Dev loves gouda cheese.
We had a hunk of it in our fridge.
So…I decided to make mac and cheese out of it.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t going by a recipe, so I can’t tell you exactly how I did it. I can give you a blow by blow, but that’s about it.
I started by sauteeing an onion in olive oil and butter (if I had to guess at amounts, I’d say maybe a couple of tablespoons of butter and one tablespoon of olive oil). Oh- and I started boiling the elbow pasta. I boiled about half a pound of pasta for 8 minutes, then drained it.
Back at the cheese sauce…
After the onions had softened (about maybe 5 minutes), I added flour. How much? I have no idea- maybe a quarter cup? I let it cook like a roux for about 5 minutes. I added a little salt and a few drops of hot sauce at this point. I had managed to eek 2 cups of dairy liquid out of my fridge- I had about 1/2 cup of 2% milk, about 1 cup of half and half and maybe 1/2 cup of white wine. I whisked the liquid into the bubbling roux and stirred until it began thickening. While it was thickening, I added a few grates of fresh nutmeg.
When it got nice and thick, I took it off the heat and added about 2 cups of grated cheese. I used about a half a cup of gouda, a cup of cheddar and half a cup of parmesan. I whisked until the sauce was smooth.
I poured the sauce over the pasta and stirred it together. Into a greased casserole dish it went, then I made a topping of breadcrumbs and olive oil and sprinkled that on top.
It hung out in a 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes, until the top was brown and the cheese was all happy and talkative.
I served this with some fish steaks I had in the freezer. The steaks were seasoned with blackening spices and then baked with the casserole for the last 15 minutes.
The fish was not at all photogenic, but the mac and cheese was appropriately gooey looking!
Gouda Mac and Cheese!
March 4, 2008 by mimiwi
Looks good – I made crab/artichoke rangoons for bookclub – I will try to get around to blogging about them soon.
Yum! Now I have a crazy hankering for some mac n’ cheese…
[...] inspired by two very fun bloggers I happen to admire, Chef John at FoodWishes.com and Mimi at 1700 Miles of Cooking. Cheese sauces are a challenge for me. I haven't perfected the balance of a creamy [...]