Baked Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and cheese is such a delicious comfort food. It's one of those dishes that I like to have regularly, especially in the cooler months. In my husband's home growing up, this macaroni and cheese was a main dish, and it totally can stand its own in that role. We eat it as a main in our house and occasionally add a green vegetable side to it. This time we had it with a side of Savory Greens. I adapted this recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook from the 70s. This recipe is a baked version, but it can very easily be adapted for stove top only.

Update: I discovered that the Amul tub cheese (yellow or blue tub) makes this macaroni AMAZING! It's not healthy, but you can substitute one tub for about half of the cheese. 

Baked macaroni and cheese with crunchy topping

Baked Macaroni and Cheese
8 oz. macaroni
3 Tablespoons butter
1 onion, chopped
2 Tablespoons flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon mustard
2 cups milk
2 cups cheese, grated
1/2 roll Ritz-type crackers, crushed (optional)

Boil the macaroni in salted water. If you're going for the baked version, drain it when it's slightly undercooked since it will finish cooking during baking. Otherwise, cook it to al dente. With the pasta in a strainer, melt the butter and saute onions until golden. Add flour to the pot and stir for 2-3 minutes to cook the flour. Pour in milk, stirring to remove any lumps. Add the salt, pepper, and mustard. If you're using a salty cheese, use only 1/2 teaspoon salt. Bring the sauce up to a boil and drop the heat to a simmer. When the sauce is thick and bubbly, turn off the heat and add the cheese. Stir until melted. Add the noodles to the sauce. If you're going for the stove top version, you're done! For the baked version, pour noodles with sauce into a baking dish. Top with crushed crackers. Bake at 170C for 35 to 40 minutes until top is golden and bubbly.

Baked macaroni with a side of greens

A quick shortcut on crushing the salted biscuits is to just crunch them up in the package. Open and sprinkle over the top.

Savory Greens

I love, love, love dark leafy greens as mentioned in previous posts. I know not everyone does, but they're so incredibly good for you that you really should give them a try. Here's a very basic, adaptable version of savory greens that incorporates vitamin C to give your body the boost to absorb all that good iron. This recipe is portioned to be a small side for 4 people. I would generally make almost double for my family because we all like greens so much.

As a general rule, the smaller smooth-leafed varieties are milder in flavor, and big hearty leaves have stronger, sometimes bitter, flavors. Those happen to be my favorites. Bok choy has a very mild flavor and also tastes great prepared this way. You should note that the more delicate the leaf, the smaller it becomes in cooking so 2 bunches of something small would cook into less than 1/2 cup of greens. So, even if you're not a huge fan, I'd advocate giving greens another chance if only because they're little nutrient powerhouses.

Savory Greens
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 bunches greens
3-4 small cherry-sized tomatoes
1 Tablespoon oil

Clean the greens really well with water. Cut the greens into 1 inch slices. If using a larger leaf green, cut both length wise and crosswise. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the tomatoes into a paste. Heat the oil over medium heat in a frying pan. Add in the garlic, careful to keep it moving so it does not burn. Once it starts to change to golden, toss in the tomatoes and cook until they start to look more saucy and less like raw tomatoes. Toss in the greens and saute until wilted. If you're using a thick-stemmed variety, you may want to saute the stems a few minutes before the leaves because they require longer cooking times. Salt to taste.

Best "Box" Brownies

I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, but something about my diet in South Asia makes me want to eat chocolate. I've searched for years for a good from scratch brownie closely resembling boxed brownies at home, but I have not really found anything. If you pay close attention to boxed brownies, they usually have some adaptations for "cake like" and "chewy" brownies. I am one who prefers chewy brownies, that perfect cross between cake and cookie. All of the from scratch recipes I've ever tried result in the more cake like texture, which is okay if it's all you get, but not quite up to snuff in my opinion. I found one that I liked a few years ago, kept adding chocolate chips and peanut butter to make it better, and felt reasonably satisfied with it--even prideful maybe. Then, I ate a brownie at my friend's house that made me feel sad for my brownies. This is the closest thing I've ever made to an out of the box chewy brownie. It's delicious warm or room temp with or without ice cream. The measurements are partly in metric, but I haven't bothered to convert them during cooking since I have a kitchen scale. You can buy the chocolate in big baking bars here or as chocolate chips. I find that the local candy bars don't melt as well.

Also, before giving the recipe, I recently learned from Chuck's Day Off that this is the basic recipe for molten chocolate cakes, too. If you just reduce your cook time and put the batter into smaller baking rounds, you'll get a firm outside and semi-liquid center. Nice to know!

Best "Box" Brownies
150g butter (about 1 Tbsp more than 1/2 cup)
125g chocolate (roughly 1/2 cup)
3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
Pinch of salt

In a bowl, melt butter and chocolate together. You can use a double boiler or heat in microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring in between, until melted. In a separate bowl, beat eggs and sugar. Add in vanilla. Slowly add the melted chocolate to the eggs and sugar, careful to temper so you don't scramble the eggs. Add the flour, cocoa powder, and salt, and stir just to combine. A few lumps are okay. If you over-mix, the brownies will be hard.

Pour into a buttered baking dish (9x9 or 11x7). Line with baking paper to make clean up easier. Bake at 180C for 40 minutes or until the middle looks risen and a toothpick comes out relatively clean. If it's slightly soft in the middle, it will make for a more chewy cooled brownie.

Note: No, I did not leave the baking soda or powder off the recipe. Somehow it magically rises without any leavening.

If you're in a hurry or feeling lazy, I did find that you can kind of throw everything into the bowl with the melted chocolate and get similar results. The final texture is slightly different, but not enough to notice unless you eat both kinds of brownies back to back. 

Missing Milk

During my years overseas, I had come to the conclusion that milk here would never taste like it does at home. If you buy the UHT milk that you don't have to refrigerate until opening, it tastes like it came from a package. If you buy powdered milk, it's bearable when chilled, but not quite right. If you buy the local packet milk, you have to boil it because of potential pathogens and the likelihood that water may have been added to "top it off." That leaves the milk with a distinct cooked taste. While it tastes alright chilled and is by far the least expensive option (almost half the price of the alternative), it's still just not there.

This summer I discovered a farmer was delivering milk to my upstairs neighbors every day, good quality milk that he is very proud of. We started having him bring it to us, too. He quietly arrives in the early morning and pours milk into a pot I have waiting for him outside. I just put the pot out at night so I don't have to wake up. :) From this small operation of only 20 cows that actually eat grass and a man so proud of his delicious milk, I determined to find alternative methods of pasteurization that did not ruin this good milk. I discovered that when you're not concerned about water you can pasteurize more like modern dairies do, albeit with less technology and speed.

So, if you can spot a farmer around your neighborhood or ask someone who might know one, you can pasteurize your milk this way. Over low heat, slowly bring the milk's temperature up to 165F or 74C. I did it a few times with a thermometer, but worked out that this is the point at which tiny bubbles form around the edge of the pan and gradually connect with each other. It needs to stay at this temperature for 20 seconds, then you can switch it off. Another trick is to begin cooling quickly so I will put it in a tub in the fridge within about 10 minutes of pasteurizing, that gives enough time for some of the chewy cream to settle at the top so I can strain it. In America, they say that raw milk straight from the farmer that you pasteurize and put in a sealed container will keep refrigerated for about 8 days, much better than the recommended 48 hours we see on packages here. Not that ours ever lasts that long though!

The chilled version of this might vary in flavor according to the cow's daily diet, but it tastes much more like plain ol' milk than anything I've ever had in this part of the world. And I'm a serious milk drinker.

Kitchen Staple: Molasses

Well, this isn't really a kitchen staple for me, but it's one I like to have on hand during this season. I am a huge fan of gingerbread and molasses cookies so it's really nice to have this. It begins with a local ingredient called chaaku or gud. Most little shops that sell a variety of dry goods will carry it, although there seem to be special times (like January) when it becomes easier to find.

Molasses
1 small block/ball chaaku
2-4 Tablespoons water

Place the block into a pot and add 2 tablespoons water. Over low heat, stirring occasionally, heat the mixture to melt it. If it seems too thick, add additional water. The trick is to add enough water that the mixture will remain a syrup rather than returning to a block state. It does not usually take more than 1/4 cup, but you want it to look watery enough that you know it could never be solid again so add whatever you need to accomplish that. Once it is sufficiently thinned and melted together, pour through a strainer into a jar and store at room temperature. Mine usually lasts for months without going bad.

Note: You may find sticks, stones, and all kinds of other weird stuff when the block melts. Molasses is near the very end of the sugar making process so it's the bottom of the barrel so to speak. It's loaded with minerals so I find I can look past the weirdness. Just strain it before you jar it.

Kitchen Staple: Cottage Cheese/Ricotta

I am not a person who likes to just eat cottage cheese or ricotta on its own, but I do like to use both of these in cooked applications. In a pinch, you could buy paneer and crumble it into small pieces, but making this is fairly straightforward.

Cottage Cheese
1 Liter milk
2-3 Tablespoons vinegar

You can use regular dairy milk for this application because it will be pasteurized in the process and is much cheaper than the UHT or powdered milk. Bring the milk to a boil. It should be kept at 165F for about 20 seconds, but without measuring it's around the point at which the little bubbles around the pot connect. Switch off the heat and add 2 Tablespoons vinegar. Lightly stir and allow to sit for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, stir the curds. If you still see milky liquid, add another Tablespoon. That should finish separating the curds from the whey. Pour the mixture through a cheesecloth or fine strainer. If you notice a strong vinegar smell, rinse the cheese with drinking water. Strain until it reaches the consistency you like.

To make paneer, place a heavy plate or can on top of the cheese overnight, slice, and cook. To make cottage cheese, you may need to add a little cream to the cooled curds to get the right consistency. A little salt will also help boost the flavor. This works great in lasagna, ravioli, Mexican casseroles, etc.

Kitchen Staple: Sour Cream

I was thinking this week when I used a few very basic kitchen staples that a series on how to make them via cheater versions could actually be helpful. So...without further adieu here are some not super exciting recipes that will hopefully make you realize you really can have some of those tastes of home in the kitchen.

Sour Cream
1 small box fresh cream (technically not fresh since it's in a box)
1-2 capfuls white vinegar or lemon juice
Pinch salt

You can easily adapt this recipe for the 1 liter box, but I am not sure when I would ever need that much sour cream. First, place the box in the freezer for about 30 minutes. This will help the thick cream and the liquid in the box more easily separate. I find the fridge does not work as well for this. Pull up the corner tabs on the bottom end of the box. Sip off a corner and dump over the sink. An almost clear liquid should pour out. If it does not, you might try snipping from the other end. I can never tell which side it will settle at. If it's frozen, just scrape off the more icy looking bits which would have been more like water. Finish cutting the whole top of the box open and scrape into a bowl. Add 1 capful white vinegar and a pinch of salt. Stir to mix thoroughly and taste to see if the sourness is enough. If not, add up to another capful and stir again. Chill until ready to serve.

No, this is not technically sour cream. I think it's more along the lines of creme fraiche, but it works great in place of sour cream both as a topping and in cooked applications.

Apparently, the process for making real sour cream involves mixing cream and buttermilk and sitting out at room temp for 24 hours. I'm going to give it a try in the next few weeks so I'll let you know how it turns out!