.  I cooked both in sous vide. I also made “Mac-and-cheese”. The temperatures I used in the past for lobster tail and steak were slightly different but this time I used 135F for both so that I could sous vide both in the same setting which worked.  The steaks were cooked for 4 hours and the lobster 45 minutes. I timed it so they both came out around 7pm.

I seasoned the lobster tails with salt and tarragon (I only had dried) and vacuum packed with several pats of cold butter. After it was cooked I removed the lobster from the vacuum pack, and drained the liquid inside and added a squeeze of lemon juice to make a lobster-butter dipping sauce. It was perfectly cooked.

I thawed the previously frozen steak and patted it dry. I then further dried it on sheets of paper towel, uncovered for a few hours in the refrigerator.  I seasoned it with salt and pepper before vacuum packing it for sous vide. After it was cooked I removed the steak from the vacuum bag, and quickly seared both sides in a frying pan with melted butter. I set the steak aside and added the juice accumulated in the vacuum bag to the pan and scraped off the brown bits left from searing the steak. I added 2-3 tbs of red wine and reduce the mixture in half. I finished the pan sauce with pats of butter and seasoned with salt and pepper. The steak was nice medium rare.

I have made and  posted several variations of “Mac and cheese”. This time I went with a classic with Béchamel sauce but I also added finely chopped fresh shiitake mushroom which added nice flavors. The cheeses I used as per my wife’s selection were fresh goat, sharp cheddar and smoke Gouda. The seasonings were salt and freshly grated black pepper and nutmeg. We really liked this version.

We had this with one of our favorites; Caymus Napa valley Cabernet  Sauvignon 2020. We really enjoyed this special dinner and wine.

Scalloped potato with cauliflower puree

My wife came up with this dish one day. A few days before I had made my usual Cauliflower puree. Beside eating it as an “adult baby” food, we have made Mac-and-cheese using the puree instead of Béchamel sauce. I am not sure how she came up with this dish but, it is essentially scalloped potatoes made with the Cauliflower puree, cheese, onion and jalapeño pepper. This was topped with several kinds of cheese and baked.

After the servings were cut out, you could see multiple layers of thinly sliced potato with cheesy sauce. The green bits are chopped Jalapeño pepper. She ended up making a quite large amount but we managed to enjoy it all as a side for lunches and dinner and also as appetizers. Probaly not as rich as if we made this with full-fledged Béchamel sauce but it was quite good.

I ask my wife to provide the recipe. I help her by slicing potatoes, onions, and chopping up Jalapeño pepper.

Ingredients:
Two russet potatoes thinly sliced
2 onions thinly sliced
2 jalapeño pepper
1 cup of cheddar cheese grated
1 cup monterey Jack cheese grated
1/2 cup parmesian cheese grated
Several slices of smoked gouda to top.
Enough cauliflower puree to cover several layers


Directions:
Cover the bottom of an oven casserole dish with the puree. Distribute a layer of potatoes (#1) then the sliced onions, jalapeño pepper and the various cheeses (# 1&2) then the cauliflower pure (#3) Keep layering until all the ingredients have been distributed. End by putting on slices of smoked gouda (#4). Cook in a 400 degree oven covered for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and continue cooking for 30 minutes until the potatoes are tender and a knife slides in easily. Let cool for 15 minutes before serving.

This is a very comforting dish with thin layers of potatoes between custard like layers of warm cheese. The jalapeño peppers and onion give a nice flash of flavor. You would never guess that cauliflower was one of the main ingredients. It heated up nicely in the microwave. This would the a staple for any menu.