Macaroni and Cheese, Please...

We seem to get together more as a family during the summer months than at any other time. Of course, the grill is our cook-top of choice. Meats go there. Sometimes I’ll throw on several ears of buttered corn, still in their husks. Skewered peppers, pineapple, and onions bring out the best in most any meat they grill alongside. And the aroma! Mmmmm…I’m getting hungry just thinking about them.


I’ll do a cold pasta salad, and a fruit dish. Sometimes it’s enough to serve a big bowl of plain-old potato chips. But, as much as I’d like, I’m never spared lighting the oven. Because in our family, cookouts aren’t complete without baked beans and macaroni and cheese. The meats are interchangeable, the pasta isn’t necessary, and the fruit, as nice as it is, isn’t the focus of anyone’s meal. I can scrimp on the baked beans. I can save a little time by buying a dressed up version in a can and doctoring it in a saucepan.

Macaroni and cheese, though, is a side of a different color.

I have no one to blame, but myself. When my kids were young and their parents poor, boxed macaroni and cheese was just fine. They ate pounds of the stuff, and loved it. As often happens, our taste-buds matured along with our pocketbooks, and I soon found myself using grated cheddar (sharp, only) instead of packages of powdered facsimile.

I started by using my mother’s recipe. She baked marvelous macaroni and cheese using the recipe from her decades-old Betty Crocker cookbook. My sons fell in love at first bite. It’s a good recipe. I used it for years, with good results. Everyone was very happy. We enjoyed a nice, stable relationship. But, as so often happens, one day I woke up wanting something more, something spicy, something new, more joie de vivre!

Enter Alton Brown who, according to my sons, engineered the penultimate macaroni and cheese recipe. They took one bite, and I never looked back. No family dinner is complete without it.

Baked Macaroni and Cheese (courtesy of Alton Brown)

½ lb. elbow macaroni (I’ve used other kinds, especially when my kids were younger, but elbows really are best.)

3 tbl. butter (Have you read the ingredients in margarine?)

3 tbl. flour (Unbleached and organic if possible)

1 tbl. powdered mustard

3 c. milk (We like “Horizon”)

½ c. onion, finely diced (Vidalias only, when in season)

1 bay leaf (makes such a difference!)

½ tsp. paprika

1 large egg (Thank you Pat, Chloe, Sylvia, and Lucy!)

12 oz. sharp cheddar, shredded (2 things: Yes! It does matter if it’s sharp. And, if you don’t measure and end up using a little more, even better…)

1 tsp. kosher salt

Fresh (of course!) black pepper

Topping:

3 tbl. butter

1 c. panko bread crumbs

(Personally, I can do without the topping, but it does make for a pretty dish.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water cook the pasta to al dente. (firm, but not hard)

While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a separate pot. Whisk in flour and mustard, and keep it moving for about 5 minutes, making sure it’s free of lumps. Stir in milk, onion, bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for 10 minutes and remove bay leaf.

Temper in the egg.(slowing add a small amount of hot mixture to egg before adding egg to mix) Stir in ¾ of cheese. Season with salt and pepper. Fold cooked macaroni into the mix and pour into a 2-quart casserole. Top with remaining ¼ of cheese.

Melt butter in sauté pan and toss bread crumbs to coat. Top macaroni with bread crumbs.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Remove and let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

This recipe serves a large family.


© Copyright 2009-2010 Stacye Carroll All Rights Reserved