Vegged Out Macaroni Cheese

 

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

 

Macaroni Cheese is one of those comfort foods that I really love, but I don’t make it very often as it can take a long time to make from scratch – this took me about 1½ hours!  But it was a labour of love that was really worth it, as all the veggies made it really tasty and slightly healthy to offset all that cheese!

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

I actually halved the amount of cheese that the original recipe suggested, as 400g seemed really excessive! The addition of all the veggies adds a lot of flavour, so you really don’t need loads of cheese. I also changed/omitted some of the veggies to suit what I had in the fridge. I also used Panko breadcrumbs instead of fresh, as that is what I had to hand.

 

TASTE TEST:

Steve wasn’t sure if he liked the breadcrumbs, as it reminded him too much of fish pie, which he isn’t keen on. But he said he wouldn’t have known they were breadcrumbs if I hadn’t told him – he thought it was just crispy golden cheese. But I liked the breadcrumbs on top, as they gave the topping a nice contrasting texture. Steve said this was the best macaroni cheese I’ve ever made and he literally licked his plate clean!

 

• Serves: 4
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• You will need: a large ovenproof dish, lightly oiled

 

Ingredients:

• 400g macaroni
• 150g streaky bacon, thinly sliced (I used a small packet of pancetta cubes)
• 1 leek, white part only, finely sliced (I used 1 medium onion, finely chopped)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and diced (I used small orange peppers)
• 150g broccoli florets (I omitted this because I couldn’t be bothered to chop it up!)
• 110g frozen peas
• 100g tinned sweetcorn, drained (I used a whole small tin)
• 60g butter
• 60g plain flour
• 600ml cold semi-skimmed milk
• 2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 400g mixture of mature cheddar, red Gloucester and Cheshire cheeses, grated (I used 200g mixture mature and mild cheddar cheeses)
• 3 Tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs (I used Panko instead)

 

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
2. Bring a large pan of salted water to a rolling boil. Add the macaroni and cook according to the pack instructions until al dente (my pack said 13 minutes, so I cooked for 8 minutes). Drain well and run under cold water. Place in a large bowl and set aside.
3. Meanwhile, in a frying pan cook the bacon/pancetta in ½ Tablespoon olive oil until crisp and golden, then remove from the pan and set aside. Add the sliced leek/onion to the pan without adding any extra fat and cook over a medium heat, until very soft. Add the garlic and red pepper and cook for 3-4 minutes until softened, then throw in the broccoli (if using) and peas. Add a splash of water and cook for 1-2 minutes until the broccoli is still a little crunchy and the peas are just tender. Transfer to the bowl with the macaroni in, mix in the sweetcorn and set aside.
4. Make the cheese sauce: place the butter, flour and cold milk in a saucepan and bring to the boil whisking. Reduce the heat and simmer until thickened, whisking all the time. Once thickened, cook for 2 minutes. Reduce the heat and stir in the mustard and ¾ of the cheese. Stir until the cheese has melted and the sauce is smooth.
5. Pour the cheese sauce over the macaroni and vegetable mixture and give everything a good stir, then spoon into a large ovenproof dish. Mix the remaining cheese with the breadcrumbs, sprinkle over the top of the pasta and bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and bubbling.

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• The recipe said you can freeze this dish, so I froze half of it without any cheese or breadcrumbs on top. Apparently you can freeze for up to 1 month – we shall see if it tastes just as good once defrosted and reheated! To reheat: bake at Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C for 40-50 minutes.
• This can obviously be made vegetarian by omitting the bacon/pancetta.

 

Chicken Tikka Shashlik

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

I first came across Shashlik when Steve had a Chicken Tikka Shashlik Masala Curry in a curry house a few years ago. It’s not a dish that I’ve seen on any other Indian restaurant menu. This is basically the same thing without the masala sauce.

Shashlik is essentially meat on a stick. Apparently it originally comes from central Asia, but there are versions from Russia, Turkey and Pakistan.
Pieces of lamb or chicken are marinated in spices and either oil and lemon juice or in this case yoghurt. The meat is then threaded onto skewers with pieces of onion, green pepper and tomato and traditionally cooked in a tandoor or over a charcoal grill. I had to settle for under the grill.

The chicken was really nicely cooked and the marinade gave it loads of flavour and kept it moist. The vegetables became quite nice and charred, but Steve said it wasn’t quite the same as in the restaurant. I think the grill struggled to get hot enough.

Overall, Shashlik is a healthier way to have curry as it’s not laden with lots of cream or ghee, plus it’s grilled. I served it with rice, but I think it would actually be much better stuffed into a soft naan bread and slathered with loads of mayonnaise. Hey, I never said I was on a diet!

• Serves: 2
• You will need: 8 bamboo skewers, soaked in water

Ingredients:

• 4 chicken thighs, deboned and cut into large chunks
• 2 Tablespoons curry paste (I used Korma)
• 2 Tablespoons natural yoghurt
• ½ onion, cut into wedges and layers separated
• ½ green pepper, cut into chunks
• 2 tomatoes, cut into wedges

Directions:

1. In a large bowl mix the chicken, curry paste and yoghurt. Cover tightly (unless you want to stink out your whole fridge) and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours to marinate.
2. Preheat your grill to high.
3. Thread pieces of chicken, onion, pepper and tomato onto your skewers, leaving a gap at the end so you can turn them.
4. Cover a baking tray with foil (this will save on washing up) and place your kebabs on the tray and season with a little salt and pepper.
5. Cook under the grill for 15-20 minutes, turning occasionally until the chicken is cooked and the vegetables are nicely charred.

COOK’S NOTES:

• If using lamb or chicken breast instead of thighs, then they should only take about 10-12 minutes to cook.

Trout Kiev and Pilaf Rice

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I saw Simon Rimmer make a Salmon Kiev on Something for the Weekend last Saturday and I thought it looked quite good. We had a huge trout fillet in the freezer, so I thought that would be a good substitute. It did work quite well, however the trout was quite soft and flaky, so it was a bit difficult to cut pockets to stuff with the garlic butter. But it tasted really good, even though I didn’t follow Simon’s recipe at all and just did my own thing! Steve ate his with Salad Cream (which he puts on everything!) and I tried it and it was actually really nice. It gave the fried fish that acidity to cut through the grease, a bit like tartare sauce.

I served it with Pilaf Rice, using Alton Brown’s fool-proof method (I have tried Paul Merrett’s recipe for Emergency Biryani which uses a similar method and it was a disaster!) but I added some mushrooms, red pepper and roasted squash before adding the rice to the pan. The vegetables did release some moisture, so next time I would add a bit less stock, probably 25ml less.

I made the rice first, then whilst it was in the oven I prepared the trout. Then when the rice came out of the oven to rest, I cranked up the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C and put the trout in for about 5 minutes.

• Serves: 2

Rice Pilaf Ingredients:

• 1 Tbsp oil
• 1/2 medium onion, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 red pepper, chopped into 1cm pieces
• handful of mushrooms, sliced
• handful of roasted butternut squash chunks
• 1 cup rice (I used long grain jasmine rice)
• 1 1/2 cups (350-375ml) stock (use the lower amount if using watery vegetables like mushrooms)

Rice Pilaf Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/350°F/180°C.
2. Heat the oil and sweat the onion and garlic until softened over a low heat, don't allow to brown.
3. Add the mushrooms, peppers and squash and fry until softened.
4. Add the rice and gently fry until it smells 'nutty', about 2-3 minutes.
5. Add the stock, stir once and bring to a boil.
6. Cover the saucepan with the damp tea-towel (it must be damp otherwise you might set it on fire!) and clamp on the lid. Fold up the corners of the tea-towel over the lid so that it's not hanging loose. You can also use greaseproof paper.
7. Put the saucepan in the preheated oven and cook for 15 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and leave for 10-15 minutes with the lid still on, as during this time the rice is still cooking and absorbing the liquid.

Trout Kiev Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 Tbsp fresh thyme, leaves picked (I used lemon thyme)
• 2 large thick trout fillets
• 2 Tbsps plain flour
• 1 free-range egg, beaten
• 4 big handfuls of panko breadcrumbs
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 3-4 Tbsp vegetable oil

Trout Kiev Directions:

1. Put the butter, garlic, thyme leaves and some black pepper in a small bowl and mash together with a fork until well combined.
2. Turn out the mixture onto a sheet of cling film and roll it into a cylinder. Chill in the freezer for five minutes.
3. Using a sharp knife, make a deep slit into the side of each trout fillet to form a pocket (or lots of little pockets if one large pocket is not possible).
4. When the butter mixture has chilled, slice it into 3mm discs and insert them into each of the pockets in the trout.
5. Sprinkle the flour onto a plate and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Beat the egg in a shallow dish. Mix together the breadcrumbs on a separate plate. Dredge each stuffed fish fillet first in the flour, then dip it in the beaten egg, then roll it in the breadcrumbs mixture until completely coated.
6. Heat the oil in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium to high heat. Add the coated trout fillets and fry for 2-3 minutes on each side, or until the breadcrumb coating is crisp and golden-brown.
7. Transfer the trout to the oven now turned up to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C and cook for a further 5 minutes, or until cooked through. (NB: The fish is cooked through when the flesh is opaque.)