Mac and Cheese

Wednesday was a crazy day, after being in a tax seminar all day, I had to go to the grocery store to pick up the rest of my food to cook for the rest of the week and then I had to take the dog for a walk.  It was 6:15 before I even got a chance to catch my breath.  Thankfully, one of the meals on the menu this week was macaroni and cheese.  Something so simple and homely was perfect for a crazy day.

 This is everything you need for the entire dish.  Like I said simple.  Cheddar, evaporated milk, elbow pasta, dry mustard, garlic powder, corn starch, salt and milk.

 The first step was to make the bechamel sauce.  A bechamel is one of the mother sauces in french cooking and is a milk or dairy based sauce that generally includes cheese.  The first step was to bring the evaporated milk, a little bit of the regular milk and the seasonings together  to a simmer.

 Once the base came to a simmer I added a slurry of the rest of the milk and the cornstarch and added that to the base.  Then I added the shredded cheddar to the mixture a little bit at a time until it was incorporated. 

 I had precooked the macaroni and added it to the bechamel.  Then the whole mixture went into a baking dish.

 I topped the mixture with more cheese.

 And then it went under the broiler until the cheesy topping had melted. 

The plating for mac and cheese isn't supposed to be pretty and this version of course wasn't.  The extra cheese and going under the broiler wasn't in the recipe, this dish was supposed to be served right after the pasta and sauce came together.  I decided to put it under the broiler because I enjoy the texture that comes from that extra step.  Ideally, I would have put a panko bread crumb topping on instead of the cheese but I was out of panko.  I know #firstworldproblems.  The only thing wrong with this dish, and its something I've noticed with a lot of the mac and cheese recipes I've made, not enough salt.  It's a minor thing in a home kitchen because I can just add my own, but I hate it primarily because the more I cook and the more I eat at high end restaurants the more I believe that a diner should never have to season their own meal.  In an ideal world the cooks are good enough that the food is seasoned just the way it should be in the kitchen.  It's why you don't see salt and pepper on the table in nice restaurants.