Macaroni and Cheese (and 100th post!)

We hadn't had macaroni and cheese in a looooong time. So when we needed an easy, weeknight meal for a Monday night with a friend coming over this seemed like the logical choice. A little internet research brought me to my favorite Food Network star, Alton Brown. His baked mac and cheese recipe caught my eye because of the use of panko bread crumbs on top and the inclusion of seasoning you don't find in other recipes (mustard and paprika). Here's the recipe with a few of my modifications from the original:

Ingredients:
1/2 - 3/4 of a 1 pound box of elbow macaroni
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon powdered mustard
3 cups milk
1/2 onion, finely diced
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 large egg
12 ounces sharp cheddar, shredded
salt and black pepper

Topping:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons panko bread crumbs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large pot of boiling, salted water, cook the pasta to al dente. OK, the recipe said 1/2 lb. which seemed a little skimpy to me. So I went 3/4 which was probably too much. Start with 1/2 and adjust up in the future.

While the pasta is cooking, in a separate pot, melt the butter. Add the flour and mustard and stir constantly for a few minutes until well mixed and free of any lumps. Stir in the onions, milk (wow, seems like a lot of milk!), bay leaf, and paprika. Simmer for around 10 minutes or until the mixture begins to thicken slightly. Season liberally with black pepper (red pepper flakes might do well here in the future). Find and discard the bay leaf.

"Temper in the egg" said the recipe. What does that mean?!? Did I do that? No, I just added a mixed egg ala egg drop soup. Later I learned more about what I should have done. Oh, well, next time.

Anyways, temper in the egg. Stir in 3/4 of the cheese (don't skimp on the cheese either). Add the drained macaroni into the mix and stir. Pour into a casserole dish (I didn't do this but in retrospect I can see why this step is important - more crispy topping!). Top with remaining cheese.

Melt butter in a pan (I just reused the pasta pan) and toss in bread crumbs. Stir to mix the butter and bread crumbs. Top the macaroni with the bread crumbs.

Bake for 30 minutes uncovered until the top is slightly browned. Remove from the oven and let rest for five minutes before serving.

The reviews were that the panko bread and crispy cheese topping was the best part. Overall, a tasty recipe with lots of room for upgrades and experiments. More seasoning and spice would help, too. Be generous with the black pepper and maybe experiment with cayenne or red pepper flakes. More mustard? More onion, frozen peas, broccoli are all possibilities.

So this turns out to be my 100th posting on this blog. It started out as a chronicle of our remodeling project but I kept it alive as I explored cooking and gardening in our home. I hope you are enjoying it, too!