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Last week I had a hankering for some mac 'n' cheese. I didn't feel like going grocery shopping or following some exact recipe, so I pulled stuff together out of the fridge/cabinets and made a version of mac 'n' cheese loosely based off the "recipe" for "What the F*** Ever Brownies" where you take roughly the ingredients needed for a recipe, toss 'em together, and hope for the best.
Ingredients:
1 box pasta (I used quinoa pasta I got from Wegman's)
1/2 bag frozen cauliflower
1/2 bag frozen broccoli florets
3/4 block (what I had left of, I think, and 8oz block) of cheddar cheese, shredded
1 block (8oz?) monterey jack cheese, shredded
1 12oz can evaporated milk
1/4-1/2 cup (heaping palmful) freshly grated parmesan
1/4-1/2 cup (heaping palmful) freshly grated pecorino romano
a few sprinkles of grated nutmeg
a few sprinkles of ground/dried mustard
a few sprinkles of cornstarch
1 egg, beaten
salt to taste
panko/breadcrumbs/crushed ritz crackers if you want to bake it and have it be all crunchy on top
whatever other herbs/spices/flavors you like in your mac 'n' cheese (I know some people like cayenne pepper. I'm not one of those people)
1. Put a pretty decently sized pot of water on the stove to boil. Dump in some salt. Word on the street is that your pasta water should "taste like the sea" (or at least that's what I've picked up from watching Ina Garten/The Barefoot Contessa here and there). When it starts to come to a rolling boil, dump in your pasta, and cook according to the box directions. Right before the pasta was done, I dumped in my frozen veggies to speed-thaw them.
I elected for quinoa pasta, mostly because I was out of whole wheat and this is what I had picked up on a whim from the grocery store.
2. If you're patient enough to wait for it to bake when you're done mixing, now is the time to preheat your oven to 375. If you want stovetop style mac, then you can clearly skip this.
3. While the water is boiling and your pasta is cooking, it's time to get crackin' on your cheese sauce. I decided to make mine sans butter/roux. Take a medium saucepan/pot over medium heat, and pour in your evaporated milk, then sprinkle in some cornstarch. Whisk that in; it should be smooth/lump-free. Sprinkle in the mustard, nutmeg, and any other spices you want. Oh, and add some salt. Whisk some more.
4. Temper your egg so you don't end up with a scrambled-egg-cheese-sauce. Whisk a spoonful of your milk mixture into the eggs to bring the temperature up, and then whisk your egg mixture back into the milk mixture. Seriously, whisk fast.
5. Slowly start adding your shredded cheese, whisking between additions (noticing a theme of whisking yet?). Once all your cheese is in there and melted, your cheese sauce should look smooth and smell delicious. Taste your sauce, then decide if it needs more salt.
I decided to shred my cheese using my Eskimo grater.
6. If you haven't already done so, drain your pasta/veggies and return it to the pot. Dump your cheese sauce on top and mix it all up. If you feel like it, and I did, add some extra parm and pecorino for good measure.
7a. You can feel free to eat it right now for stovetop style. Hooray! If you like baked mac 'n' cheese, skip down to step 7b.
7b. Grease a square baking dish (I used 8x8), and dump in your mac 'n' cheese. Sprinkle some bread/cracker crumbs on top and toss it into your oven for about 20 minutes or until the top is nice and golden brown.
Before the oven
After the oven
8. Let it cool for a sec so you don't burn your tongue. Enjoy!
Clearly this is not award-winning mac 'n' cheese, but it sure gets the job done. Also, make whatever substitutions you want. Plain pasta, whole wheat pasta, brown rice pasta. If you don't like cheddar or jack, use swiss or some other melty cheese. Don't like vegetables? Skip 'em.
I ate this pretty much everyday until it was gone.
Originally posted at my blog My Life on the Side(lines).