I Feel the Need...

... the need for CHEEEEEEEEEEEEESE!

I shall start by confessing that the idea for this blog was hatched in my head yesterday morning, but now I'm not really in a cheerful and chatty mood because one of my beloved furry kitty children is missing. He didn't come home last night and based on his normal behaviour, that means that something is deeply wrong. I'm staying hopeful that he will come home, but in the meantime, you can imagine that I'm in a really heart sore state. It's times like these though that the subject of my blog can be eerily accurate.

You see, when you're sad or miserable or even just had a crappy day, there is nothing quite like a bit of comfort food and if you were raised in the Western World, a "go to" comfort food is Mac & Cheese! I mean, if you live in India, it'll most likely be something else (most likely involving curry) and in the rain forests of the Amazon it may be bat or bug, but for most of us... mac & cheese! Now, there are many perfectly good "cheats" out there... microwave meals that will get you comfort in mere minutes, but if you have the time... I highly recommend making this one from scratch. Yeah, I know... I'm confusing you all, but I said you could cheat, I didn't say you always should :-)

Now... I'm not going to tell you how to boil pasta. At least, not today. I'm fairly sure that there's an entire blog in that one! So - suffice it to say that you should boil pasta and don't underestimate things and only cook a small amount... you're going to want a second helping (and possibly a third!). So while the past is cooking you need to gather your cheeses of choice. I say "cheeses" because although this can be made with just one cheese - a strong cheddar for example - it is far more fun to play with the flavour and use more than one. I confess (reference store cupboard cooking) that I don't keep varieties of cheese in my fridge, so I bought some specially. I can't really afford some of the more exotic cheeses, but you should experiment with your favourites and try some new flavours and you could be very surprised at the result. I already had cheddar (the big red thing), so I bought some mozzarella (the pale stuff) and a teeny tiny bit of blue. It's pre-packed small like that for lunchboxes and picnics, but works just as well for only needing a tiny bit for cooking :-). NOT pictured is the cream cheese. He was particularly shy and lurked out of camera shot... mostly because he was too heavily branded to appear in the shot!

Now you start your sauce by making a basic roux. What? No. Not a baby kangaroo.... Unless you are a kangaroo yourself and are married to a kangaroo, there is no way you could make a baby kangaroo. And certainly not in your kitchen... with cheese. NO - I will NOT entertain the idea of a turkey baster.... Do you mind if I climb out of the hole of kangaroo genetics and head back to the kitchen? Oh thank you. So as I was saying... you start with a roux. This is flour and butter (or marg or oil). Melt the butter in a pot and stir in some flour until you have a thick paste. Now start adding milk to the mix until your paste has become a thick sauce. Now, you add your grated cheese while keeping the mix on a low heat and stirring continuously. I used about 200g of plain cream cheese to add some richness, about 10g of blue cheese to add a bit of tang and "lots" of cheddar and mozzarella. For the quantity I was making, I also added 1.5 - 2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard as well as black pepper and salt to taste.

By now, your pasta should be cooked (but if not, it's not serious... just wait for it to get done). Drain it and then stir the sauce into the pasta (not the other way around, just in case you have too much sauce and not enough pasta lol). Then transfer this to your ovenproof dish of choice, coat liberally with cheese and oven bake for 20 - 40 minutes or until the cheese is a bubbly golden brown.

Now - there are some fun things you can add to this dish. You can fry up some chopped up onions and bacon and mushrooms and stir that into the mix. You could add just about anything to the dish to turn it into a solid and filling meal. Personally though I think that it's good just the way it is.

Unfortunately, it was sooooo good, that it's all gone now. I had some and shared some with my folks and I have to confess that I definitely didn't make enough :-) So. As I don't have any comfort food here to see me through my worry, I'll settle instead for a cup of hot chocolate drunk next to a crackling fire!

Until next time...