Creamy Dreamy Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese is one of my all time favorite things to teach people to make because it covers a LOT of classic techniques... And it taste delicious! 

Ingredients 

1 pound medium shells

12 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, grated

4 oz. unsalted butter

1/3 C flour

4 cups milk

1/4 tsp. freshly ground nutmeg

3 Tablespoons Dijon mustard

Salt and pepper to taste

Hot sauce if desired

1 Cup Panko bread crumbs

2 T melted butter

Paprika

First things first. You need to boil your shells in salted water. Follow your package directions. You can use any shape. I like the shells because they fill up with sauce nicely.

Next we are going to make our Roux. This is the same thing we did for the beer and cheese soup. Over medium heat, melt your butter until it is foaming and then sprinkle flour over it. Stir until it is thickened and just begins to bubble.

Now we will slowly add in about half the milk. It will get really thick really quickly. Then as you add the second half it will thin out.

Raid heat to medium high and continue to whisk to avoid any lumps. Cook until it is silky and thick.

A great way to test the thickness is to check with a wooden spoon, if it coats the back of it and holds a line it's perfect. Remove the sauce from the heat.

Here comes the "what is that I taste" part. I grate in fresh nutmeg and add Dijon mustard for depth of flavor. You can also add hot sauce at this point as well. 

Now it's time for the cheese!  Add in one third of the shredded cheese to the sauce and whisk. By adding in small batches you will get a smoother sauce and it will not separate into an oily mess. Continue with two more additions. Make sure each batch is fully melted before adding the next one. I used yellow and white cheddar because that what I had in hand. 

Now season with salt and pepper and paprika. Make sure you taste it at this point, if it's not to your taste now, it sure won't magically get more flavor as it bakes in the oven. Congratulations you just made a classic French mother sauce called a Mornay Sauce! 

Place your noodles In to a 9x13 cassarole pan or cooking vessel of your choosing. pour that glorious creamy sauce right over the top of the noodles and stir to get everything equally covered. Top with Panko bread crumbs and drizzle melted butter over the top. I sprinkle a little more paprika and salt and pepper on top. If you don't have Panko try crackers or pretzels that you have crushed up.

Bake in a 375 oven for about 30-35 minutes. It will be bubbly and golden brown on top. Ok now before you bake it you can top it with crumbled bacon and it's even more amazing! Or more cheese on top is never a bad thing either.

Let it cool about 5-10 minuets and serve alone as a main dish or as a side. Try different cheese too! Pepper jack makes for a great Mac and cheese. 

Happy Cooking!

Beer and Cheese... Ain't nothing wrong with that!

It's a cold rainy day here in the cakalacky, so comforting soup for lunch sounded just perfect to me. It's good to be back home and settling back to the day to day. I stocked up on a few different fresh Amish cheeses while in Ohio last week. O.k I actually bought a LOT of cheeses and herbs,snacks and all  at wholesale prices... yahoo!

Beer and Cheese are like Peanut Butter and Jelly to me, so this combo with some flavorful additions to make it even better.

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons Unsalted butter

6 Tablespoons All purpose flour 

1 large shallot, diced

3 medium carrots, diced

1 orange bell pepper

2 Cups Chicken Stock

6oz. Beer of your choice

6oz. Sharp cheddar cheese

A few dashes of Worcester sauce

Hot sauce to taste

1 Tablespoon smooth Dijon mustard

Melt butter over medium heat in a pot. Add in diced carrots, shallots and bell peppers. Toss in a big pinch of salt.

Sauté until carrots are softened. Then sprinkle flour over and stir for a couple minutes to create a roux. A roux is a thickening agent that will make the soup nice and velvety.

Let the Roux cook until it coats the vegetables and looks like a light paste.

Slowly add in chicken stock and stir or wish to reduce the possibility for lumps.

Add in Beer, and drink the other half that you did not use... No judgement here! 

Simmer for 10 minutes until slightly thickened. And stir in Dijon, hot sauce and Worcester sauce. Then whisk and let it bubble for 5 more minutes.

Now for the best part. Add in all that glorious cheesy goodness and whisk into warm liquid so it melts evenly. Pour into a bowl and top with more cheese or pretzels or croutons. The sky is the limit on toppings! Cozy up with a cup of it and stay warm:) 

Happy Cooking! 

Individual Banana Chocolate Bread Pudding

II like to fly by the seat of my pants,  and I tend to be a little unpredictable sometimes. The biggest misconception to this is when I eat at a restaurant. There are 3 Things I will order if they are on the menu every single time! Risotto of any flavor, Duck Confit and Bread Pudding. The last being my most favorite dessert ever, so if they mess it up it is curtains on that place. 

I like to make bread pudding when I have extra baguettes laying around, however day old croissants make for a fantastic result too! You can really customize it to whatever you have on hand.

Cooking sometimes is about basics and then just "chefing" it up sometimes. Bread Pudding is no different it's always the same basic custard that you flavor accordingly and add any mix ins you'd like. 

Ingredients for basic custard

4 eggs

2 cups milk

1 cup sugar ( I used light brown)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp cinnamon

6 cups cubed and toasted bread

The following are your mix in's you can put anything in theses:

1/2 cup chocolate chunks

1/4 cup chopped spicy sweet pecans

1 banana diced

Gather all your ingredients so you'll be ready to roll.

Next combine your sugar, eggs, milk, vanilla and cinnamon together. Whisk until combined and then I add a small pinch of salt to balance the sweetness. 

Then add in your toasted and cubed bread pieces. It will look soupy at first but as it sits it will almost all be absorbed.

Add in your mix in's

Let it sit for about 20 mins to a half hour. This will allow enough time for the liquid to soak.

Like magic it's almost dry now. Next butter one large dish or small ramekins and spoon and press in as much filling as you can into them. They will puff up as they cook and then settle as they cool so place them on a sheet tray just in case they decided to flow over. 

Bake at 350 for about 35-40 mins. They will no longer be wet but nice and spongy with a crispy top. If you can wait let them rest for 10 mins. If not remove them and top with caramel sauce and whipped cream and have them for breakfast... Ice cream is also really good on them!

Happy Cooking!

THE steak.

Only a few things can actually make me swoon, a perfect steak is one of my top three! We have all had a good steak at a nice high end steakhouse and thought that was pretty spectacular and all, but you will know if you have had THE steak. The kind of steak that is cooked so perfectly that it leaves you speechless. My perfect kind of steak has to have a good balance,  a crispy well seasoned crust, a soft bright pink center, and in some cases a rich sauce that leaves you wanting more.  This recipe has it all. Learn the steps to make a perfect steak at home, that taste better and is a fraction of the cost of a steakhouse.

Start off with your steak. you want a nicely marbled steak, this means nice and bright pink beef with lines of fat running through it. When I order out I usually go towards a fillet or a rib eye, that's just my personal taste. My hubs goes for a porterhouse and its just as amazing! You can cook any cut with this method just repeat to your self Fat = Flavor and your results will be awesome. I like thicker steaks because I think you can get a good crust to center ratio which makes me happy.

Season the hell out of them! It does not have to be 800 seasonings, just simple coarse salt and freshly cracked pepper are perfect. We want the steak to stand alone and we are simply trying to enhance the natural flavor of the beef, not hide it.

Get a heavy saute pan, I usually go towards a stainless or cast iron pan for steaks, You will get a much better crust than with a non-stick pan. Heat that baby up! You should only be able to hover your hand over the surface for a second because the heat will be radiating off it.

Add a neutral flavored oil. Canola or grapeseed are both good choices and have what is called a high smoke point. This means it will be able to handle a higher heat before it starts smoking. Once you add your oil it needs to heat up, a good visual for this is, as you tilt your pan you will see streaks or ripples in the oil. This lets you know that it is Go time.


Lay your steaks in the pan leaving enough room around them so they can cook with out touching. Once they are in the pan DO NOT MOVE THEM! Most people fall in to two categories the flippers or the trusting ones. I can guarantee you this, if you leave it alone magic will happen. The natural sugars in the meat will caramelize and the seasonings will form this sweet and salty crust, and it will all take place if you just leave it be. Proteins will let you know when they are ready to flip. Have ever cooked fish or chicken and half of it sticks to he pan? It was not ready. If you HAVE to peek, use a pair of tongs and gently lift a corner of the steak just enough to check if it easily is ready to turn, if there is any resistance or sticking, put it back down. This should take about 4 mins per side for nice medium-rare

Flip your steak and give it another 4 mins on the other side. One flip is all you get.

Remove the steaks from the pan, place on a warm plate and immediately tightly cover with foil for 10 mins. The foil will keep it hot and resting will allow time for all those beefy juices to redistribute throughout the meat.

while it is resting lower your pan heat. All that crusty bits in our pan are going to make the beginnings of this Brandy peppercorn sauce.  Those bits are what the french kitchen calls Fond. Fond is flavor. If you think about building a good dish you need different levels of flavor that build like a staircase. The fond is the first step, and we are stepping it on up to heavenly so we have a few more levels to add.

Brandy Peppercorn Sauce

1T. crushed peppercorns

2. T brandy (Bourbon would also be good)

3 T heavy cream

1 Cup beef stock

1 T unsalted butter

1/2 of a large shallot minced

if needed add a tablespoon more oil, only if your pan is dry. Now add in your minced shallots, we want to cook these until they are nice and soft. ( adding sweetness and a little bite from shallots, another level of flavor)

De-glaze. This means to scrape and incorporate the  flavors of the fond. We are using our Brandy for this. If your using a gas stove turn your heat off while you add it in, to avoid removing your eyebrows :) We are now going to cook this Brandy until it is almost evaporated, a matter of seconds really.

Now to add depth of flavor we are going to add a little beef stock, this will add volume and complement the beefy flavor of our steaks.

Now for our peppercorns. Crush them up just enough so you still have big pieces of peppercorns for your sauce.  Toss them in and again let it reduce by about half.

Now this is good as is, but we want to make it a little more luxurious. Add in the heavy cream. Stir to combine and them the butter. This technique of ending a sauce with butter is what will add that silky richness that will coat your mouth as you eat your steak. It creates the Wow! factor for your sauce. Taste for seasoning, which should be damn near perfect by now, but if you feel it needs more salt and pepper, feel free to make it to your taste. Let it cook and thicken until it coats the back of a spoon.

Remove foil and plate your steak. Drizzle your peppercorn sauce right over the the tops and enjoy. That my friends is what I'm sure heaven will be like.



Happy Cooking!

French onion soup and the secret to perfect caramelized onions

This always seems to be a popular item to order when it's on a menu. French onion soup is both decadent as well as a comfort food. It also happens to be one of my parents favorite soups! It's not the quickest recipe but totally worth the wait. Simple and few ingredients make mine a great freezer meal as well.

The secret is perfectly caramelized onions. Some chefs short cut this process by adding sugar or honey to their onions, it gets results but not as good as this. Slow and steady wins the race and makes for natural sweetness that pairs perfectly with rich beef stock and wine.

Ingredients

6 Cups thinly sliced onions 

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped

1/2 Cup white wine or sherry

4 Cups Beef Stock

French bread

Gruyere cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

It all starts with onions..LOTS of onions. 

In a large pot melt butter and olive oil on low heat until butter begins to foam. By adding olive oil to the butter it will increase the smoke point (temperature at which fat begins smokes) Butter is normally very low and quick to brown but we want to maintain the richness of the butter and avoid browning it. By using the added olive oil it works like an insurance policy. 

Add all your onions to the pot and coat in fat. It will be almost to the top it they will shrink down as the first steam and then like magic they will begins brown. This whole process can take about an hour on low heat.

About 5 mins later you will see them start to steam and soften.

Once onions are reduced by about half the volume. Sprinkle in thyme and a little salt and pepper. Toss to coat.

The onions will start to be really soft an stringy like, and will start getting almost sticky.

Once you start to get sticky you will stir and see a little caramel colored film on the bottom of the pan. This is called the fond, and its like a powerhouse of flavor, so we want to use it as a building block to add depth to our soup. Just keep stirring an scraping every couple minutes.

They will start to get light brown bits through out the onions.

Then it will start getting an even layer of caramelizing on the bottom so keep stirring an scraping the bottom of your pot until deep golden brown. Be careful not to burn it.

Just like this! You can put these on anything from omelets to pizza, even over a block of Brie! 

Add white wine or brandy to the pan and deglaze. 

Make sure to get all that great fond off the bottom of the pan.

Pour in beef stock and put a lid on top and let simmer for at least a half an hour. The longer it cooks the better it gets.

Once it has simmered it will look like this. You could totally eat it just like this... But we're going to make it even better.

Slice some thick rounds of french baguette. Brush with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides. Broil and flip till both sides are crispy and golden.

Ladle soup into a oven safe ramekin. Float a toasted baguette piece in soup and lay as much Gruyere on top as you like.

Place under broiler until cheese is melted into soup and golden brown.

Remove from broiler and let cool just a bit and then dig in! Its creamy, sweet, and like a savory bread pudding almost. Serve this with a crisp cool simple green salad and dinner is ready.

Happy Cooking!