Why is homemade macaroni and cheese one of the hardest dishes to make? It is one of the first dishes you learn to make in Home-Ec and ohhhh so yummy, and yet I manage to screw it up every time, having to do the sauce twice before I get a creamy consistency instead of a curdled one. I make sure the milk never boils and I constantly stir it, and yet it ALWAYS curdles on the first batch. Today I just said "screw it" and ate it anyway. Tasted generally the same, but with a funky texture.
I love this lol cat, we have it as our background on the computer. It represents eating good food and The Sprout, really. I would have sent out "I'm pregnant" announcement cards if I had had this picture at the time...LOVE IT!
2 comments:
From D...
You may already know this. I watch too many cooking shows, but sometimes it comes in handy. . . a good rue is equal parts butter and flour (like two tablespoons each - don't use whole wheat flour as it is grainy and has a nutty flavor). Let the butter and flour melt together in a pan on medium heat and stir it for a minute or two. Don't let the butter scorch, but you do want to cook the flour so that the gluey taste goes away. Then add your milk and stir stir stir. Once again, you want it to bubble so that it thickens but does not boil and form a skin. Then you can add the cheese. Mmmmm cheese. I like sharp white cheddar the best in mac n cheese (I recommend adding a tablespoon of dijon mustard - it gives a little extra flavor without tasting mustardy), but you can try smoked cheddar or gouda (maybe some bacon too) or add some blue cheese with broccoli florets (blanch the brocoli first and stir it in at the end - it's healthy if it has broccoli!). Or white cheddar with some feta and spinach. A can of drained diced tomatoes is also nice. I usually use cornstarch to thicken sauces (no butter required). The secret to that is to mix the cornstarch in some cool liquid first then pour it in and stir. But for cream/cheese sauces, the butter adds a flavor that cornstarch can't match. Do you bake yours? Sometimes I add bread crumbs and a layer of cheese and bake it, but usually I don't have the patience. I'll never forget an overnight camping trip at summer camp. The counselors were supposed to teach us how to make mac n cheese from scratch. They didn't know about rues (what 16 year old does?) and just dumped everything in together. The cheese was so gloppy that you could literally blow bubbles with it.
You know i totally forgot about the butter/flour goo BEFORE milk...I have been putting the butter in then the milk then the flour to thicken. I havent been baking it, but i have thought about it. my aunt used to put tuna in it too, which was pretty good.
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