First let me start off with some introduction on cheese. As we all know there are many different types of cheese, Parmesan, Cheddar, Swiss, Mozzarella and many many more. Each and every one taste differently although all of them are cheese and their texture are also different. In terms of softness we have the Mozzarella which is real soft normally we use it for pizza, and on the other end we have the hard cheese like Parmesan. But today I will be using cheddar, its 1 of the most common cheese, easily available and also a standard cheese for many mac and cheese. In cheddar there are also a different range of it, there are mild and strong ones, mild ones are usually white and strong ones are call red cheddar, they are not exactly red, more orange actually :D and thats what we are using today, Red Cheddar :)). In terms of nutrition, cheese provides a great deal of calcium, protein and phosphorous, some studies said it could even prevent tooth decay :D haha.
Ok Im gonna keep this lengthy facts aside and introduce out ingredients of the day.
We have red cheddar :DDD Im using the shredded ones, you can buy a block of it if you want and shred it yourself, self shredded ones have nicer texture, but its more expensive, (you can also mixed in Parmesan if you want, it taste great, but is quite expensive, 1 piece cost like 15 bucks =.= im going for the budget mac and cheese here, I havent get my pay yet :(( ).
Elbow macaroni, yes the standard 1 for mac and cheese :D
And the secret ingredient from the previous post, the pinkish thing in the mac and cheese, its bacon. Alright, if you guys dont like the fatty bacon can opt of hotdog or ham some extra taste or not put in any of those also can. The reason behind this bacon theory is so that if gives the cheesy mac and cheese a taste of crispiness in it, it gives a contrast in the taste and texture of the mac and cheese, so does the next ingredient im going to introduce, the breadcrumb. When these 2 crispy and crunchy ingredient mixed into the soft cheesy mac and cheese, it gives off a nice taste, trust me :D
Next is Breadcrumb!!! Im sure if you guys see youtube or those online recipe, they emphasize a lot on breadcrumb too, at first I though its just some deco, until I get the contrast in the soft and crispy mac and cheese, the next mac and cheese I make, I put double the bread crumb, its amazing, really. One of the recommended brand is Panko Japanese Breadcrumb, or any Japanese breadcrumb, but i couldnt find any of them in cold storage, so i get this, the only 1 avaliable there, haha.
Next, milk and cream mixture, or full cream milk also can LOL serious, I tried it cos I cant find cream, then I used cream and milk, almost the same :D
Ingredients (1 person serving):1 cup of elbow macaroni (i use the tiny elbow mac, if its the bigger ones i think this protion needs to be more, im not sure T_T)
1/2 cup of milk and cream mixture (1:1) or full cream milk
3/4 cup of cheese
1/2 cup of bread crumb
2-4 pieces of bacon, cut into small pieces (this depends on how much u like bacon, i use 4 for mine, really nice!!! standard is 2 actually)
Step 1: Cook the macaroni, make sure its al dente - an italian term for not fully 100% cook, so that by the time it is served to the person who eats it, its just right 100% cook, not easy to master, but just try haha, because we are gonna do some mixing and baking after this, so don't wait till its floating up, its gonna be overcook and too soft in the end, which will cause the taste to be not that nice.
Step 2: Remove the water :D
Step 3: Put in the milk and the about 80% of your cheese, leave some for later, and stir. 1 way to see if its too much milk of too less is to see that when you pour the milk in, the milk level should not be above the macaroni, this pic below shows too much milk, i acutally have another 1, that shows the right amount, but its too blurr :( so yea, make sure the milk level is slightly below the macaroni level
There are 2 ways to stir, 1 is to do it without heat, if you are fast enough and with the heat from the just boiled macaroni, it can be done without using the stove, another way is to do it on low heat, both way works, but the safer way is to do it on low heat if you don't want those extra cheese to be stuck in your spoon haha. And after its done, it should turn out something like the picture below, creamy and cheesy mac and cheese. And also at this stage, if its too dry, add more milk, if its too watery, add more cheese, try to put the milk in little by little, it helps in better control too.
Step 5: Put in the bacon, 1/4 of the breadcrumb and a little bit of salt and stir again. At this stage if you want to add other spices like cayenne or black pepper, or white pepper its ok, add abit of them if you want more flavour, but I prefer mine to be plain as I want to taste the cheese and bacon, so I only add in salt.
Step 6: Put the mixture into a baking dish, as i couldnt find mine, i dont know where my mom hide them, so I use this metal plate instead lol. BTW at this stage, its can be eaten already, so taste it, next we are going to do the top, the crust.
Step 7: Put the remaining 20% of the cheese on top, you can also put in 2 or 3 slices of tomato, its optional, just for some deco and add in some nice sour taste in it later. It looks better with the tomato actually.
Step 8: Get the rest of the breadcrumbs, add in a teaspoon of melted butter, and stir
Step 9: Then coat the top with this breadcrumb and butter mixture, remember to put ALOT ALOT because its really really nice with them on haha!!
Oh Ive like 2% of the cheese left over, so I just throw them on top, give it a baked cheese finishing.
Step 10: Set your over to grill, and grill the top, now we only want to cook the top and make it crispy. If using a baking oven or microwave, just heat it and make take out when the top get crispy.
Tada, this is the crispy crust macaroni and cheese and bacon haha
Alternatively, you can use a pizza style top, this is the mozzarella cheese topping version, cheesy right? hahahah but the breadcrumb 1 taste nicer, if you want can try both together :DDD
Enjoy, and pardon me for the bad photos and bad English, my English is all the while bad...so sad...and the photos, this time round its abit not nice, cos im using my new phone's cam, not really use to it yet, :P------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wa dam tired now haha....anyway today I reach home, open my computer and while planning to post my next post, you will see later, i saw a friend's blog about some stuff that makes me real sad...i remember im always in that situation before, not once, not twice, countless times until i cant even remember, theres a saying, "its not easy to be a nice person", being nice is really not easy, because sometimes the things that come back to you are shit, but i always believe, that there is karma, good karma, if you do a good deed today, one day, i dont know when, but 1 day, you will get back what you deserve, maybe from another source or what, but it will somehow comeback to you. Theres also a saying... "a nice person is more beautiful then a pretty person" :D
Ok now this is making me emo...shit...no... anyway...COMING UP NEXT!!!
my last night supper!!!! hahaha
Look at the cheese flowing out, and the crispiness of the bread :D coming soon...:D:D:D:D
No comments:
Post a Comment