Now Mac and Cheese welcome to Steve's kitchen by the way I asked a few days ago
what would be the best mac and cheese for you. Now if you don't follow me on
Facebook or Google+
get across there and like the pages so you'd get that sort of information
and get involved in the community the feedback I'm getting and I totally agree
with
is mac and cheese should be not too dry it should have that love the elastic cheese in
there
and it should be not too stodgy and floury
absolutely agree 100 percent now in order to make that stringyness
you want a good mozzarella this is an Australian made mozzarella cheese
and something a little sharper to add some flavor I've got a good quality cheddar
here as well
now for the topping I'm going to be putting a nice bread crumb but we going to be using
also a smoked pancetta
to get all that flavor in the topping come on
let's get and make the best Mac N Cheese you ever had
let's go
The first thing we want to do is get a pot of water on the stove and bring it
up to a boil but you need to season that water
now with pasta it's important to put plenty of salt
into the water if you don't and don't forget this is not going to absorb
into the pasta but it will flavor the pasta so make sure your water is
well-seasoned
when the water comes up to the boil like that we are going to add two and a half cups
that's about 250 grams or 8 ounces
of macaroni we'll just bring that up to a simmer and we're going to cook that for
about six minutes a little bit undercooked I want it because it's going to
bake in the oven
and when that's cook we're going to drain the water off I'm going to pop it into a
baking dish like this
but now let's get on and make our macaroni cheese sauce
now one of the things people say to me is the sauce gets too floury
we do need some flour in our bechamel sauce or our white sauce
we're going to put about 30 grams that's about one ounce of salted butter
and I'm also going to put about 30 grams one ounce of all-purpose flour
now we don't want the floury flavor in our sauce so we need to take this over to the stove
want to cook this through so the flour changes its flavor
so by heating that butter and flour on the stove we can cook off that unwanted
flour taste
now as the butter and flour melt down in the pot like this
I'm actually looking for a little change in color slight golden brown to the
flour
now quickly while that flour and butter is cooking there
this pancetta is smoked it's absolutely delicious and I'm going to be using a
little bit of this
to flavor my white sauce so I'm just cutting a piece off
I'm probably going to use about an ounce again cut into small cubes
now my butter and flour have been cooking for a couple of minutes there
I'm going to add my pancetta in there and start to cook that through and let the
oils release from the pancetta you don't have to use pancetta but
if you haven't maybe use a bacon of some sort now the pancetta has started to
release its flavors
I'm just going to season this with a little bit of salt and a little bit of black
pepper
and next we're going to take a splash of cold milk now I've got a whisk here as well
I want to add the milk a little bit at a time and just
whisk and you'll notice that it gets very thick
and we just keep adding a little bit of milk bring it back up to temperature
and whisk in until we get a lovely thick sauce now I've added about 3 cups
that's about 750 mls
of milk into this and I've bought it up to the boil each time so I've got a lovely rich
thick sauce now we have to add our cheese
Now if you you taste that sauce now its going to taste great just as it is but we've got
to add cheese into it this after all
is a mac and cheese I'm going to use about a pound 450 grams of mozzarella
as I want that lovely stringingness and then I'm going to use about half of that
of a sharp cheddar this cheddar is a delicious Australian cheddar
it's really sharp and we don't need to grate it you can just take the cheeses
and cut them up into small blocks they'll melt pretty quickly
in that hot sauce so back over at the stove I've got my mozzarella
I know this is a lot of cheese but like I told you this is going to be the best
Mac N Cheese
you've ever tasted pop the mozzarella in there and on top of the mozzarella that
lovely sharp cheddar
and on a low simmer we're just going to continue to stir this through
until the cheese is absorbed into the sauce now that's why I don't bother
grating it in look thats
only been a minute or so it's started to melt in its not quite fully melted yet
but look at the lovely stringyness to this sauce
that is going to be so perfect for our mac and cheese
and when that's completely melted down we'll get this over to the macaroni
get it ready to go in the oven now before we put our sauce in it's really
important that you don't over fill your dish with the macaroni it's so thirsty
it will soak up all that sauce and will become very dry
now we're going to take that wonderful rich look at that sauce I'm going to pour the whole
sauce in there now it might look like a lot of sauce
for this mac and cheese but it's why this is going to be so delicious
then I'm just going to take my whisk and I want to spike the macaroni cheese
so that some of that sauce gets down into the macaroni holes
so you see all the little bubbles coming up that's the macaroni filling up with the cheese
we're going to pop this in the oven for about 30 minutes or so on 180
degree Celsius 350 fahrenheit and I like to see a little browning on top and then
I'm going to put a breadcrumb
and a little bit of bacon over the top to get a crispy top
I'm just going to put a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a
frying pan or skillet and there's a reason why I put my bread crumb on later
I'll explain that to you in a moment
just popped some pancetta in there start to fry that through
and a knob of butter as well and just let that melt in
as that comes up to heat I'm going to put about a cup maybe a little over
of breadcrumbs this just fresh breadcrumbs from home
just going to let them get coated with the fats from the fried bacon
I'm also going to put a little bit of dry parsley in there you can use fresh parsley of course
Now I don't want to cook this too long just a few moments to get all the flavors mixed
together
this wonderful crumb is going to go on top of our mac and cheese
any is going to make it fantastic now look at that that is why I don't put the
crumbly top
on first because I want that caramelized top
over my mac and cheese that is where all the flavor is now I can put the crumble
on top of that
so we're going to have a double whammy we can have this wonderful crunchy top which I'm just
going to pop back in the oven
for about 10 minutes until its golden brown now
look at that there can you see that bubbling away
there is my mac and cheese now I would let that sit for about 15 minutes or so
on the side before I serve it
because it's going to be roasting hot at the moment and I wish you could smell
what's coming off there now it's so delicious the smoked bacon is coming
through the cheese the mozzarella
now I can't wait anymore I'm going to give this a try
let's get up a piece from this corner here got myself a dish
will you look just how beautiful and stretchy that is
it's not dry it all maybe a little bit of parsley just on the top there
and I'm going to give this a go here goes my perfect Mac
and cheese look at that
that is absolutely delicious I've never been a major fan of mac and cheese
but when it's like this it really is great give this a try at home
please share the love give this one a thumbs up I'll see you
in the next video take care
so I hope you like my take on mac and cheese of course I'll leave links to
other videos here
I'd love to hear your comments down below if you like this if you try it
and don't forget get across to the Google+ and Facebook page
say hello there too as well be good I'll see you next time
take care.