Adventures In Cooking: Cheese Sauce

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2009

4 stars (out of 5 - one of my favourites!)

Ingredients (similar sauce to the crepes):

250g short cut macaroni (I did about 1/3 of a 900g box)
4 tbsp butter or margarine; another 1 tbsp to cook
4 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheese of your choice(maybe more!)*
1/3 cup Parmesan cheese*
2 leeks (optional - great to cook in white wine)*
60g breadcrumbs (to coat)

{Note. There are two ways that I like to "jazz" up my mac and cheese. First, I like to use very strong cheeses. For the mac and cheese below, I used about 1-1.5 cups old cheddar, and about 1/2 cup of Morbier (a very strong, old cheese). The original recipe suggested Fontina and mozzarella. The second way is to add leeks, and I did this instead of the Parmesan cheese. See Stage 7 below for some suggestions about cooking the leeks in white wine.}

1. First I put the water on for the macaroni to boil.

2. SB and I then started the cheese sauce by first melting the butter in a saucepan.

3. We then added the flour, stirring constantly.

4. Finally, we gradually added the milk, stirring constantly.

5. As the sauce was being made, I sliced up the leeks into rounds...

6. ... and melted some butter in a frying pan.

7. I then added the leeks, and cooked them until they were tender (and separating). (We realized afterwards that it would have been amazing to cook the leeks in white wine like we usually do. You just add about a cup of wine to the pan, and cook until it evaporates. Next time!).

8. We then added the cheese to the cheese sauce...

9. ...and stirred until smooth.

10. We then combined the leeks with most of the pasta (I like to use about 3/4 of the pasta to start, and then add the remainder in as I stir in the sauce - just to make sure there is enough sauce!) in another large saucepan (I like to use a large saucepan so that I don't have to worry about spilling everywhere when I stir it up).

11. We poured in the sauce, and stirred it well.

12. We then poured the mixture into a greased casserole dish (the shallower, the better).

13. We coated the mac & cheese with bread crumbs, and popped it in the oven for 35-40 minutes at 350F.

14. It turned out great!

One final tip that I have is to taste the sauce before you add it. Ours was very good, but it needed a tiny bit more salt.

SUNDAY, APRIL 19, 2009

5 stars (out of 5 - Delicious Brunch!)

Today we waited until quite late to eat brunch, so we went for something substantial: asparagus crepes. This is my favourite brunch meal to indulge in. They are a bit of work, but SB and I work as a team (I do most of the prep/clean-up; he does the frying/stirring), which makes it easy.

The following is for eight crepes (we only made four and just halved all the recipes).

Here is what you need:

Approximately 32 stalks of asparagus (approx. 4 per crepe)

Crepes: (we just find recipes off of the Internet, but you can always use diluted pancake mix. Just make sure that they are THIN: they will puff up in the oven as well, and then I find it can be too "dough-y")

1 cup flour
2 eggs
350 mL milk
1 pinch salt
Oil to cook

Cheese Sauce: (note: we divide this recipe in half (except the cheese!) in order to make 4 crepes)

4 tbsp butter or margarine
4 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/4 tsp pepper
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (maybe more!)

1. First, we broke the ends off of the asparagus, broke them in half, and stuck them in the steamer. We cooked these until they were tender crisp.

2. After they were cooked, I rinsed the asparagus under cold water, and divided and laid them on the (clean) counter (they need to be dry, and it makes it easier for later).

3. As the asparagus was steaming, we mixed up all the ingredients for the crepe batter, and heated a pan over medium heat to cook them.

4. We then spread the crepe batter VERY thin in the pan to cook: you DO NOT want it thick, as it will puff up further in the oven.

5. As the crepes were cooking, we started the cheese sauce. First, we melted the butter and flour together, stirring constantly.

6. When it thickened, we added the seasonings, and then slowly added the milk, and stirred until it was smooth. We then added the cheese, and stirred again until smooth.

7. As the cheese sauce was being prepared, I took the cooked crepes and spread the asparagus on them (in the centre). I like to cut off any excess crepe, so it's not too "dough-y". I then placed them into a greased pan.

8. Once the crepes and cheese sauce were all prepared, we poured the cheese sauce over the crepes and placed them in the oven for 20 minutes at 350F (enough time to clean the kitchen!)

Delicious!