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.

 

Epsom Farmers Market: Corn on the cob, Rabbit and Parmesan Cheese

Today Steve and I went to the Farmers Market in Epsom as I love going to food markets. The market is on the 1st Sunday of every month. It’s quite a small market, with maybe around 20 stalls. The majority of stalls sell meat and you can pick up the more unusual cuts and types of meat that supermarkets don’t have. For example, we bought a whole rabbit for £5, which I’m excited about cooking as I’ve never tried it before. I’m going to make Stifado (Greek stew) as Steve’s sister bought us a seasoning pack on her last holiday to Halkidiki.

There were other stalls selling cheese, fruit and vegetables, bread and cakes, honey, eggs and olives. Most of the stalls had taster samples, so we tried some South African sausages (which were nice) and some bacon (which was not so nice!).

I bought some hard Italian type cheese which is like Parmesan, so hopefully that will be nice as it cost £3.50 for 200g. I’ve just checked the name of the cheese and it’s called Twineham Grange Farmers’ Hand and it’s made by Bookhams Fine Food in Sussex. It was mentioned on the Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain when they visited East Sussex. On the show the makers said they’re not allowed to call it Parmesan, so they called it Farmers’ Hand because if you say it quickly it sounds like Parmesan! But they’re rebranding it now to “Not Just A Pasta Cheese” to encourage people to eat it in various ways. Apparently it’s sweeter and more palatable than real Parmesan, but I will be first trying it in a Spaghetti Carbonara, so we shall see!
Update on the cheese – I’ve tried it in a risotto, cauliflower cheese and dauphinois potatoes and it’s just as good as real Parmesan!

Anyway, I bought a bag of carrots for £1, 3 leeks for £1 and 4 corn on the cobs for £1.

I didn’t get to pick my own corn, so I ended up getting a mixed bag of different shapes and sizes. Two of them weren’t fully grown and the biggest one had deformed looking kernels. There was only one that looked ‘supermarket worthy’, but would it taste any better than the ugly ones?


Well I have to say that they all tasted pretty much the same. They were nice and sweet, probably due to being picked recently. It was quite satisfying removing the husks and silks just before cooking. I placed them in a pan and covered with cold water (I didn’t add salt as this makes the corn tough). I brought the water to the boil, then boiled them for 5 minutes, until it was easy to remove a kernel from the end. Then simply smother with butter and a good grinding of black pepper and enjoy!

The Farmers Market in Epsom is on the First Sunday of every month. Opening hours: Sun 9am-1.30pm

Potato Galette & Sweetcorn Succotash

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

I bought some frozen ready-marinated Mahi-Mahi (similar to swordfish) from the supermarket so all I had to do was pop it in the oven to cook. This meant I could turn all my attention to the side dishes.

I knew I wanted to serve potatoes with the fish but I wanted to try something new. I knew I would already have the oven on to cook the fish so that narrowed down my cooking method and I knew I wanted to achieve something with a crispy texture to counter-balance the fish. Somehow the idea of a Potato Galette came into my head even though I've never made it before. After a quick search on Google I discovered there are a variety of ways to make this dish, so I went with what sounded best.

I've been wanting to make Sweetcorn Succotash ever since we went to The Cheesecake Factory (TCF) and I tried it for the first time. To be honest, before that meal I didn't know Succotash was an actual dish, I just thought it was part of a catchphrase by Sylvester The Cat! I couldn't find a definitive recipe on Google, it seems to be one of those dishes which is open to interpretation, so I made up my own recipe based on what I remembered of my TCF experience.

POTATO GALETTE

• Serves 2
• Oven Temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• Cooking Time: 25 minutes
• You will need: A mandolin or a box grater, small baking pan

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 white potatoes (Russet or Maris Piper are good for this), peeled
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Some Italian seasoning or other type of mixed seasoning (optional)
• 2 handfuls of grated cheese (I used a bag of Quattro Formaggio which had Parmesan, Asiago, Fontina and Mild Provolone)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
2. Slice your potatoes as thinly as possible, preferably with a mandolin. But if you haven't got one then I found that the wide slicing blade on a box grater works really well. To make it easier, lay the grater flat on a board with the slicing blade facing upwards and then push the potato away from you as you slice them.
3. Put the tablespoon of olive oil in a large bowl and add salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Add the sliced potatoes and toss in the olive oil until evenly coated.
4. Starting from the middle, arrange your potatoes in the dish so that they are overlapping and the bottom is completely covered.
5. Sprinkle on half of the cheese.
6. Arrange another layer of potatoes on top and then sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.
7. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the potatoes feel tender when you insert a fork.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes (perfect timing for me to cook the fish which takes 12 minutes!)

For convenience I used the 9" round silicone pan that I use to bake cakes. It gave a good result and was very easy to clean afterwards, however next time I would put a disc of foil at the bottom to give it a crispier bottom. Alternatively you could use a metal cake tin or simply arrange your potatoes in a circle shape on a metal baking sheet.
Of course you can use a much smaller dish but you will have more layers and your Galette is going to be much thicker, therefore it may take twice as long to cook.

SWEETCORN SUCCOTASH

• Serves 2
• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Cooking Time: 15 minutes
• You will need: A medium saucepan

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed, grated or finely chopped
• 1/2 red pepper (bell pepper), diced
• Approx. 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
• 1 432g/15.25oz tin whole kernel sweetcorn, drained
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup chicken stock

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in your saucepan, add the onion and gently saute until softened and slightly golden.
2. Add the garlic and cook gently for another minute.
3. Add the red pepper and cook until softened.
4. Add the chilli flakes and then stir in the sweetcorn.
5. Add the chicken stock and simmer until it has reduced and evaporated away.
6. It is now ready to serve.

Sweetcorn cakes

Just made these for lunch as had some leftover tinned sweetcorn. I used Bill Granger's recipe and added some extra ingredients for flavour.

Makes: 8 mini cakes to serve 2 for lunch/snack
You will need: mini chopper/food processor

Ingredients:
Small tin sweetcorn (198g)
2 tablespoons plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 large egg

Added extras:
1/2 spring onion roughly chopped
1 small orange pepper roughly chopped
small pinch chilli flakes
dash worcester sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Put the chopped spring onion, 3/4 of the sweetcorn and 1/2 the pepper into a mini chopper/food processor and whizz for a few seconds.
2. Add the flour, baking powder, chilli and worcester sauce and whizz again.
3. Add the egg and whizz until combined.
4. Stir in the remaining sweetcorn and pepper and season with salt and pepper.
5. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan or wok and drop in tablespoons of the mixture.
6. Fry for a couple of minutes on each side until nicely golden brown.