Amelia is a new blogger and like many of us, she’s working on getting her financial house in order, as well as lose weight. Her blog is called Amelia’s Healthy Life. Because if you have enough money, you can buy a trainer’s time, or quit and focus on your health full-time. (I had a friend who did this and frankly, he’s really hot after losing 100lbs in 2 years.)
At any rate, I was kind sad to read she had a Mac N’ Cheese disaster at home. But hey, we’ve all been there and done that. I’ve botched many a cheese sauce. In fact, mine was grainy on Sunday night, but quite edible.
I’m a little disturbed though by the recipe used. It’s a lightened version of Alton Brown’s stove top recipe and I’m utterly confused why there’s so much butter and egg in it. If you’re putting a sauce on the noodles, don’t bother putting butter on them. It makes the sauce slide off. Even Alton Brown says not to do that.
Macaroni and cheese is a very easy pantry recipe. Shoot. I made it for dinner on Sunday because boyfriend and I were sitting around what the hell to eat and feeling lazy. Having watched an Alton Brown casserole program, I was kind of inspired to make homemade mac n’ cheese. There is only one trick to mac n’ cheese and one trick only.
MAKE A GOOD BECHAMEL SAUCE.
Bechamel sauce is a very basic French sauce. (Thank you very much Julia Child!) It’s also called a ‘white sauce’. It’s so freakin’ cheap to make, but also very easy to screw up. Got butter, flour, and milk? I bet you do.
Melt a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan on medium to high heat till it’s foamy. (Alton Brown says that’s when the water burns off leaving only fat and milk solids.) Then drop in a teaspoon or two of flour and cook till it’s lightly browned. You want to coat each flour molecule with some fat, or else you get floury flavor, so don’t use too much flour. Err on the side of less if doing this without measuring. Gradually whisk in a cup of milk and cook till thickened. This is the tricky part because you will end up with a lumpy sauce if you do not whisk your little heart out. The best way is to take the pan off the heat and add a little milk at a time so the flour absorbs it all before adding more. Take care that the pan is not too hot when you do it. That’s what usually screws mine up.
To make a cheese sauce, add a 1/2-1 cup of sharp cheese like cheddar, but gruyere or another fondue cheese works just as well. Try a smoked gouda. Fog City Diner in SF makes it with smoked gouda, ham and peas. YUM. (ok, I admit, not low calorie)
I just don’t get why someone would use a egg white for this to save calories. Eggs are picky and will curdle if the heat’s not right. If you want less fat, just use less butter. The sauce will be thinner since you have to adjust down the flour as well, but at least you haven’t added a finicky egg.
The mac n’ cheese on Sunday night was about half a box of rotini from the pantry. 1 tsp of butter. 1/2 tsp of flour. 1/2 cup of low fat milk. A sprinkle of cayenne pepper. 1 c of grated sharp cheddar cheese. (Save some for the top)
I stuck it all in a casserole dish, sprinkled on the last of the cheese, and crushed a few Triscuits since I didn’t have bread crumbs. Baked it in the oven at 350 for 10-15 minutes to re-warm the noodles and make the top a little crusty. It was enough for 3-4 servings. The leftovers were freshened up with an extra sprinkle of cheese before popping in the microwave.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh the shame! I *knew* that a béchamel sauce was probably the way to go – I’ve made it that way many a time. LOVE it with gouda, for sure! I just saw this recipe on Cheap Healthy Good and thought, why not give it a shot? The sauce part of it probably would have been OK, it was really the gooey overcooked high fiber macaroni that was the culprit!
But tried and true is the way to go. Mac-n-Cheese just is not meant to be a low calorie item. It would be much better to make it the “real” way and eat less with a big salad. That’s pretty much the conclusion I’ve come to on all things “reduced fat”. So not worth it! I’d rather eat something that’s good and just eat less of it. No more low fat cheese for me.
Thanks for checking out my blog and also for the tips on the sauce, Mapgirl. I have definitely experienced the grainy béchamel sauce and now I know why.
That sounds so good! Unfortunately dh was just told that he has high cholesterol so I’ll have to hold off making this for a while, but it is very tempting!
No egg…there’s no point for me to mess with something tricky when I don’t need to.
You have to use the whole egg here or else the sauce turns out funky.
Trent, can you elaborate about the egg? What does ‘funky’ mean? Adding the egg turns the sauce into a custard. I’m not good at custards so I avoid them. There’s more room for error there if you ask me.
Um, yeah, never used egg in mac n’cheese. As much as I love Alton Brown, that just seems wrong. I would think a good way to lower the fat would be too look for a decent, low fat, cheddar cheese. A block of it, of course. I know Cabot has a pretty good one. My parent’s buy it. I don’t usually buy low fat cheeses, but the rest of the dairy I get is, such as milk and sour cream.