MACARONI AND CHEESE !!! !!!

http://pluto.imagemagician.com/images/mandalion/sherrie.jpg

http://shop1.alazing.com/gifs/small/z_sp048s.jpg

As for the subject at hand, mac and cheese = brilliant that night. When served as leftovers the following night, AWFUL.

kraftcanada.com tried putting a cookie on my computer when I loaded this thread. OH NO

I am currently having dinner as i post this.

You've never eaten my mum's macaroni & cheese Mark C!

- Macoroni
- Cheese
- Sliced hot dog

Try it today!

Aw, man, Mac N Cheese is the only thing about America I really miss. Especially Velveeta Shells and Cheese. Whenever any friends go back, that's the only thing I ever want them to bring me home. So yay for Nicole G sending me a huge packet!

Mac N Cheese is just a different beast in England. I mean, it's nice and all, but it just seems wrong to *bake* it. It should be boiled and mushy. Not crunchy. Though I do have to admit I really love the Sainsburys Blue Parrot Cafe organic Mac N Cheese with the crunchy bits. I mean, Mac and Cheese should *not* be healthy and organic. Unless, of course, it is Annie's, which is the Food of the Gods.

Mmmmmmmm, now I'm really hungry.

- piece of cheddar so old it has cracks in it
- milk that will go off tomorrow
- opened packet of butter that has taken on the smell of what used to be in the fridge

and the supermarket is shut, then I will make macaroni cheese.

http://www.stiltoncheese.com/Images/recipestilton.jpg

Marconi & Cheese!

Macaroni and Cleese!

Macca and Cheese

http://www.cabotcheese.com/recipes/um_images/BakedMacaroniandCheese.jpg

My mother used to make this occasionally as an exotic treat. Mmmm, pretty tasty. I remember eating it once while listening to "Wish You Were Here" for the first time, oh the Proustianity.

My mother still makes this - both English style topped with cheddar and breadcrumbs, and Italian style with fresh parmesan and a mixture of other cheeses [I forget which]. We don't use macaroni though - penne seems to work better because there's more room inside for the sauce.

i made a gruyere/prosciutto mac n' cheese once, baked in the oven. mmmmmlkfdlknglfdkn

you know what is really really good in mac and cheese?? a tiny pinch of nutmeg.

frunkfurter slices are nice in mac n cheese.

blecch

imagine pork and cheese in the same pasta dish! OMG

Mmm many cheeses, pref very sharp ones and a sharp cheddar base or you just get creamy feel with no taste. Nutmeg, a little curry powder, some people like onions (not me), some kielbasa browned and sliced, or Italian sweet sausage, or (YES) other cured meats but should be at least a little hearty. I don't like breadcrumbs, they just seem like unnecessary starch on starch.

GODDAMN IT, WEATHER TURN COLD ALREADY.

Laurel what's yr address I'm coming over pls feed me.

http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200302/tows_past_20030212_b.jhtml

Chicago Kevin can vouch, I've fed him mac before. He's got a prized recipe, too, but I'm not sure whether it's mine or a different version.

Another ILXor has been promising me mac w/ vegetables in it for a couple of weeks, we'll see where that goes....

yes, the baked pasta with treviso radichhio. don't worry - i haven't forgotten!

uh, radicchio.

There you are! There was a Viggo Mortensen thread yesterday and you weren't on it -- naturally I thought maybe you got hit by a bus or something.

Macaroni and cheese pizza. Yes. Yes.

really? i tend not to like pizza/pasta hybrids (eg alfredo pizza)

tracer OTM re: nutmeg also

<i>really? i tend not to like pizza/pasta hybrids (eg alfredo pizza)</i>

more mac and cheese pizza for me, then, excellent

do they not sell it in the UK then? this kraft cheese dinner that u speak of?

I had a macaroni and cheese pie in Scotland a couple of years ago and it was ohmygodamazinglydelicious.

I'm going to be in Portland this weekend and I can't wait to get the mac and cheese at Montage.

my mac n cheese recipe calls mostly for gruyere and parmazing cheese, but also some sharp white cheddar if it is aroud. secret ingredients: pancetta, cayenne pepper, nutmeg.

it's a damn shame the lady is intolerant of lactose.

You can make it for me, Ian.

i will make it for ME, but you can have some too.

Chicago Kevin can vouch, I've fed him mac before. He's got a prized recipe, too, but I'm not sure whether it's mine or a different version.

Laurel's mac 'n' cheese is the stuff of gods. my prized recipe is based on yours with a few minor tweaks (i use more cheese and a couple of different kinds and other things) but i give proper credit when giving out the recipe as jenny will attest.

and laurel, the weather has turned cold here but my oven doesn't work so no mac and cheese for me. though maybe i can halve the recipe and put it in a smaller dish and make it in the toaster oven? when i get enough money to buy food again i'll find out.

think i'm gonna make some ANNIE'S mac & cheese tonight.

You know what else you can get here? Macaroni and cheese, cut into triangular wedges, then DEEP FRIED.

this is why i want to buy a deep fryer. i want to take all my favorite things from Feed, bring them home, and deep fry them. deep fried chicken, deep fried mashed potatoes, deep fried mac 'n' cheese, deep fried green beans, deep fried okra, and deep fried banana pudding.

put the words "deep fried" in front of any food i like and i'm automatically intrigued.

Deep Fried Mars Bar was totally disappointing (sorry to take the focus off wonderful, wonderful mac and cheese for the moment)

Deep fried mashed potatoes, on the other hand, are fantastic. Gregoire's in Berkeley makes them.

More pictures!

Last time I made Annie's (the bunnies/white cheddar) I stirred in right at the very end some blanched asparagus tips and smoked salmon and chopped pecans. And I ate the whole thing.

My son bless him put mac n cheese on a burger then put barbeque sauce on it then put it on a bun and ate it in like 4 bites. I am so proud of my little man.

last time I bought mac & cheese (a couple weeks ago) all the boxes had black people on them. It was kind of odd since nothing else in the store that I noticed had such targeted marketing.

I do like at restaurants when they put like crunchy bread crumbs on top.

Someone asked if we get Kraft Cheese Dinner in the UK.
This is our variant:
http://treefell.com/kcpasta.jpg

I have been trying to find a secret London stash of Stouffer's for years.

Try Harry Hill's loft.

kraft mac an cheese and other abominations against the name of food can be found in Selfridges food hall.

Aldo, hahaha.

Ed, I am not loking for yucky nuclear Kraft anything. Stouffer's = imagine lovely M&S frozen comfort-food M&C made with a "red" cheese instead.

I bought a big hunk of Raclette at the weekend just for making macaroni cheese with. The recipe also calls for dijon mustard, grain mustard and pecorino. It feels kind of exotic - usually I just make a white sauce and grate cheddar into it.

raclette in mac and cheese sounds great but two kinds of mustard is a bit much of a muchness

I'll report back when I've made it, but I'm working late for the next couple of nights. In the meantime I'm doing my best to resist eating the Raclette in chunks.

(working late = no cooking, I meant to say)

they got these macaroni and cheese pizzas at this pizza place i go to, and i didn't think it was gonna be any good but guess what, it's good

I made some earlier with blue brie, white stilton, cheddar and sweetcorn. It was good.

the combination of cheeses you used does sound good

Fortuitous! I have a wedge of Fontina in my freezer, and was thinking that M&C would be the perfect use (probably on the menu for next week).

I heard a "cooking expert" the other week who basically said there aren't many ways to fuck it up by using as many cheeses as poss, the more the merrier - within reason of course!

I’ve made it recently with a recipe that involves layers of alfredo sauce (thinned with a little milk), al dente noodles, and a variety of cheeses, then topped with bread crumbs and dollops of butter and baked.

discovered that some cheeses melt much better than others

i throw crumbled goat cheese into mine specifically because it doesn't melt. every few bites you get a nice chunk of goat cheese. can't complain

I can't put breadcrumbs on mine otherwise the young autist adult I'm also cooking for won't eat it because of issues with texture, ffs!

don't think breadcrumbs are essential

I've been surprised at how different cheeses result in very different outcomes, but I've like all of them

Sometimes i yearn for a toasted crispy french-breadcrumbs layer on my mac n cheese that i haven't had in ages.

Could you do a secret island of breadcrumbs on part of it, just for you?

For my mac and cheese, I use penne for some reason, and I usually make a cheese sauce with sharp cheddar and parmesan and a bit of cayenne. I also wilt down some kale if I have it and put it in. I know that doesn't sound very good but I love it - kale goes really well with cheese, and it cuts through all the richness so you can eat more. I sometimes fry up just a little bit of bacon and add that too; those packages of chopped pancetta from Trader Joe are really handy for that.

Have never thought of kale and cheese before, that sounds interesting

sounds good

really like breadcrumbs, agree they don't have to cover the whole baked dish

When you are cooking for someone with autism with complex texture issues, one fraction of a crumb on their plate is a potential deal killer

I've put kale in my M&C before and it totally works.

my experience is the hard cheeses - cheddar, parmesan, gouda, iberico and manchego - don't melt well, haven't tried goat cheese but can believe it is also not a melting cheese

but most of the soft cheeses do - monterey jack, mozzarella, havarti, st andre, brie, trader joe's triple cream, cowgirl creamery's mt. tam, and any of the other artisan soft cheeses

damn, i think of myself as bougie, but even i am not bougie enough to melt mt. tam into my mac and cheese

That stuff is like $30 a pound!

sorry lol, I bought a small round of Mt. Tam a week ago that cost $17. I served it to a guest and savored the rest for myself, I was just thinking about it

I think there are other soft cheeses that would melt well in a mac and cheese dish

I gotta say, cheddar is traditional and I find that it melts great! (And since I think you need at least a pound and a half of cheese to make mac and cheese, I don't use something super-expensive.)

I've never tried a soft cheese, actually -- I've done a kind of fontina blue cheese combo with some walnuts which was great but almost not mac and cheese anymore?

If you make a white sauce first, the cheddar melts into it fine.

If you are not used to making white sauces, here's how you do it. For every half-cup of milk, use one tablespoon of butter and one tablespoon of flour. Multiply as needed. Cook the butter with the flour over medium heat for a few moments (use a double boiler if you have one), whisk in the milk, keep whisking till thick, add your grated cheeses till it tastes cheesy enough for you, thin it out with more milk if you need to, and add whatever spices you want. Super quick and you don't have to worry about whether your cheese will melt.

I usually use 45g of butter and flour to a pint of milk and add dijon mustard before adding cheese(s) but basically that same process as described above.

And use a nice tall 9 litre pan so when I use the hand whisk it doesn't splash everywhere

I tend not to use blue cheeses in my mac and cheese because the sauce comes away with a green tinge.

A teaspoon of paprika, one of white pepper and a tablespoon of English mustard in the cheese sauce is my preferred combo - gives the sauce an orange cast which I like, being American and raised on Stouffer’s frozen macaroni and cheese. Breadcrumbs on top are a must, and that’s what a toasted bread heel is for. Let it dry out and then pulse it in a mini chopper (I have a Kenwood one) but always add a tablespoon of Parmesan and a piece of cheddar to the crumbs along with a pinch of paprika, salt and white pepper.

Oh, and the seasonings get mixed into the flour so when butter is added, the resulting roux is really orange. Then I begin adding milk and lob mustard in while building the sauce.

It will be like A HUNDRED DEGREES here today and you're making me crave mac'n'cheese, that's a miracle.

Melt all the cheeses, and DEFINITELY add kale, it holds up well to baking temps and is so good as a hint of bitterness. I take the center stems out bc of my own issues with texture and just use the leaf parts.

I've never understood bread crumbs on mac. I think it has to do with not liking to combine two starches? Same with potatoes on pizza or serving bread with a meal that already has a starch course like risotto or potatoes. (I do not get the "bread with everything" ppl at all even when I did eat bread.)

I can see kale working but I’ve not tried it. Peas are where it’s at though, as far as green stuff in macaroni cheese

The crumb crust is a texture and flavour thing - it just looks more appetising. Also seconding peas in cheese.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/WMoHsvoPSSA/hqdefault.jpg

I've never understood bread crumbs on mac. I think it has to do with not liking to combine two starches? Same with potatoes on pizza

I am being 100% serious when I say you should try macaroni and cheese pizza, it's amazing.

If you make a white sauce first, the cheddar melts into it fine.

Yeah I take it as a given that you're making a white sauce, people who make mac and cheese by just melting nude cheese into their macaroni are weird!

this isn't mac'n'cheese but it isn't isn't mac'n'cheese but it is fucking delicious

https://noteatingoutinny.com/2008/11/10/completely-elitist-orechiette-arugula-casserole/

also potatoes on pizza rule but require practice

A potato bake is just a spud pizza without a crust tbf!

YES!

That sounds amazing stevie

It's not a quick recipe and it has numerous methods involved, but it is DELICIOUS and if you squint you can pretend it is healthy.

I don't think I'm physically capable of squinting that hard but it sounds great

I'm anti-cooked peas because they're too sweet and I hate the texture (again), but I stan for bitter & peppery additions like arugula, kale, broccoli, etc. The kale just bakes really well and doesn't get overdone.

I usually mix broccoli with some bigger pasta varieties and some wholegrain mustard in that sauce. Am deffo up for some kale action now!

For some reason I think a dark green like kale, arugula, chard, spinach is amazing in a rich creamy/cheesy sauce but broccoli is just yuck, there's something sulfurous about the way it tastes when hot and creamy.

fab on a white pizza with fennel sausage, tho

Not mac and cheese but my housemate made arugula pesto the other day and it was insanely delicious.

arugula in place of basil, arugula and basil blended together?

thank you al for your descriptions of how to make white sauce for mac and cheese

Arugula in place of basil. I think I like it even better than basil pesto.

I have made kale pesto several times in an attempt to convince myself I like it and nope

arugula has a really good flavor, so I can imagine it would make a good pesto, I will try it

I saw some Thai basil pesto in the store. I should have bought it.

I find arugula incredibly bitter. I wonder if that's similar to some people's aversion to cilantro?

do some people have an aversion to corilantro ? bloody hell, to quote Meades, that sounds about as imaginable as the proposition of the repeat suicide bomber!

if I'm making any kind of curry/chilli/onion bhaji type food and I don't have no fresh coriander. I often cry myself to sleep at how much I've failed in the kitchen.

do some people have an aversion to corilantro?

A number of people genuinely think it tastes like soap! I think it's a genetic thing?

I love coriander but my genetic issue is I literally can never tell if I am buying a bunch of coriander or parsley from the corner shop and always have to ask the guy if I have the right kind.

they do look pretty much look the same. I didn't know that, there is something heavenly about the aroma of fresh coriander to me.

My issue isn't really genetic I am just shit at telling the difference between different smells it seems. But the "coriander=soap" thing is totally a real thing.

I had it for many years but either it's fading or I'm finding dishes where soap is an appropriate flavor.

I once bought parsley thinking it was cilantro/coriander. Now if I'm unsure, I sniff it and there's no mistaking one's scent for the other's.

Yeah, it's a source of constant hilarity to my partner that I cannoy successfully purchase coriander unaided

Let's get back to pesto, I came home from vacay and my basil has gone BONKERS and now I need to use a lot of it, really fast. I tried using an immersion blender last year and I hated the texture. Do I need a mortar to make this really work?

I make a lot of pesto and always cut the basil up with scissors, stalks and all, then use a hand blender when it and all other ingredients are in the bowl. Comes out fine. I also have a 350ml Kenwood blade mixer, and still cut up basil and parsley before putting them in to chop.

I use a food processor. I can see where using an immersion blender would be challenging.

Mortar and pestle is the way to go imo

there is something that scans like missed monetising in late period capitalism about how you can get a decent granite mortar and pestle for like 12 quid or whatever, it will last you a lifetime and looks and feels so great. When do they start charging a hundred quid for them!

when they make ones that will text you

have a marble mortar and pestle, I love it and it wasn’t expensive either, but it doesn't feel big enough to process a significant volume of pesto, so I use a food processor like quincie

I guess arugula can be a little bitter, but it is also nutty and peppery and I can imagine it would be good in pesto

https://food52.com/shop/products/724-natural-stone-mortar-pestle

I meannnnn

I'm here for the mortar and pestle talk (I don't like macaroni & cheese). I thought I read that marble wasn't a good material, but I dunno. What's a good material, and also, what size should I get? I'm cooking more South Asian these days and want to grind my own spice mixes & also make curries.

At present I make pesto in the food processor & it seems good to me.

i think the idea is that crushing bursts more of the plant cells than the shearing you get from a food processor, right? it's just a matter of degrees though, you end up with the same flavor, one's just a bit stronger

I *do* like mac and cheese and I want to make mac and cheese for work lunches next week. show me your best recipes!!

my 4-5" marble mortar and pestle was $25 at sur la table but I think you can get them cheaper. I use it for grinding small quantities of nuts and spices and it works great and is easily cleaned with soap and water.

Since I stopped grinding my own coffee beans I use my coffee grinder for larger quantities of spices, it saves a lot of time