Couch Cooking: Mac and Cheese and a twist !!

hello 2015!!

The first month is almost over and here I am with my first post of this beautiful year...indication that I have a life after all.

Macaroni and Cheese, an American classic not from a box but using fresh ingredients!!

First the pasta

200 grams elbow pasta (macaroni)
some water to boil it in.

bring 4 cups of water to a boil and add in your pasta. Follow the instructions on the packet for boiling time and reduce the time just a bit so that they don't overcook. Drain and place under cold running water in a colander to stop the cooking process. Keep them aside and start with the sauce.

Bechamel sauce, is a basic sauce of french origin, easy to make and versatile in application.

70 grams of butter
quarter cup plain flour
4 Cups of milk
cheese mixture (I am using cheddar and parmesan )
pinch of salt (to lift the flavours of the cheese)

In a saucepan, on low heat, throw in your butter making sure it doesn't burn. Once it's melted, gently add in the flour, whisking. Once the paste turns golden, add in some simmering warm milk (cold milk will result in a lumpy sauce). Keep over low heat for a while till you have the correct consistency you want. Remove from the heat and add in grated cheese (I find it easy to grate cheese using a potato peeler as there is less wastage and easier for the thin shavings to melt in the sauce.)

Whisk gently till the cheese melts in the hot sauce. Once you have a smooth sauce, add in your pasta to the hot sauce. I totally forgot to take pictures of these steps as I was using one hand to work and another to take pictures!!

Slice up some smoked chicken and fry them in a glug of oil...you can definitely replace this with bacon or even some smoked sausages!!

Give it a rough chop

Serve your mac and cheese with a drizzle of smoked chicken and some shavings of parmesan. If you have an oven, you can bake this dish with some bread crumbs on top, which is common american style of completing this comfort food!!

I, however decided to bake them in spring roll pastry I bought last week which was waiting to be thawed and used in my freezer!!

Pastry
some water or an egg to seal the corners of the pastry while rolling
cold mac and cheese.

Keeping one corner pf the pastry towards you, spoon in some mac and cheese

fold as shown below and seal ussing eggwash or water.

After this step, it will look like an envelope, Give the last corner an eggwash and just roll it away from you to make cute rolls.

These are generally deep fried, but I decided to bake them out of curiosity ,,, gave them each a lavish eggwash (bath more like) and baked them for 15 minutes at 250 degrees, turning them around for good colour as required.

They turned out to be a success... was happy with myself... light crunchy bites with gooey cheesy center... "need to fill these up with bananas and nutella, next time for sure" is what ran through my mind!!