Mac ‘N’ Cheese
We fancied something a little different for tea and were trawling round the supermarket looking for inspiration. We came across a ‘mac n cheese’ packet mix and my partner expressed interest in getting a few of those for the occasion.
Now I’ve never made mac and cheese before so as ever I jumped at the chance to give it a go myself. Here’s what went down….
Half a bag of macaroni
1 onion
1 clove of garlic
Knob of butter
Spoonful of flour
Around 4 different cheeses* (250g in total)
Cup of milk
Creme freiche
S and P
Cayenne pepper
*Note: There will be a million different recipes online for mac n cheese all telling you that a specific cheese is needed or whatever. Don’t buy into it. Just either use what you have left over in the fridge or do as I did and raid the ‘reduced’ section of the supermarket. You can guarantee there is nearly always a bit of cheese that’s nearly out of date or whatever in there from the deli counter. It’s bucket loads cheaper than getting specific this and that. Sure it will taste different dependant on what cheese you get but get what you like. Just use common sense, theres no point getting a ‘blue cheese’ for example, just because its reduced knowing you don’t like it, that’s just silly.
Method
Boil the pasta till ‘Al dente’ or ‘firm’ then set aside
Fry the onion in the butter till translucent and crush in some garlic when there nearly done.
Stir around for 30sec to a min then add a spoonful of flour and cook out for a few mins to get rid of the raw flour taste
Continue to add the milk and whisk till thickened.
Off the heat add most of the cheese ( I used Irish cheddar, Cheshire and mozzarella cheeses) and carry on whisking in till smooth. Add back to the heat if necessary, this will melt the cheese. Don’t worry if its too thick.
Once combined, add the creme freiche, cayenne pepper and season to taste.
Add the cooked macaroni to the cheesy sauce then mix well and decant into an ovenproof dish.
Grate over the remaining cheese ( I had some Parmigiano regianno in the fridge so I used this instead).
Bake for about 30-40 mins at 175 degrees C or until golden brown on top.
Give it a bit of time on the side out of the oven before serving and enjoy!!!!!
Bishbashbosh 
Now that looks awesome! Any chance you’ve done this with soymilk and vegan cheese?
I don’t see why you couldn’t.. In fact I’m pretty sure it would work. Give it a try and let us know how it goes.. 🙂
Sure will!!
Looks great! 🙂
looks lush, do you think this would work low fat style ie slimming world, what could I use instead quark or fromage frais? and low fat cheese? 🙂
I’m thinking you’d have to count the cheese as your daily sins simply because its a ‘cheese’ based dish. You could fry the onions with fry lite and then cut down some of the cheese too. I actually used low fat creme fraiche anyways so that can be left in. And maybe use whole wheat pasta??
This would defo work with quark I make it all the time u just need to reduce the amount off cheese u use to make it slimming world style.
U can also use fat free nautral yoghurt and it work just as well.
thanks guys X