JimmyT’s comfort food kitchen: Macaroni cheese

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After being shocked to discover Macaroni Cheese described as an “American classic” in a Sydney newspaper I was horrified to discover this calumny repeated by the normally reliable True Brit Jamie Oliver.

For the record, macaroni cheese started life in Italy (well, d’uh) then, according to Wikipedia, moved to the UK whence it was imported to America by none other than Thomas Jefferson.

Macaroni Cheese was a staple of our fairly basic diet growing up in Scotland and I was delighted on a visit to Oban a few years ago (when Sue was researching her novel Elizabeth & Elizabeth) to discover the pub where we were staying had the dish on its menu made, it proudly boasted, with Marshalls Macaroni and Lockerbie cheddar.

My late father was a cheesemaker who made Lockerbie cheddar, and any Scot of a certain vintage will know Marshalls Macaroni, so devouring this humble “comfort food” was a pilgrimage to the past for me, in so many ways.

The menu from the Cologin Barn pub and guesthouse near Oban Scotland

But I love the fact that, typically Scottish, the mac and cheese has a serving option with fries.

One of the great things about macaroni cheese is that it’s a launching pad for a stack of interesting variations.  But basically, it’s short pasta elbow tubes in a cheese sauce.

Now there are plenty of varieties of the pasta that work almost as well, provided they can hold a thick creamy sauce – penne and fusilli spring to mind. 

Meanwhile the sauce, a bechamel with grated cheese in it, can take a variety of cheeses, herbs and condiments to punch up the flavour.

Some people sprinkle breadcrumbs on the near-complete dish it and bake it in the oven.  For others, it can be a one-pot dish that sees the cooked macaroni liberally sprinkled with grated cheese (no sauce) and olive oil.

Tomatoes, mushrooms, peas, fish, prawns, steamed veggies and even meat can be added, with or without the sauce element. But here’s my favourite basic Mac & Cheese with just a couple of simple additions.

First, cook the macaroni – about half a cup per serving – until it’s right on the cusp of al dente. Then stick a cupful of cold water in the pot to stop the cooking process dead while you drain it in a colander.  At this point I would add freshly ground black pepper and a light sprinkle of Italian herbs to the pasta, give it a shake and just let it sit.

Mac Cheese with peas brocolli florets smoked salmon and chilli flakes

Make your cheese sauce (recipe below) and add a teaspoonful of mustard (I prefer Dijon) to cut through the cheese.  Finally I take about half a cup of frozen peas, add boiling water from the kettle, and then blast them in the microwave for one minute, before draining.

Reheat the macaroni by mixing it with the sauce and peas on the stovetop, serve and you’re done.

If you want to bake the macaroni with a breadcrumb topping, only cook the pasta until just before it tips into al dente, as it will soften a bit more in the oven.  Grease the dish well because this stuff is sticky when it gets baked on.

And remember, macaroni isn’t really British and it certainly isn’t originally American.  It’s Italian and anything you can do with other kinds of pasta, you can do with macaroni, from a basic garlic and olive oil stir-up, to a marinara.

That said, the beauty of traditional macaroni cheese is how the sauce finds its way into those little tubes, thus creamy is always going to work better than chunky.

I highly recommend searching the internet for variations.  Next time I make it, I’ll be stirring in a teaspoonful of Gran Luchito Chipotle Chilli Mayonaise instead of mustard.

And as for leftovers – macaroni cheese is the most morish of all pastas so if you have any leftover, you may have done something wrong.

The Cheese sauce:

¼ cup butter 

¼ cup plain flour

½ teaspoon salt

ground black pepper to taste

2 cups milk

2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese

½ cup of grated strong cheese like parmesan (optional)

1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

Method

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat; stir in flour, salt, and pepper until smooth, about 5 minutes.

Slowly, bit by bit,  pour milk into butter-flour mixture while continuously stirring until mixture is smooth and bubbling, about 5 minutes.

NB: You are creating a roux or paste with the flour milk and butter and adding milk gradually so it will eventually become a liquid which will thicken as you heat it in the final stage.  Don’t rush this stage or it will thicken too much too quickly and you will end up with lumps (and tears).

Add cheese and mustard to milk and flour mixture and stir until cheese has melted, 2 to 4 minutes. 

Add macaroni (and defrosted peas) to cheese sauce and stir. This cheese sauce recipe is heavily adapted from this one on the internet.

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