Thursday, February 16, 2012

Homemade Mac N' Cheese

We all love a tasty macaroni and cheese! We learned a basic cream sauce in school and I adapted it to mac n cheese and it worked great! (For those who know what a bechamel sauce is, it's that with cheese). Here it goes.


Ingredients:
3 cups milk
1/4 onion- for the onion use the cloves as nails and stick the bay leaf to the onion
3 whole cloves
1 bay leaf
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 cups favorite cheese (I like it super cheesy!! You can use a little less if you want)
1 lb. macaroni
2 Tbsp. butter
2 Tbsp. flour
Bouquet garni- bay leaf, thyme,celery, parsley stems, in leek leafs or put everything in cheese cloth and tie shut.
Method:
Start by making a roux with the butter and flour. Melt butter in a small pan, add flour, mix and cook for thirty seconds to a minute. Next cook macaroni in boiling salted water. Remove both from heat and reserve. Place milk and the onion studded with the clove and bay leaf in a sauce pan and place over medium heat. Stir and heat slowly to prevent scorching. When milk comes to a boil, add bouquet garni and nutmeg. Cook for a few minutes being careful not to let the milk burn. Whisk in the now cooled roux little by little until desired thickness (don't add too much roux. The sauce will thicken slowly.) Remove onion, and bouquet garni, and add cheese. Stir until melted and creamy. Pour on top of cooked macaroni and stir, making sure that it's nice and gooey. Enjoy!

3 comments:

  1. Does the bouqet garni make a huge difference in this recipe? Just wondering...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Not really, especially cause you already have bay onion and clove. Others may argue but half the time I forget to do a bouquet garni in this sauce and it turns out great. Just watch how thick the sauce gets cause it can turn almost gluey if it's too thick and it sneaks up on ya.. Good luck let me know how it turns out :) ps. a little worchestershire sauce adds a nice savory element to it too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yummy yummy...note to self do not try to prepared with screaming baby in the background.

    ReplyDelete