Macaroni Cheese
Preparation time: 1 hours
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4
Adapted from: BBC Food (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Fizz Carr)
The main problem with this recipe is getting the milk mix to not stick to the saucepan while it's bubbling - use a good non-stick pan. If the roux is too solid, add more butter before adding the milk to avoid it going lumpy.
Ingredients
- 175 g strong cheddar, grated
- 300 g macaroni
- 50 g unsalted butter
- 40 g plain flour
- 750 ml milk, warm
- 1 bay leaf
- black pepper, to taste
- salt, to taste
- ¼ tsp cayenne pepper (or more, to taste)
- Optional - 4 servings of broccoli or cauliflower
Method
- Boil the macaroni for 2 minutes less than what's mentioned on the packet. If you're adding the cauliflower, boil that now too.
- Grease a 22cm×22cm oven dish with butter.
- Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add the flour to make a roux.
- Add the milk into the roux gradually to form the sauce.
- Add the bay leaf.
- Boil the sauce briefly, then simmer for five minutes, stirring constantly to avoid having the mix stick to the bottom of the pan.
- Add the black pepper, salt, cayenne pepper, cheddar, cauliflower and macaroni to the sauce, in that order.
- Empty into the oven dish and bake for 20 minutes at 200°C