Beer & bacon pasta cheese - don't look if you're calorie counting!

Well now, that was a great brainwave, if ever I tasted one.

We were due to have "macaroni cheese" at some point during the week, but although the intent was good, the body was weak and we wound up having pizza instead.  I know, what can you do, eh?  So, inevitably, this gave me time in which to think "Goodness, but this is dull.  What can I do to liven up our standard macaroni cheese recipe?" - which as we all know is sometimes the beginning of the end.

However, in this instance, it worked out brilliantly.

Do you remember my making some beef, ale & cheese soup, way back last year some time?  Well I suddenly remembered this recipe and how well the beer combined with the melted cheese - and it was a short hop from there to combining beer into the cheese sauce for the pasta.

Now I always add bacon to my cheese sauce for a macaroni or pasta cheese, as we're confirmed carnivores who feel a bit short changed if a meal doesn't include meat somewhere along the line.  Plus, bacon goes so well with cheese.  Now, I can confirm that bacon goes very well with an India Pale Ale and cheese, in a sauce.  Oh yes.

Ordinarily, I'd have sweated off an onion and included that, but we had run out of onions owing to the last two having turned to slush when I wasn't looking, so that was a non-starter.  So to include the onion flavour, I rummaged around in the herb cupboard and added a half a teaspoonful of the onion granules that I normally use in barbecue sauces.

As for the healthiness of this dinner, I can quite categorically deny any element of healthiness.  However, as to flavour, well yes it has that in spades.  It also has that soft, warming, filling, comforting thing that anything involving cheese and pasta will deliver - especially on a cold, damp day like today.  Add to all that the bacon - and we all know that a bit of bacon makes everything better - and the crisp, crunchy herby breadcrumbs sprinkled on top and you've got a sure fire winner.

Just don't make this for dinner if you're counting your calories.  Like I am.  ~koff~  Oops.

BEER & BACON PASTA CHEESE   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

1 tsp & 1 tbsp olive oil
12 rashers thick cut smoked back bacon, diced
10g & 20g salted butter
50g dry breadcrumbs
half a tsp dried parsley
half a tsp dried thyme
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp plain flour
350ml India Pale Ale
450ml semi skimmed milk
1 tsp Dijon mustard
half a tsp onion granules
quarter of a tsp freshly grated nutmeg
300g mature cheddar cheese, grated
50g parmesan cheese, grated
40g Leerdammer (or similar) cheese, grated
15g Philadelphia cream cheese
200g pasta - small tubes work well.

Method :

1.  Heat a large frying pan and add the diced bacon.  Fry until the fat has rendered, any water has burned off and the bacon is beginning to turn golden.  Remove the pieces from the pan with a slotted spoon, so as to drain the fat back into the pan and reserve.

2.  Add the breadcrumbs to a bowl and mix in the parsley, thyme and a small pinch of sea salt, along with a good quantity of black pepper.

3.  Melt the 10g of salted butter into the bacon fat and, once melted, add the breadcrumb mixture.  Fry on a moderate heat until the breadcrumbs have taken on the fat and are turning golden.  Do not allow them to burn, so keep them moving.  As soon as they begin to sound sandy and crisp, remove them from the pan.

4.  Take a large saucepan and fill two thirds full with water, which should be brought to a boil and the pasta cooked according to packet instructions.

5.  In a medium non-stick pan, melt the 20g of butter and add the tbsp of olive oil.

6.  Once the butter is melted, add the flour and stir well for 2-3 minutes.

7.  Take the pan off the heat and gradually add the beer, stirring constantly, until you have achieved a smooth textured thick sauce.  Reserve any beer that may be left over.

8.  Swap to adding the milk gradually, returning the pan to a gentle heat to retain the temperature of the contents and stirring very well to prevent the sauce becoming lumpy, until you have a thick coating consistency.  You may not need all the milk, or you may need a little more.

9.  Add a tiny pinch of sea salt, a good quantity of black pepper, the Dijon mustard, onion granules and nutmeg and stir through.

10.  Add all the cheeses and warm through on a gentle heat until they are all melted and combined thoroughly.

11.  Add the cooked bacon and stir through.

11.  Taste and if necessary add a little more pepper - you can add cayenne if you like the heat that it brings.  Add a little of the remaining beer, just to freshen up that beery flavour.

12.  When the pasta is done, drain well and return to the pan.  Pour two thirds of the sauce onto the pasta and quickly stir through.  Serve swiftly into warmed bowls and add a drizzle more sauce over the top.

13.  Sprinkle with the seasoned crispy breadcrumbs.

Serve with garlic bread or a side salad, or just as it is!

Printable version

Macaroni Cheese - the gold standard

You may remember my talking about my Hubby's longing for a macaroni cheese recipe that didn't involve a roux-based sauce.  He had a memory of a macaroni cheese that a friend's wife had made for a dinner party, which he was sure contained wine - and was itching to re-create that.

Well, he'd gone a little way along that route by learning how to make a roux-based sauce, so that at least he understood the process in order to deviate from it.  I detailed his learning process in the blog posting about the Cauliflower Cheese - and indeed it was a beautiful cheese sauce.

Like me, he'd scoured the internet and my recipe books, looking for a recipe that satisfied all his criteria, but without success.  So he took a recipe that was nearest to what he wanted, and adapted it with the best bits from several other recipes.

I can confirm that the Macaroni Cheese he came up with was quite categorically the best Macaroni Cheese I have ever tasted - and was perfectly able to see it on a dinner party menu.  Macaroni Cheese isn't the first thing you'd think of for a dinner party, but this one is quite simply the Gold Standard for Macaroni Cheeses.

The cheese sauce was made more in the style of a fondue, rather than a cheese sauce.  As such, it contained the desired white wine, simply loads of cheese (cheddar and gruyere) along with cream and milk.

As if that wasn't enough, the whole dish was sprinkled with a mixture of buttered breadcrumbs, herbs, parmesan and salt which gave it a lightness of texture and a simple delicious crunch.

It's not the cheapest Macaroni Cheese in the world - but I'd go so far as to say that it is certainly the best I've ever had!

3 January 2018

I've just made a version of this macaroni cheese - following the recipe apart from three differences.  I used The Black Farmer's Sweet Mature Cheddar and a ball of Mozzarella in the cheese sauce - which were both SUCH a success.  The cheddar is truly packed full of gorgeous flavours and the mozzarella, well, mozzarella makes any cheesy thing wonderful.  The last difference was that I skipped the breadcrumb and baking part completely.  Did we mind?  Not one bit.  Here's how it looked.  SO yum.  

MACARONI CHEESE  (feeds 4-5)

Ingredients :

225g macaroni pasta
5-6 rashers lean unsmoked streaky bacon
3 tbsp butter, plus a little for the breadcrumbs
3-4 small shallots, chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
150ml white wine
100ml whole milk
300ml double cream
115g gruyere cheese, grated
115g mature cheddar cheese, grated
2 tbsp fresh chives, chopped finely
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
pinch of cayenne pepper
pinch of nutmeg
110g crusty breadcrumbs
enough parmesan to grate over.


Method :


1.  Pre-heat oven to 200deg C/180deg C fan/Gas mark 6.


2.  Cook pasta in boiling salted water according to packet directions until tender to the bite.  Drain well, but do not rinse.


3.  In a large frying pan over a medium to high heat, melt the butter and add the bacon.  Fry until fat is rendered and just beginning to turn crusty around the edges.  Add the shallots and cook until golden, approx 3 minutes.


4.  Sprinkle mixture with flour and cook, stirring all the time, for around a minute.  Add the wine and stir, then the milk, still stirring, making sure to collect all the flavour from the bottom of the pan.  Add the cream and continue to stir.  Sprinkle in the cheeses, a handful at a time, continuing to stir until each handful is melted before adding the next.

5.  Stir in 2 tbsp chives, mustard, a pinch of salt, the cayenne and nutmeg.  Add the pasta to the sauce and stir lightly to combine.

6.  Add to a baking dish.

7.  To make the breadcrumb mixture, (which can be made ahead of time), in a food processor pulse the breadcrumbs with one and a half tbsp of butter, 1 tsp chives, grated parmesan and a pinch of salt, until mixed.

8.  Sprinkle over the pasta and bake until the top is browned and the cheese sauce is bubbling, around 15-20 minutes.

Serve.
 
.

This coming week's meals - better late than never.

When I left you last, I believe it was Sunday and we'd just had a lovely Gammon pot roast.

Well, I sort of fell apart over Sunday evening and on into Monday morning, in that the sudden attack of "meh!" that had got me earlier in the week turned into stomach pain and an overwhelming desire to vomit.  Not good.  So not good, in fact, that I didn't go to work on Monday.  Bringing a sickness bug to a Hotel is not a good idea.  As it was, after I'd taken son to school and crawled back into my bed for another hour or so's nap, I took some Milk of Magnesia and almost immediately began to feel better.  After a couple of hours, I could even face a scrambled egg - and so began the climb back to the pathetic level of health that I attempt to maintain.  I'm still not quite right - I couldn't face a curry quite yet - but with some skillful  planning, I'll get there.

So, Monday's lovely prawn risotto that Hubby had planned had to be jettisoned in favour of plain old grilled sausages with vegetables and gravy.  The boys, of course, had waffles and baked beans - but I couldn't face the idea of a greasy waffle.  I opted for a medley of fresh vegetables (leftover bits from the weekend, in fact) which sat a lot more easily in my stomach!

Tuesday is the first day of our new week and, because I was still feeling a tad delicate in the tummy department, I was luckily able to plan accordingly.  So, we had a lovely Macaroni Cheese.  We should have had salad, but again, salad was a bit of a stretch for me so we opted for some garlic bread.

My Macaroni Cheese is made with mature cheddar, onion, streaky bacon, English mustard and cayenne pepper.  Now you would think that the cheese would be too heavy, or the pasta, or the bacon - but no.  Nor is the mustard or the cayenne too much.   On the schedule of "things to eat to make you feel better" - a.k.a. "comfort food" - I think you'll find that Macaroni Cheese (or Spirali Pasta Cheese, as this one was!) is around no. 2, with Shepherd's Pie at no.1.

I did manage to get out to the supermarket on Tuesday, so we are all geared up for this week's meals.

Wednesday (or tonight, as I write this), we had something we haven't been able to have for over a year.  A classic old English Beef Stew, with dumplings.  In the past, stewing beef has always come in as too expensive for us.  However, with the supermarket's special offer help, I picked up some lovely shin of beef.  I made some Parsley dumplings - with fresh Parsley - which were delightful and took the place of potato (you will recall Hubby's strange antipathy towards the humble spud) admirably.

Thursday is the night that the Prawn & Little Gem Risotto makes a comeback - and hooray for it!  I'm really looking forward to trying this - and the wait has made it all the sweeter.

Friday and we're having a blast from the past - Kedgeree.  Now I love kedgeree and it's something I've made for years, perfecting the recipe as I've gone along until we've now got a deliciously dry, spicy confection of smoked haddock, hard boiled eggs, curry and rice.  Personally, I prefer to eat it with a side salad dressed with lemon juice and olive oil - but it would seem I'm alone in that!  That's okay, however, because I can soon rustle up a little salad just for me.  Yum!

Saturday needs to be an easy meal that can be eaten whilst watching t.v.  So this Saturday - thanks to Sainsbury's marked down Springform tins - we're having an old favourite which is "Bacon & Blue Cheese Filo Pie" with salad.

We'd stopped having this one for two reasons.  Firstly, my old Springform tin fell apart and secondly, son demonstrated an allergic reaction to blue cheese.  However, this time I'll prepare the pie with a blue cheese free quarter - and have the antihistamine to hand, just in case!  It's a lovely recipe, using layered filo sheets into which you put a mixture of cream cheese, beaten eggs, ham, rocket and pine nuts.  You then sprinkle over some crushed up blue cheese (I usually use Stilton), then fold the filo in to make a crust and bake.  Gorgeous with salad.

Now, Sunday is very exciting.  We're going over to New Milton to see my Parents and they've offered to take us out for lunch at the Fisherman's Haunt in Winkton.  I've had a peek at their menus and everything looks very tempting - so I expect a review will be forthcoming, in due course!

Not one of our Cottage Pies - but it looks nice,
all the same!

Owing again to the supermarket having some very affordable lamb mince, Monday is looking like Shepherd's Pie day.  Lovely!  Hubby is in the kitchen that day - and he makes an amazing Shepherd's Pie.  It will be extra-nice to have a proper Shepherd's pie, rather than the beef version - Cottage Pie.  So, if I'm not fully recovered by Sunday - I certainly will be, by Tuesday morning!  Shepherd's Pie is akin to medicine, in our house!

Lastly - I'd just like to know whether this qualifies me as a real cook.

Circled - just in case you missed it.  :)

I burned my hand on the cooker shelf when I was retrieving the roast potatoes on Sunday.  Yes, I know it's not a BAD burn - but I'm wearing it like a badge, that says "I cook!".  *smile*

Macaroni Cheese and a lovely salad dressing!

This evening's dinner was a real treat.  We don't have it often because of the calories involved - but as we're all cheesehounds, it always goes down very well.

I had a bit of a challenge with this one, as hubby had declared that he hadn't really enjoyed my previous incarnations of Macaroni Cheese, so I was determined to do the best I could with this one.  I knew I had to make sure the Macaroni was cooked just that tad past al dente, the sauce was suitably cheesy, you could just taste the English mustard, and that the sauce was sufficient from a quantity point of view.  But then, a dry Macaroni Cheese is no fun for anyone.

MACARONI CHEESE (serves 4-5)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp butter
350g macaroni
half a pack of smoked streaky bacon, diced
1 onion, diced fine
1 garlic clove, finely grated
2 tsp English mustard powder
3 tbsp plain flour
500ml whole milk (and a bit extra, in case of need)
250g mature cheddar, grated
10 g parmesan, grated
50g breadcrumbs.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 190deg C (fan).  Boil the pasta for 2 mins less than stated on the pack.

2.  Meanwhile, cook the bacon and set aside.  Then add the onions to the fat left by the bacon and fry gently - without colouring - until they are soft.

3.  Grate in the garlic clove and cook for 1 minute more.

4.  Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute, then gradually whisk in the  milk until you have a lump-free sauce.  Add the mustard and whisk in, along with some black pepper.

5.  Simmer for 5 mins, whisking constantly until thickened.  Take care that it doesn't begin to burn on the bottom of the pan.

6.  Remove from the heat and add the cheese, stir until it is melted, then add the bacon and stir in.  Taste to check the seasoning.

7.  Stir in the drained pasta, then decant into a large casserole dish and scatter over the breadcrumbs.

8.  Place into the oven and bake for 20-30 mins until crisp, golden and bubbling at the edges.

From a personal point of view, I enjoy a side salad with my Macaroni Cheese as I find the pasta itself can get a bit samey towards the end, plus the cheese sauce can get a bit much without a flavour to counter its richness.

So I decided upon a small mixed salad with a honey & mustard dressing.  The dressing I made from scratch, using :

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
half a tsp of whole grain mustard
1 tsp of runny honey
salt & pepper

I just put them all in a cup and whipped them up with a fork.  It was the kind of dressing that I could easily eat by the spoonful without any salad and I was correct in my thought that it would complement the main dish.  It did so very well indeed.