Ham and Swiss Macaroni and Peas.
And we're gonna top it with deviled breadcrumbs.
So the deviled breadcrumbs are already working
in this pan right here.
It's melted butter with graded garlic
and I just added two turns of the pan in a slow motion.
So about three tablespoons to a quarter cup
of hot sauce.
I like Frank's red hot for this, 'cause it's not too spicy.
Any cayenne pepper sauce that you love,
of course, is what you should use.
And add a couple of cups of breadcrumbs.
Now these are homemade breadcrumbs.
If you don't wanna bother with this,
or you don't happen to have to have bread ends
on hand at home in the freezer,
of course just use Panko.
Like big fluffy crumbs is what we're looking for.
So to this, I'm gonna add about a third
of a palm full each of onion.
About the same amount of our mustard and paprika.
Then about a tablespoon or a scant palm full
of dill and a couple tablespoons of parsley.
Give this a stir.
This is a stove top pop, stove top mac and cheese.
It doesn't have to go into the oven.
So I've got this just over medium low to medium,
right in between the two.
And we're gonna let these guys just toast up low and slow.
When they're nice and crispy and toasty, turn 'em off.
And they're done.
In this pan, I browned one ham steak,
about three quarters of a pound.
I dice up the ham, browned it in a little bit of butter.
One table spoon of butter.
Took it out of the pan.
Same pan, add three tablespoons of butter
and grate in a few cloves of garlic.
Now we're gonna turn this into
white sauce or a bechamel base for our mac.
So we're going to add about three tablespoons
of flour to that and whisk it together.
You're being very quiet while I'm doing this.
(audience laughter)
A little bit of white pepper.
(audience laughter)
Little pinch of salt.
(audience laughter)
And we've got some warm milk on the back burner.
We're gonna whisk this together,
so it doesn't taste like paste, right?
And when it starts to bubble up, you wanna keep it white.
You do not wanna add color to your bechamel base here.
We're not darkening the rue, we're just making rue.
And we're going to whisk in our warm milk.
Let that thicken up a bit.
Get the pasta going.
This cooks very, very quickly.
I have large shells, but any shortcut of pasta will do.
And whenever we cook with dry pasta,
we season the pasta water itself.
It's the only chance we get to season the pasta.
Then we drop the pasta.
And as I said, we are not baking this in the oven.
And we're only going to under cook the pasta
by about one minute
to be the counterpoint for carryover cooking.
So after your shortcut pasta of any kind
has been cooking about four to five minutes,
we're gonna pour in about a cup of fresh peas
and let them cook right along with the pasta.
So now we're going to take the whisk.
He can come out,
switch to a paddle or a spatula and stir the cheese in.
And then as soon as that Swiss melts into the thickened
milk, the bechamel base, we're good to go.
You get a bonus of a nice facial,
when you drain the pasta and the peas.
I saved a little bit of that pasta cooking water.
We'll put that all back into one hot pot,
add a splash of the pasta cooking water,
all of our melted Swiss cheese.
Ah, no, we'll put that in the sink
and we'll add our parm and herbs,
Oh, ha ha ha
(applause)
and the herbs,
and the ham, get him right in there.
And this is what I was talking
about with the carryover cooking.
You want that to really marry.
To the bowl, we go. I can barely lift it. My God.
(applause)
And then we take these crispy spicy crumbs.
I know. It's like the devil on one shoulder,
and angel on the other.
(audience cheering)
It's crazy.
(audience cheers)
(chimes)