Paradise Mac & Cheese

Don’s been working on a perfect Mac & Cheese for a while, and lately he’s been impressed when a new restaurant in the area started serving a bacon mac & cheese. Thus he added bacon to his ‘ham mac & cheese’ he had been working on. Bingo, he now has what he thinks is the best Mac & Cheese he’s ever had…and as an extra benefit, it’s gluten free. We usually have all the ingredients around, except the Velveta. Normally I would avoid using a processed food, but it really is smooth, and the other cheeses take over, so you get the creamy texture without the obvious flavor.

Ingredients

Box of gluten free elbow macaroni. We like Muellers

Small box of Velveta (smallest they make, maybe 8 oz?)

1/2 cup of parm cheese. We grate our own in a food processor so it’s pretty much dust. Use fresh if you can.

1 Tablespoon corn starch

Milk

2 small sweet red peppers, 1 red bell would  be OK. Finely chopped

1/2 large sweet onion, or a whole medium, finely chopped

4 pieces of bacon, cut 1/4 inch pieces

1 cup shaved black forest ham

Margarine (we like Earth Balance soy Margarine)

Bag of shredded colby jack.

1 small clove of garlic (or 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic)

Directions

Get out 3 pans. A sauce pan to make the cheese sauce, a sauce pan to boil water for the noodles and a skillet.

On the back burner, start heating your water for your noodles (1/2 full sauce pan) and add a splash of olive oil.

In the skillet, heat about a tablespoon of Margarine, add onions and peppers, cook through and add bacon, when bacon is almost done, add ham and garlic. The goal is to get the ham ‘crispy’. Put off heat when done.

In the 2nd sauce pan, add 2 tablespoons Margarine and corn starch and stir until mostly, turn on medium heat and keep stirring. Stir in 1/2 cup milk. Some folks at this point would be using butter, flour with the milk to make a proper Bechamel sauce. You can do that if you like.

Add noodles to boiling water, it should cook in 8 to 10 minutes. The goal is to have the noodles done at the  same time all the cheese  has blended, so the cheese sauce won’t sit on the heat long.

Cut up half the block of Velveta (you can use the whole thing if you want, we use half, it makes a lighter sauce) and stir into the bechamel over a medium heat. Keep an eye on it, you never want it boiling. After it is melted, stir in the shredded cheese. You can use any shredded cheese  you like, colby jack isn’t too heavy and blends well. Stir in the parm. This really gives the mac and cheese character, so don’t pass on the parm. Don used swiss for years, but it made it to ‘stringy.’ The parm gives it the strong flavor, without the texture issue. Add milk if sauce is too thick. If too thin, add more shredded cheese.

At this  point, your sauce should be done, the noodles done and meat/pepper onion bacon ham mix is done.

If you finish the noodles early, strain them and mix in a little Margarine to keep them from sticking and set aside.

If you are serving kids, you may want to do the straight noodle/sauce mix with their portions now.

Pour sauce on top of noodles. Mix well. Pour meat/veggie skillet contents on top and toss till well mixed.

Once you get it nailed, by the time you heat the sauce pan water, and cook the noodles (15 minutes or so) you will have completed all the other things. So making this wonderful creation takes the same amount of time that it does to make it from a box. Just SO much better.

Bringing it up a notch Lobster Mac & Cheese

This is taking it to a new level. Buy a Florida lobster tail (about $14), heat a sauce pan half full of water to a boil and put the heat on low simmer. Toss in the lobster tail and let cook for 10 minutes. Do NOT have it on full boil or you’ll overcook the lobster. Cook 12 minutes if the tail is large. Remove from water, cool for a few minutes and cut up into small pieces, mix in with the final result above. Serve only to people you love!

Other notes:

We love sweet onion in our Mac & Cheese, you may want to half the amount, or leave it out.

We never get around to it, because we just dive in, but we’d love to slide a bowl into the oven and broil it for a minute to crust off the top.

For leftovers, toast some Pita bread or Flat bread. Fill with heated M&C and devour.

Our sauce is light. If you want it heavy, use shredded sharp cheddar.

For BEST BURGER EVER, grill ground chuck burger, place M&C on top instead of cheese. Best served on toasted bagel.

Of course you can use regular elbow macaroni, but we were impressed how firm the noodles were and how good the taste was. Firm noodles are GOOD with M&C.