When they say necessity is the motherhood of invention, word. Yesterday I decided to make mac n cheese for dinner. While preparing the cheese sauce, the recipe called for milk… I discovered no milk in the fridge… too lazy to run to the store, I improvised and used homemade chicken stock I had in the freezer. Whenever, I buy a rotisserie chicken at Costco, I use the skin and bones to make my stock.
In the South, Cheddar is the basis of most mac n cheese. Because it tends to separate when melted, I like to add either an Alpine-style cheese or a Gouda. Both of these style cheeses are great melters and hold the sauce together. Here’s what I did.
Ingredients: 8 ounces macaroni noodles – you can use any noodle that will trap the cheese sauce Salt to make a salty water for preparing the noodles 1/4 Cup Butter – my “everyday” butter is Kerrygold Sweet Irish Butter 1/4 Flour 1/2 Teaspoon Sea Salt 1/8 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Pepper 1/8 Teaspoon Freshly Ground Nutmeg 2 Cups Homemade Chicken Stock – here’s where I would normally use milk 2 Cups Shredded Sharp Cheddar – I used Cabot 3-Year Reserve Cheddar 2 Cups Mature Gouda
Topping: 1/2 box 34° Poppyseed Crispbread – Crumbled – I used the food processor to pulverize the crisps 2 Tablespoon Kerrygold Butter , melted 1/4 Cup Freshly Grated Parmigiano Reggiano – not the crap with cellulose added…
Preparations:
Boil salty water for noodles; add noodles and cook for about 8 minutes. When noodles are cooked, drain but do not rinse.
While noodles are cooking, melt butter in heavy sauce pan.
Add flour and cook until golden to burn off flour taste – but do not burn.
Add salt, pepper and nutmeg.
Add chicken stock and cook until thick; stirring regularly to keep from burning or becoming lumpy.
Add cheeses and mix until cheese is melted and creamy.
Mix cheese and noodles; pour into greased casserole dish.
Combine crumbled 34° Crisps, Kerrygold Butter and Parmigiano Reggiano and top noodle and cheese mixture.
Bake in 350°F oven for 20 minutes, until bubbling around edges.
Turn oven to broil and broil for 3 – 5 minutes until topping is melted and golden brown.
Let sit 10 minutes before serving.
Enjoy.
Clean-up after yourself or if you’re lucky, The Man will clean up your mess.
Upcoming Cheese, Mead and Wine Pairing Holiday Event at Blue Haven Bee Company in Canon, Georgia. Stay tuned for details. Our August event was a success with more than fifty attending our pairing of five cheeses, two meads, four wines and one honey.
Also, 2018 Cheese Study Group Fund-Raising is about to start. Please read Matt Bellingham’s experiences as a 2017 Scholarship Winner and pledge your donations now to help us send 10 worthy recipients to the 2018 ACS CCP Exam™ and the ACS Conference in Pittsburgh.
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