Stovetop macaroni and cheese
Adam Ragusea · ♥ 65.2K likes · 2.9M views · 10 min video
Read about cheese in the BrightCulinary Book
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Ingredients
Method
Techniques
- 50 g grated cheese
Grate 50 grams of semi-firm real cheese, packed to half a cup, and tear up an equal quantity of processed cheese, about three slices.
- 3 slices processed cheese
- salt
Bring a pot of water to the boil with a big pinch of salt.
- ¼ lb elbow macaroni
- 1–2 tbsp butter
Add a quarter pound of elbow macaroni and cook for as long as the packet says, here seven minutes.
- 100 ml milk
Put 100 ml of milk in a cold pan with the grated cheese, the torn processed cheese and one to two tablespoons of butter.
Stirring it to a stable emulsion
Turn the heat to medium-high and stir constantly until melted smooth; the emulsion only forms if the stirring is constant.
Adjust: stir in more milk if it is too thick, or melt in more processed cheese if it is too thin. It should look a little too loose while very hot.
Drain the noodles through a gap in the pot lid and stir them into the sauce.
- frozen peas
- 100 g shredded cheese
Taste and season; stir in frozen peas at this stage if wanted, they thaw in the pot.
- ½ cup panko
- 2 tbsp butter
Variation, crunchy topping: melt a couple tablespoons of butter in a pan and brown half a cup of panko in it over medium-high heat, stirring constantly.
Browned panko topping
- Herbes de Provence
Variation: once the crumbs start to brown, stir in herbs and spices, then tip onto paper towels to cool and drain so they stay crisp.
- 4 g sodium citrate
- ½ cup milk
- 30 g butter
Variation without processed cheese: put half a cup of milk in a cold pan with a teaspoon of sodium citrate, 100 grams of packed shredded cheese and 30 grams of butter.
Heat on medium-high, stirring constantly, for a few minutes; do not take it past a simmer. Adjust with more milk, more cheese or more sodium citrate.
- ¼ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp mustard powder
Stir in a quarter teaspoon each of garlic powder and mustard powder, tasting and adding more until it is right.