Yesterday was rest day and I celebrated by making dinner with a friend. Our dinner menu was Mac’n Cheese made with Asiago, Gruyère, White Cheddar, Leeks, and Mushrooms. For veggies, we had honey mustard tofu with kale and butternut squash.
The secret to a gooey and rich mac and cheese is the cheese sauce. This was my first time making mac and cheese from scratch and it’s way more complicated than I thought! While it was a lot of fun, it might be easier to just go downtown to S’Mac and make a large order of mac’n cheese. Making it from scratch does give you the flexibility of using any type of cheese and making a simple mac’n cheese as fancy as you want. Not to mention about two weeks worth of leftovers. This recipe was adopted and slightly altered from Martha Steward’s Living Cookbook.
Not the prettiest picture, but it's the best tasting (and only) mac'n cheese I've ever made.
Cheese mixture
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
5 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 oz Asiago Cheese– coarsely grated (2 cups)
4 oz White Cheddar
4 oz Gruyère
1 pound macaroni pasta
3 leeks
¼ pound Porcini Mushrooms
¼ pound Shitake Mushrooms
For the bread crumbs
1/3 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup finely grated Wisconsin Parmesan
1 tablespoon olive oil
For the pasta
1 lb macaroni pasta
1 tablespoon salt (for the pasta water)
Step 1: Braise leeks and mushrooms
- Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Add the olive oil and leeks. Toss well and sauté for 5 to 6 minutes until leeks have wilted and just begin to take on a golden color, tossing from time to time. Add mushrooms and toss for another 2-3 minutes.
- Add the garlic, salt, black pepper and wine. Quickly toss, reduce heat to medium-low and cover pan.
- Braise leeks for 25 minutes until very tender and all the juices have evaporated (if there is still some liquid in the pan after braising the leeks for 25 minutes, sauté at high heat for 1 to 2 minutes until all juices have evaporated). While the leeks are braising, start on the cheese sauce. When the veggies are done, transfer to a bowl and set aside.
Step 2: Cheese Sauce or béchamel
- Warm milk over stove
- Melt 1 stick of butter over medium heat. Once the butter is slightly bubbling, add the flour and stir. Keep stirring until all the flour is blended.
- Slowly add warm milk into the flour/butter mixture. Keep stirring to keep mixture smooth. Add more milk when mixture starts thickening. Repeat until all the milk has been added in. Keep stirring until mixture starts bubbling and thickens again.
- Add in the grated asiago, gruyère, and white cheddar. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, and veggies. Stir until smooth and set aside.
Step 3: Pasta
- Boil a large pot of salted water
- Undercook pasta by taking 2-4 minutes off the box instructions for boiling pasta. To test if pasta is done, take a piece of pasta and cut it in half. The pasta should still have a white ring inside when they are done.
- Run pasta under cold water and drain pasta in a colander
Step 4: Breadcrumbs
- Combine breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese in a small bowl. Mix well and set aside.
Step 5: Baking
- Combine cheese and veggie mixture with the pasta in baking pan and mix.
- Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture on top.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes until top is golden brown and mixture is bubbling on the edges.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Tomorrow is the first day of my internship. In the past week I’ve gotten my inbox flooded with confusing email with conflicting logistical information about orientation. Hopefully they’re more put together than they seem and this is just a test to see if we’re smart enough to figure it out. But i thought we were done with all that after the interview.
