Tag: macaroni cheese recipe

Recipe for my version of incredibly awesome mac & cheese.

You know what, this is not even really mac & cheese because I used spirali rather than macaroni.

You could substitute macaroni with other kinds of short pasta and it doesn’t matter what pasta you prefer but do take into account the pasta shape.

“Will it be able to trap all the delicious sauce?” – that’s the question you must constantly ask yourself!

# – Spir & cheese, heh.

This pasta & cheese bake was so delicious. Creamy, cheesy, a little tart from the mayo to balance it all out. The addition of ham gave it some yummy savoury notes.

Without further ado, lets get on with it.

Ingredients:

  • 200 grams of short pasta (I used spirali), cooked and drained
  • 1 cup of mayonnaise
  • 250ml of whipping cream
  • 2 cups of grated cheddar
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 1 red capsicum, seeded and roughly chopped
  • 1 canned of straw mushroom or button mushroom, sliced
  • 3 slices of ham, julienned
  • 3 slices of bread or garlic bread crisp, torn
  • Salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • Olive oil or grapeseed oil for drizzling

    • # – First, cook the pasta according to instructions on the packet. Drain, give it a dash of olive oil and set aside.

    # – In a pan with some oil, shallow-fry the sliced mushrooms, onions and capsicum until fragrant.

    # – Then, add the cooked pasta and stir.

    # – Pour in the mayonnaise.

    # – Followed by the whipping cream.

    # – And lastly, the cheese. Stir…

    # – Add salt to taste.

    # – Don’t forget the ground black pepper.

    # – Pour the mixture into a baking tin. Then, lay julienned ham all over the top.

    # – If you’re using garlic bread crisp, pound it with a rolling pin until it becomes smaller pieces.

    # – Sprinkle the garlic bread crisp all over the top. Otherwise, just tear out ordinary bread and sprinkle all over :)

    # – Drizzle olive oil or grapeseed oil all over.

    # – Bake in pre-heated oven of 190 degrees celcius for 20 minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.

    # – Spir & cheese, DONE!

    # – Dig in!

    This is a crowd pleaser, if you have complaints…can scold me :D

    Let me know how it goes.

    Cauliflower macaroni cheese recipe.

    The BF has been bugging me to make him cauliflower cheese for the longest time. He grew up eating them and it’s one of his favourite comfort foods.

    I don’t know why I haven’t gotten around to making it. I guess I was intimidated by the vegetable?

    I’ve never cleaned and prepared cauliflower before. And it’s white. That’s just abnormal. Vegetable is supposed to be green or at least in darker shades of colours. White is creepy.

    Then, one day while out grocery shopping, he plonked a 1.5 kilograms worth of cauliflowers into our trolley. I had nowhere to run. I had to make cauliflower cheese or else…

    I decided to chuck in some macaroni, so I didn’t have to cook a carb to go with :D

    # – Cauliflower macaroni cheese.

    The ingredients:

    • 300 grams of macaroni
    • 800 grams of cauliflower, cut into florets
    • 1 onion, sliced
    • 180 grams of grated parmesan and a bit more for the topping (you can use cheddar or any crumbly hard cheese too)
    • 300 ml of milk
    • 6 cherry tomatoes, halved
    • 3 tablespoons of mustard powder
    • Salt & Pepper

    # – Prepare a deep pot of boiling water seasoned with salt. Throw in the cauliflowers. They take about 8-10 minutes to cook through. Depending on how long your pasta takes to cook, chuck them in at the appropriate time too so they cook together with the cauliflower.

    # – Put your baking tray or heatproof dish over the stove, heat up a bit of oil and throw in the sliced onions to brown.

    # – Pour in the milk.

    # – Then the grated parmesan. Stir till mixture’s combined.

    # – Next, put 3 tablespoons of mustard powder. Stir.

    # – Followed by the drained cauliflower and macaroni.

    # – Give it a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper (Actually you can season the cheese sauce first before adding in the cauliflower/pasta but I forgot :P). Stir.

    # – Sprinkle more grated parmesan all over the top.

    # – Place the halved cherry tomatoes all over the top.

    # – Stick it in the oven, on a top rack to grill at 210 degree celcius for 10 minutes or till the top is browned.

    # – Cauliflower macaroni cheese, DONE!

    Cheesy, creamy and soft but most importantly, easy to whip up. The ultimate comfort food! I guess you can say it’s quite healthy too as there’s no meat involved.

    But who am I kidding? Something that tastes this good CAN’T be healthy, hahaha.