The Bunny vs. The Blue Box
Puff and I were eating scones and talking about macaroni and cheese earlier, discussing the foul flavor of commercial mac and cheese out of the box, and how we should make a big batch of Joy style baked macaroni and cheese one of these days. Lo and behold, when I went upstairs to go back to work, I discovered this Salon story all about the evils of “Annie’s Homegrown.”
Clearly, it was a sign from the Gods, so I cracked open the Joy and got cooking.
There were a few small obstacles: to start with, I was lacking macaroni, but I did have rotini, a robust noodle that holds up well in baked dishes. I also didn’t have Cheddar cheese, but I did have Emmentaler, so I thought that might suffice. I also modified the Joy recipe a bit…I didn’t add onion or bayleaf, because I didn’t have either ingredient. But that wouldn’t stop me from making excellence happen at home. Oh, no.
So here’s how to make *real* macaroni and cheese, in the oven, which will come out so delicious that you will question why you ever ate Annie’s at all.
Step one: boil pasta. I made an entire box of Barilla rotini. Drain the pasta when it is just al dente.
Step two: melt two tablespoons of butter in a saucepan and add two tablespoons of flour, whisking constantly until it clumps up. Slowly add two cups of milk to this mixture, whisking to keep it evenly textured. Add 1 1/2 cups grated Emmentaler (or cheese of choice) to this mixture. Add salt, pepper, paprika, and nutmeg to taste. Remember…it’s a big dish, so spice it a little more strongly than you like.
Step three: combine the two above ingredients and stir thoroughly. Pour half of this mixture into a greased baking pan…I favor a nice pyrex, because the glass will help you develop a delicious crust. Sprinkle a heaping 1/4 cup of grated cheese on top. Add the rest of the pasta/cheese mixture. Sprinkle another heaping 1/4 cup of cheese over this.
Step four: melt one tablespoon of butter in a heavy pan, and toss with 1/2 cup breadcrumbs to coat. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs over the noodles and cheese, put a few pats of butter on, and slide it, uncovered, into a 350 degree oven, preheated (that’s 176 degrees Celsius to all of my Metric pals). Bake until the breadcrumbs are golden, about 30 minutes.
Allow to sit for five minutes, if you can bear it, before serving/devouring.
My thoughts on this culinary adventure, having never actually made real macaroni and cheese before:
Duh. Why haven’t I been doing this the whole time? I will never be able to go back to the dessicated, acidic, powdery, foul taste of boxed macaroni and cheese, and you shouldn’t either. This process is really pretty easy to follow and yields a delicious and reasonably healthy dish, without too many unwanted additives. If you were hard core, you could get pretty locavore with it too…although if you’re vegan…uh, sorry. I know I try to provide vegan options when I post recipes on here, but today, it ain’t happening.
Yes, oh yes. This might just become comfort foods week, where I tackle such classics as tuna noodle casserole, noodle kaboodle, and noodle kugel. Mmm…delicious.
Note to parents: hey guys, please don’t make your children perform in humiliating videos. It makes me embarassed for them. Otherwise articulate, intelligent children should of course demonstrate the simplicity of making white sauce, so that adults can understand that it is easy to do…but you don’t need to write scripts for them which basically belittle their intelligence. Nice kitchen, by the way.
[macaroni and cheese]
[The Bunny vs. The Blue Box]
Tags: Food