Mac-n-Cheese With Steez

This past Sunday I found myself strolling through the Byward Market, simply captivated by all the fresh and local goodness the vendors had to offer. Mallory can attest to the fact that I seemed like a total space cadet as I was overwhelmed by the colours and quantity of the amazing produce that surrounded me. We picked up a bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables, and dipped into the market's cheesemonger to cop some quality dairy products. We ended up walking away with a nice hunk of canadian cheddar and some top quality cottage cheese with aspirations to make some bad ass, homestyle mac and cheese to warm us up after a day walking about in the cold Ottawa drizzle. 'Twas an excellent idea and this is how it went down.

Hustle up:

- 1 lb box of suitable pasta (choose a tubular pasta that will hold the creamy sauce well, like a penne, macaroni, or cavatappi. I used cavatappi, which is also called scoobi doo)

- 1/2 - Full stick of Butter

- 2 Garlic cloves, chopped

- 1 small onion, chopped super small

- 2/3 cup of all-purpose flour

- Can of delicious beer (or a case of further drinking)

- 4 cups (1 Litre) of milk

- One can (354mL) of unsweetened evaporated milk

- 1 lb of good quality medium aged cheddar cheese, shredded

- A couple tablespoonfuls of your favourite dijon mustard

- Tablespoon of paprika (if you can get or got some smoked paprika, give it a try)

- A few generous pinches of chili powder

- Tub of cottage cheese (find some that is pretty thick)

- Sea Salt and Black Pepper

- 1/2 loaf of some sort of delicious italian bread torn into small pieces, preferably from your local bakery

- Splash of Olive oil

Get the oven heating up to 350 degrees. While the cooking box does its thang, boil some salted water and get your pasta cooked to 'al dente', which means its tender, yet still has a bit of bite or density to it. You really don't wanna over cook the pasta as you're cooking it in the sauce later. Should be about 7-8 minutes in the boiling water.

Time to get saucy. In a large sauce pan, or the pot you boiled the pasta in, melt about 1/2 the stick of butter over medium/medium-low heat. Add the chopped onion, cooking until it starts to soften, smells delicious, and become translucent. Throw in the garlic, and continue to cook until everything starts to get a little bit golden. You may need to add a few hunks of butter as the onion will absorb some and you need the butter to make the 'roux'. Add the flour and stir the mix with a wooden spoon until a thick and smooth paste is formed. If it's too doughy add a few more hunks of butter and incorporate. This paste is the 'roux' and it is frequently used for making sauces, so it is good to become familiar with it. The roux is used for thickening sauces as it has flour in it and by combining the flour with butter, it can be evenly distributed throughout the sauce, and ultimately prevents nasty lumps. Continue to cook the roux for a few minutes so it gets all toasty like, thus developing more flavour. Slowly stir in a few big splashes of the beer until the mixture becomes smooth again.

Gradually stir in both milks, then switch your cooking weapon to a whisk, and start whisking that sauce until it is nice and smooth. Continue to whisk (if you have pansy wrists, switch with a friend) and whisk for several minutes until that sauce is pretty thick.

Now its really time to party. Stir in the cheese, dijon, paprika, chili powder, and a good dash of salt and cracked pepper. 

Add the cooked pasta into the cheesy sauce of goodness, and stir to get everything nice and sloppy. Pour the sauce/pasta party into a big ass casserole dish, something like 9"x13, or a couple smaller dishes, ooor if you're fancy enough to have a individual oven proof ramikans (fancy for bowls), you can use those, too.

Spoon nice dollops of cottage cheese all over the top of the noodle party and crack a little more black pepper over top. Proceed to toss the bread chunks with a splash or two of olive oil, and then spread it out over the pasta. 

Throw it in the cooking box and bake until it is heated through and the top is sexy and golden brown, approximately 30 minutes, but it really depends on the size of the dish used. 

When I cooked this up, I used a mix of a medium aged cheddar, and some extra old cheddar (both Canadian, yay local food!) for nice sharp cheese flavour. You can definitely mix it up with whatever type of cheese you want, and you can even throw in some meat like cooked sausage, ham, BACON!, ground beef, or mix in some small chunks of cauliflower, broccoli, or whatever veges you have on hand. Serve with a nice green salad, and get dedicated.

Get Sauced

As promised, I made a little magic in the kitchen last night with those fresh local tomatoes I previously posted about. The end of August and the beginning of September boasts the amazingness of tomato season. The tomato is a very versatile commodity and can be utilized in the kitchen in thousands of ways, but in an effort to keep things brief and concise, I will cut the shit and get straight to the point. This whole blog is based around the premise that delicious does not have to be complicated. In fact, it can be simple as fuck. This here recipe/guideline IS simple as fuck, and everyone should try it/remember this. It can be whipped up really quick, or can be simmered for hours. It is extremely versatile, and although very simple, it can also be very impressive. With the addition of whatever you might need to use up in your fridge, it can become a completely different beast. I speak of tomato sauce, marinara sauce, red sauce, gravy. Call it what you will, its fucking delicious and easy.

I started with a basket for fresh tomatoes, but you can easily substitute them with whole or diced canned tomatoes if you're in a rush/too lazy/it's no longer tomato season.

You will need:

- about a dozen fresh tomatoes (roma/plum or something that isn't too big and seedy)

- 1 onion chopped

- 3-4 garlic cloves chopped

- 1 shallot chopped (optional)

- red chili pepper flakes (optional)

- fresh basil leaves

- parmigiano-reggiano cheese (or something similar)

- olive oil

First, get some water boiling in a pot, and slice an X in the bottom of your tomatoes. Fill a bowl with cold water and ice and situate in close proximity to the pot of boiling water. Once that water is a boil, dunk about three tomatoes at a time in the hot water for 60 seconds, and transfer to the cold water for another 60 seconds using a slotted spoon. 

Once you have dunked all your tomatoes, you can pretty easily peel off all the skins. Using a sharp knife, cut out the stems of the tomatoes, those will make for bad texture in your sauce. Over a bowl, maybe the one you used for the cold water, give the tomatoes a good squeeze and try to get as much of the seeds to squirt out as possible. Don't stress about this too much, but it's a good thing to do. Roughly chop the tomatoes into chunks.

In a large enough sauce pan, heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil over medium heat. Add your onions and cook, stirring frequently until they start to turn translucent. Now add the shallots and garlic, and chili peppers if you please, and continue to cook until everything in your world begins to smell fucking amazing and the onions and garlic start to turn a golden hue. Go ahead, add your tomatoes now. Stir around, throw a lid on that bitch, and reduce heat and allow that shit to simmer for a while. 

You should stir this every few minutes and taste as you go. As your sauce simmers away, season with some sea salt and ground pepper, and you'll probably want to throw in a dash or two of sugar (just a bit, you're not making jam) to balance out the acidity of the tomatoes. I let my sauce simmer for about 30 minutes with the lid on, then about 10 minutes with the lid off. By cooking with the lid on, it keeps the natural liquids in the sauce and helps breakdown the big chunks of tomato. Then with the lid off, the sauce thickens up a little bit as the water evaporates. You could easily skip the lid and break down the tomatoes with an immersion blender if you're in a rush or a lazy fuck, but the sauce tastes better if you let that shit sim-sim-simmer.

As you rock the sauce with the lid off and it starts to thicken up, throw a pot of salted water on the stove, bring it to a boil and get some noodles cooking if this is how you intend to use your sauce. I cooked up some spaghetti, as I find the long, thin noodles the perfect vessel for this velvety, red sauce. As the noodles cook, grab some of that fresh basil, roll it up into a little basil blunt, and slice it. Also, grate the parmigiano cheese with a fine grater. Throw a bunch of the basil and cheese into the sauce and stir it around, but make sure to reserve a bit of each for garnishing.

Once your noodles are all cooked up, add a few tablespoons of noodle water to the sauce. Drain the noodles and divide amongst bowls or plates, sauce it up, garnish and serve.

Enjoy the deliciousness of simplicity. Sorry for cursing.

Some Really Really Good Pasta*

This post is solely dedicated to Ben Temple. Happy birthday Ben! I could have just named this post "Happy Birthday Ben!", but I didn't... Not because Ben isn't deserving of it, but just because I happened to name it something else first. For real though, it's Ben Temple's birthday today, and part of the reason I put an effort into this blog is because of Ben Temple. I used to live with Ben in university and I know first hand he enjoyed deliciousness. In fact, I had seen him try his hand at impressing his lovely lady friend with some of his home cooking skills, and later had heard her wishes for, "[him] to just be able to make some really really good pasta".

I agree. A very ambiguous request if I do say so myself. What is "some really really good pasta?" How does one go about defining this? Well, to each is his own, but after a hard day of consuming at a bar that is on a pirate ship, one might define it as the following, and I for Goddamn-sure know Anna just might agree with me on this one. So, Happy Birthday Benjamin Temple and I hope upon the William Thorton bar that you use this recipe in your favour at least twice, as it is that good. Aaaand it is so simple that you can do it after a hard afternoon of drinking, just as I successfully have. Not too sure if the pictures do any justice, but hopefully you get the jist of all this. Party on my friend and I hope you get what you deserve on this 23rd birthday of yours.

You will need:
- 3-4 Italian Sausage Links
- 2 Large Handfuls of your favourite mushrooms (button, mini bellos, shitaki, oyster, magic, portobello, whatever you like...)
- 2-3 cloves of Garlic (chopped up like)
- 3-4 Green Onions chopped into 1 inch sections
- Grainy Mustard
- Cream (half and half, whole, heavy, or whatever your heart can handle)
- Whole wheat Penne pasta (enough for 2-3 servings)
- Fresh basil leaves
- Delicious delicious

In my opinion, pasta should never be a very complicated thing to make. So, to start this off get your sausage in a frying pan or skillet, over medium high heat. I recommend removing the meaty sausage goodness from the casing by simply making a slit down the side of the sausage, with a sharp knife, and squeezing it right into the pan. Break it up with your spoon or spatula and get it moving around until it is just cooked. Remove the sausage and set aside.

While you play with your sausage, you should take your shrooms, and cut them in half for slicing ease. After cutting them in half, simply continue to slice them into thin pieces. Take your green onions and chop into one inch sections, discard the white bits though. At this point, you should chop your garlic cloves if you haven't done so already. Meanwhile, get a pot of salted water boiling for your pasta. Now, throw your mushrooms in the frying pan after you have removed the sausage and get them moving around. Once the shrooms start to soften, add your garlic and continue to toss around the pan: do not let the garlic burn! Now that the garlic is getting all fragrant and soft, toss the green onions in the pan. Continue to move these around until they are softening, as well. As the shrooms, garlic and onions get all sexy smelling, you should reintroduce the sausage back into the pan, as well as a good dollop or two of the grainy mustard. Turn the heat down to medium low as you stir everything around and start to add cream to the equation. You want to add cream to cover about half to three-quarters of the sausage/garlic/onion/shroom mixture. I won't give an exact measurement as you can eyeball this and make as much sauce as you like. Crack some black pepper over top, stir to combine with the mustard and cream and simmer until sauce begins to thicken.

Hopefully at this point your pasta water has already begun to boil. Add your desired measurement of pasta to the water and continue to boil until it is "al dente" (tender but has a bit of bite to it still), or until it is cooked to your liking. Drain the water from the pasta, but reserve a few small spoonfuls of the pasta water. Add the pasta, and the reserved pasta water into the cream sauce and mix around until everything is coated with sauce. Divide all the goodness amongst your serving vessel of choice (bowl or plate) and garnish with some chopped fresh basil leaves. I find this part to be crucial as it really livens up the whole dish with the greenness and fresh taste of the basil. There isn't a flavour in the world that gets me as excited as fresh basil. After the basil, grate some of that Parmesan cheese on top and give it a good sprinkle of some olive oil. Now you may serve and enjoy what has been coming to you since you put that garlic in the pan and didn't burn it! 

Atta boy. Happy Birthday.  

*This dish is so easy, it can even be made after a long day of partying on a pirate-ship bar. True story.