Mac n Cheese and oh baby

 Hi everyone 

I love cooking a smoky brisket accompanied by a creamy mac n cheese. I do tend to amp my pasta up so will be committing sacrilege for the traditionalists. But here you go:

• 2 cups of uncooked elbow or penne pasta
• 1 red or white onion diced
• 4 rashers of bacon or prosciutto diced
• ▢1/2 cup butter 
• ▢1/2 cup all purpose flour
• ▢1 1/2 cups cream
• ▢2 1/2 cups full fat milk
• ▢4 cups shredded medium sharp cheddar cheese 
• 2 cups shredded Gruyere cheese 
• ▢salt and pepper to taste
• ▢black pepper
• ▢1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
• Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and grease a big baking dish if you want or if lazy like me pull out a high sided oven proof fry pan :)  
• Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil.  When boiling, add dried pasta and cook 1 minute less than the package directs for al dente.  Drain and drizzle with a little bit of olive oil to keep from sticking.
• While water is coming up to a boil, 
• - fry onion and bacon/prosciutto in a dash of butter in separate pan and then drain on a paper towel
• - shred cheeses and toss together to mix, then divide into three piles.  Approximately 3 cups for the sauce, 1 1/2 cups for the inner layer, and 1 1/2 cups for the topping.
• Melt butter in a large saucepan over med heat.  Sprinkle in flour and whisk to combine.  Mixture will look like very wet sand. Make sure you give it a good 1 minute at least to let the flour cook out otherwise thats all you will taste in the sauce. It's important to do that and stay and stir it otherwise the roux will burn and you will have to start again ..bc burnt roux will just mean burnt tasting sauce if you use it. 
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• Slowly pour in about 2 cups or so of the milk and cream, while whisking constantly, until smooth.  Slowly pour in the remaining milk and cream, while whisking constantly, until combined and smooth.

• Continue to heat over med heat, whisking often, until thickened to a very thick consistency.  It should almost be the consistency of a semi thinned out condensed soup.

• Remove from the heat and stir in spices, onion and bacon and 1 1/2 cups of the cheeses, stirring to melt and combine.  Taste and season
• In a bowl combine drained pasta with cheese sauce, stirring to combine fully.  
• Pour half of the pasta mixture into the prepared baking dish or back into the high sided frying pan if using.  Top with 1 1/2 cups of shredded cheeses, then top that with the remaining pasta mixture.
• Sprinkle the top with the last 1 1/2 cups of cheese and bake for 15 minutes, until cheesy is bubbly and lightly golden brown. 

                                                                

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Religious about monkfish

 Hi everyone

I admit before this Id never cooked with monkfish. Now Im a convert. Its not a strong fishy tasting fish and google tells me its the poor mans lobster (not sure that google has paid food prices in NZ lately). But it was fresh and reasonably priced and Im trying to move to more of a white meat diet so we gave it a go. This recipe includes a ratatouille that I make from the veges I have in our fridge. You could call it a fish stew of sorts. 

Ingredients

500gm to 1kg of monkfish fillets

4 rashers of cooked and diced bacon 

4-5 garlic cloves whole peeled

a handful of capers rinsed

2 capsicums green or red 

1 eggplant sliced

2 large onions sliced 

2 zuchinis sliced

a handful of small brown mushrooms sliced

a tin of diced tomatos in juice

6-7 cherry tomatos

a teaspoon of dried oregano

a few sprigs of fresh thyme or half a teaspoon of dried thyme

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

 

How to:

I start with the ratatouille. Basically I pre heat the oven to 170C and meanwhile put a deep roasting or casserole dish that has a lid on the oven and set the element to medium heat. I toss a good glug of olive oil in the dish and start by adding the onion and garlic. I stir for a few minutes and then add the sliced capsicums, zucchini and eggplant and the oregano. cook stirring occasionally for another 5 minutes. Then add the thyme, mushrooms, bacon, capers, and tomatoes. Stir until boiling, season and put in the oven uncovered for 20 mins.

Once the ratatouille is in the oven oil and season the fish and put on a rack under a hot grill for 5 minutes each side depending on the size. If the fillets are small reduce the time between turning over. You want some browning on each side but dont dry the fish out you want it just cooked or a little under as its going into the oven to finish off. Once ready take the fish out and rest until the ratatouille has been in the oven long enough. Then take it out of the oven and give the veges a light stir ensuring you don't break the zucchini or eggplant up. Place the fish on top and pop the lid on the dish and put it back in the oven for another 10 mins. This will steam the fish. 

Once the times up pull it out and you can serve it with the fish sitting on top or do as I did and gently fold it into the ratatouille letting the juice change the fish colur to a delicious red gold. Check seasoning and enjoy. 

Just a note I have replaced the bacon with cooked and diced mild chorizo sausage or speck. Each provides that smoky element that goes so well with the fish.