Monday 18 October 2010

Cheesy-licious!


We finally had a wet and dreary day, so I decided to make a baked Macaroni and Cheese. It was a jiff to whip up ... but then, I did kind of cheat. I didn't have enough cheese on hand, so I halved the recipe. And I'm not overly keen on onion, so I opted out of that. It also turned out that there were no bay leaves and no powdered mustard in the house. So I 86'ed the bay leaf idea completely -- and the egg (I was going to attempt to throw in roughly half an egg, but then I saw that I was supposed to "temper" it in and, as I had exactly zero idea as to what that meant, it went too. (I have made plenty of cheese sauces sans egg, so I figured it wasn't going to ruin it). I also neglected to measure the paprika and the salt, I just threw it what looked "about right." When the sauce was basically all compiled, I squirted in some nice old English mustard.

Other than that, I pretty much followed this exactly and, in the end, I think mine looked remarkably like Alton's (for all my waywardness and the fact that it was a bit shorter given the halving and the lack of a smaller pan to cook it in) -- and I am sure it was just as tasty. Yum!


2 comments:

Peter Abbey said...

You do love you some mac and cheese, but that looks like no mac and cheese I've ever seen. Was it crispy? It looks crispy.

Real measurements are a myth anyway I've discovered. Jamie's "splash of olive oil" is generally followed by him pouring half a bottle. Like wise a "pinch of salt", yeah sure if you have fingers like beer cans. Oh and not forgetting Nigella's "knob of butter". Which is normally half a pack of butter whilst she lolls her head and thinks about knob.

Probably.

I love Nigella.

kittycakes said...

mac and cheese is om-nom-nom! :)

it was crispy on account of the panko breadcrumbs scattered on top (after a sousing in melted butter). I think the ratio is a bit off (in spite of halving the crumb mixture) because the mac and cheese itself isn't as tall as it ought to have been in that pan. But the crunchy was good, so it's okay.

I love Nigella too. Who doesn't? I think you may have called her a "curvy perv" in one of your blogs. or am I making that up?