Category: roux

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breadcrumbs cheese pasta roux

jackie kashian’s cheese penne bake

I devour podcasts by the audio gallon. Since 2007 (late to the podcast party, I know) I’ve had a regular diet of banter, thought, review and revue. Many have come and gone from my queue, and I’m always happy to try new ones.

A few weeks ago I discovered The Dork Forest. Hosted by comedian Jackie Kashian she indulges her weekly guest in one of their obsessions, or ‘dorkdoms’. It’s a lot of fun, and if you like your podcasts rambly and occasionally educational, this is one for the playlist. On a recent episode her guest Tracey Ashley couldn’t praise her macaroni cheese enough. I don’t need asking twice; I raced off to try it.

Jackie’s original recipe is here, but be warned it’s written in American (Sticks of butter! Sharp cheese!). My rough Anglican version is below. I’ve not used Gruyere as it wouldn’t survive against the strong cheddar I used, an Asda mature cheddar with wholegrain mustard, part of their Asda Summer range. Any cheddar will do but the mustard flavour through it is really good. I’ve also subbed penne over macaroni. But it’s a great pasta bake, with a silky sauce and big flavour. I think it’s the breadcrumbs that make it.

Thanks to Asda for sending me the cheese to try.

Jackie Kashian’s cheese pasta bake (serves 4):

1 garlic clove, halved

4 tablespoons butter, melted

3 slices bread

3 tablespoons flour

500ml whole milk

2 teaspoons salt

¼ nutmeg, grated

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

400g cheddar cheese, grated

400g penne or other pasta

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Take your garlic clove and rub it around the inside of a baking dish. Whizz up your bread in a food processor, stir in 1 tablespoon of the butter and set aside.
  2. Get your pasta on to boil in plenty of salted water, and drain when done. Meanwhile make your sauce.
  3. Over a low heat stir together the remaining butter and flour until you have a roux and continue to cook for another minute until pale in colour. Add all of the milk and whisk constantly for about eight minutes until thick and smooth. Add the salt, nutmeg, cayenne and cheese. Take off the heat and stir through, then fold in the pasta.
  4. Pour into your baking dish, top with breadcrumbs and bake for 30 minutes until golden brown. Wait 2 minutes before serving to let the sauce settle, and serve with a green salad to try and offset some of the guilt.
Categories
bacon cheese mushroom pasta porcini roux

baked penne with bacon and porcini

I’d heard excited whispers on Twitter about a new BBC programme from Simon Hopkinson called The Good Cook. His name was only distantly familiar to me; I wasn’t directly aware of him.

So I sat down to watch it with little expectation. I became an instant convert. Simple, honest food that is achievable, excellent and done with love.

Just about everything featured is worth cooking, in a programme refreshingly devoid of format, gimmick or travelogue. Only the tiniest scraps of production remain: incessant overuse of funky chart hits, just because the BBC can; and occasional 30 second jaunts to far-flung places showing stock footage of people making cheese.

These are minor quibbles against the brilliance of Simon’s own natural easy going charm and obvious skill. His effortless style makes everything look easy and worth trying. So I’ve started with this, a luscious and rich pasta bake with a few small changes down to what I had lurking around waiting to be used up. It’s absolutely tremendous and really easy. It even encourages the all-in-one roux method which works like a dream to produce a silky and slurpable sauce. Please run to your storecupboards and try it now. You must have some of those dried mushrooms in there somewhere, right?

Simon’s original recipe can be found here.

Baked penne with bacon and porcini (serves 2):

500ml milk

20g dried porcini mushrooms

40g butter

25g flour

140g penne

6 rashers streaky bacon, diced

A couple of tablespoons grated parmesan

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Pop the mushrooms and milk in a pan and bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat and leave to infuse for 10 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile make the sauce. Melt the butter in a pan and stir in the flour. Keep it moving about for a minute to cook out the floury taste. Sieve off the milk then add it to the roux in one go whisking all the time. When smooth keep on a gentle heat for 10 minutes, whisking occasionally and allowing to thicken. Check for seasoning towards the end of the cooking time.
  3. Get the pasta on to cook according to the packet instructions. When done, throw the pasta, mushrooms, bacon and a third of the parmesan into the sauce and toss really well to get everything coated. Turn out into a baking dish, add another third of parmesan and bake for 30 mins until bubbling. Top with the remaining parmesan to serve.
Categories
broccoli cauliflower cheese food garlic pasta roux

killer mac ‘n’ cheese

Jamie Oliver’s title, not mine. Yes it’s another recreation from Jamie’s America. I have a macaroni cheese recipe I’m pretty happy with so it would be interesting to see what this brought to it. You start with a roux, add sliced garlic, whisk in milk, add cheese and then add boiled pasta and tomatoes. For some reason tomatoes weren’t on the menu tonight so I bunged in broc and cauli instead. Breadcrumbs on top, then in the oven for half an hour.

The key differences to mine were to add sliced garlic to the roux. This did lend an interesting smoky note to it which I enjoyed, but I didn’t feel adding both cheddar and parmesan did much for it. If I was going to improve on it, some pancetta would be nice and chewy. This is still a work in progress.

Categories
cream food mushroom pork roux

pork escalope with mushroom sauce

I grew up on Canvey Island, which is famous for many things though sadly not it’s food. There is one shining star on the isle, the fabulous Labworth restaurant with sensational sea views and supremely fresh seafood. On a recent trip Liam had pork escalope in a creamy mushroom sauce and was interested how it was made. I had a taste and said we’d give it a go at home.

So the escalope was easy enough; hammered and breadcrumbed pork fillets. The pork has to be quite lean as it’s not cooking for long. But the mushroom sauce was a touch more intricate, a roux-based sauce made with chicken stock and cream and thyme. I should’ve added more liquid to this one though, it was a touch too thick which can only be rescued before the cream is added. A pretty darn good approximation though.

Pork escalope with creamy mushroom sauce:

4 pork fillets, hammered thin between two pieces of cling film

2 tablespoons flour, seasoned

2 eggs, beaten

100g breadcrumbs

For the sauce:

200g mushrooms, sliced

75g butter

3 tablespoons butter

1 pint chicken stock

1 teaspoon thyme leaves

  1. Fry the mushrooms in a little butter and oil until coloured. Remove to one side.
  2. In the same pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour to make a roux. Allow to cook out for a minute.
  3. Add the chicken stock a little at a time until absorbed and you have a creamy finish. Season to taste and add thyme.
  4. Stir the cream into the sauce then return the mushrooms to the pan. Keep warm while you prepare the pork.
  5. To make the escalopes, dust in flour, dip into the egg then roll in breadcrumbs.
  6. Heat oil in a pan and fry the escalopes on each side until golden brown. Leave on kitchen paper to drain for a minute before serving with the sauce drizzled over.
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