CHUCKMAN ORIGINAL RECIPE: DELUXE MACARONI AND CHEESE
This has long been one of my signature dishes. Some people actually develop a craving, as for a kind of soul food.
There are two general approaches to macaroni and cheese. One is just cooked macaroni in a Cheddar cheese sauce, often used as a side dish, much like mashed potatoes. Popular in diner-style eating with meat loaf, for example.
The other approach is more elaborate, a loaf-like casserole that is the meal’s featured item. Done well, it has a variety of textures in one dish. It is very satisfying and eye-appealing. This is the one I make.
INGREDIENTS
Decent pinch of Dry Mustard
2 modest splashes of Worcestershire
Sauce
Heavily-reduced Chicken Stock, two standard boxes, reduced
to just a fraction of their volume - this is a key ingredient not usually found
in these sauces. Also, one box of chicken stock not reduced.
Milk
Flour – white and whole wheat both work
Butter
Panko Bread Crumbs
Good Cheddar Cheese, and lots of it.
IMPORTANT NOTE
La sauce, c’est tout, as they say.
While I made this many times, I have not made it in about
five years. I also often made two casseroles at the same time, freezing one (it
freezes well).
I never did make this with measuring, nor did I keep notes.
It was the kind of instinctive, natural cooking used in my Eggplant Parmesan, a
sensational dish and made without measure.
So, bear with me as I write something descriptive and accurate
but inexact.
You might be guided by the following considerations.
If you wind up with too much sauce, there is no problem. It
makes a terrific kind of Welsh Rarebit to be served on toast any time. Fabulous
on fresh, steamed or sautéed Asparagus.
And if you have some of this sauce on hand, you can prepare at
any time some of the simple, side-dish Macaroni just by boiling up pasta and stirring
it into some hot sauce.
Too little sauce simply ruins the dish.
You must judge by appearances as you make this recipe, but
you can’t do that well without adequate material at hand to adjust, and
especially sauce.
So, I’ll be generous with the sauce estimates.
The sauté pan in which I used to make sauce I no longer
have. It was extremely large, far larger than the average sauté pan.
The casserole dishes I used for baking are 8 inches x 10.5 inches
x 3 inches, oval Pyrex. I have also used others. There are no rules.
You start by making a White Sauce, but contrary to popular belief,
you do not need to make a roux. It is indeed better not to do so.
I read from a very famous chef that the best way to approach
White Sauce was to whisk the flour directly into the milk, then pour that
mixture into a pan with heated butter, whisking it, and I have followed his
advice for years.
You will never have lumpy White Sauce this way. It will come
out like silk. The method also allows moderate adjustments in amounts to be
easily made.
To start the sauce, melt some butter or buttery (buttermilk)
margarine in the bottom of a large saucepan, enough to coat the bottom well.
Don’t make the pan very hot.
Pour a half cup of flour into a quart of milk and whisk
together well. Pour into heated pan and whisk. The proportions I’ve given,
flour-to-milk, are too heavy for normal white sauce, but normal white sauce is
not quite what we are making. We are adding a good deal of chicken stock. You
can always add some more milk if it is just too dense, but we do not want a thin
sauce.
Add the box of undiluted chicken stock to the white sauce and
let it all simmer on low heat for ten minutes to reduce starchiness. The
flavoring ingredients are next. Cheese comes last.
Worcestershire, Dry Mustard, Reduced Chicken Stock.
To reduce the chicken stock, just bring it to a gentle boil
in a saucepan and leave it until it is where you want it. This takes a little
while. Keep your eye on it. You want no more than about a fifth of the original
volume from two boxes of stock. Use salted stock. The salting is desirable.
When sauce ingredients are all nicely blended, start adding
cheese. Slice the cheese up so that it dissolves more easily. Keep gently
stirring while dissolving the cheese. Soon, you will have a lovely pool of the
most delicious cheese sauce. You will add a minimum of a pound and a
half of Cheddar. Taste it, see if it needs more cheese because here we are
working with rough estimates.
In a large saucepan, start some water boiling and add the dry
macaroni. Make plenty. I don’t have an amount to give you, but be generous and
learn from your first effort. Stir occasionally. Don’t overcook. The pasta will
become soggy, losing its texture and effectively diluting the sauce. Drain
well.
Reserved cheese is shredded with a grater to use for lining
sides and bottom of casserole dish and covering top of Macaroni.
Prepare the casserole dish or dishes.
Butter all the sides. Sprinkle in grated cheese and Panko
breadcrumbs and swirl around until nicely coated. This is going to form a nice
crust when baked.
The top of the Macaroni gets the same treatment at the end,
only thicker.
Place the dish or dishes on a lined cookie sheet – baking
them this way can prevent a big oven mess
To fill the casserole (remember, we do not want to disturb
coating on sides), start by ladling a modest layer of sauce into bottom of the
dish. Then, ladle a moderately thick layer of pasta evenly over it. Ladle more sauce
on top of the pasta, allowing it to seep down through the pasta. Continue until
you just barely cover the pasta with sauce. Repeat with a new layer on top and
repeat again until you are at the top of the dish.
Now, prepare the top. Dot with tiny dabs of butter and sprinkle
with lots of grated cheese and lots of Panko bread crumbs. Break into a third
pound of cheese, if required. Don’t skimp. Cover the top with foil – not loose,
but snug.
Set cookie sheet and covered casserole into a preheated 350-oven.
Bake for 1 hour. Remove foil and return to baking until the top looks inviting.
Great with coleslaw or any crisp salad.
