Back around the beginning of January, I was looking around on Food Network’s website and saw that Alton Brown’s Baked Macaroni and Cheese was rated the #1 Recipe on Food Network for 2009. So, tonight, I finally got around to making it. The recipe is available here at Food Network.
Like all great recipes… it starts with butter.
You melt up 3 TBSP of butter in a pan, and then mix in 3 TBSP of Flour and 1 TBSP of Dry Mustard.
You mix the flour and mustard into the melted butter for 5 minutes to “cook out” the flour taste and while you’re doing that, you boil some water and get 1/2 pound of Macaroni Noodles cooking to Al Dente. Oh, and preheat the oven to 350.
After you have been mixing for 5 minutes, add the milk, bay leaves, and paprika. Once again, I like to use the nice smoked paprika…
You let all of that go in the pot for about 10 minutes, then remove the Bay leaves… Do the thing with the egg… (I had Virginia do that) and then add 3/4 of the cheese. Mix all of that together, and then fold in the cooked, drained pasta. Pour all of that into a casserole dish.
Top off the pasta and sauce mixture with the remaining 1/4 of the cheese and get another 3 TBSP of butter into a saucepan. Get that butter melted, and add a cup of breadcrumbs. Mix the breadcrumbs around in the butter, get them all coated and then top the Mac and Cheese with breadcrumbs.
Get everything all smoothed out, and it time to go into the oven for 30 minutes… After 30 minutes, let it sit for 5, and it’s ready to serve.
and there it is… It was tasty… and Virginia really enjoyed it, but for me… nothing really jumped out at me. The strongest taste for me was the onion, but Virginia said that she could really taste the dried mustard and paprika… maybe my cold is messing with me tonight… But, it was easy to make, and I’m sure much better for you than boxed mac and cheese.
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