My favorite Iron Chef, Mike Symon, shows off his own unconventional way to prepare mac and cheese. You may recall that I showed you guys a mac-and-cheese prep method that involved something approaching a custard (see this post); Symon's method, also avoiding the standard roux,* involves using double cream (i.e., cream that's boiled down to half its volume for twice the density, hence double cream). Look here:
Symon's method includes no oven time, so there's no lovely crust of cheese on the top. Since I'm planning to do mac and cheese on February 9 (a Friday), I might use Symon's method to create the dish right there in the office instead of baking it at home and bringing it in, as I did with my lasagna. For the crust, I might break off some pan-crusted Gruyère.
For the asking: Symon's recipe can be found here.
*I admit it: I'm fascinated by mac-and-cheese recipes that avoid the roux.
I have done double cream mac and cheese before, and it does taste amazing, but I must admit that I am partial to the roux because it is slightly less heart-attack inducing and is still pretty damn good. I am going to have to try the fresh rosemary route, though. I usually put freshly ground nutmeg in my mac and cheese.
ReplyDeleteI've never made double cream before, so this is going to be interesting. I may need to do a practice run before I do it for the whole gang.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty simple. The important thing, as Symon says (heh), is to not let it boil over. If you've successfully made roux-based mac and cheese, you'll have no problem with this.
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