Macaroni Cheese Tonight

It's a cool and rather wet Summer's day here today so I decided to make Macaroni Cheese for our meal tonight. Many moons ago, when we lived in a colder climate, I used to make it for Saturday lunches in the winter and it's still quite popular with the family. Nowadays, because the grandchildren don't like mushrooms, I need to make two versions - one a plain dish and the other with extra bits and pieces.

sliced onions, chopped ham and bacon, mushrooms and crushed garlic

Making this dish involves two processes - cooking the macaroni pasta and making the white sauce so I set to work slicing onions, peeling and slicing mushrooms, crushing a couple of cloves of garlic, chopping ham left over from Christmas. The ham was frozen solid which is why there are big pieces there. I then put a little butter in a non stick frypan and cooked these things for a few minutes, until the onion bits were opaque.

First stage of the white sauce

If there is a tricky bit to making Macaroni Cheese then making the white sauce might be it! I learned to make it at age twelve in cooking lessons at school. Those days, course options for girls were rather limited by society's expectations and attitude about spending money educating girls. It was the era when you often heard comments such as, " Why keep her at school when she's fifteen? She's only going to get married." Of course, after marriage it was expected that the said girl would very quickly produce at least four children and who needs to have an educated mother? It was also said that an educated wife was too pushy and wouldn't know her place. Thankfully, today, most people realise that an education for girls is an asset both economically and in quality mothering. Anyway, making a roule ie white sauce was on the curriculum for girls in those days, so it's now back to Macaroni cheese.

To make a white sauce you need a heavy bottom pot into which you melt about two tablespoons of butter. When this is melted you carefully mix in about one dessertspoon of plain flour and stir continuously until the mixture begins to whiten and stick on the bottom of the pot. Don't let it stick more than a little or you will soon get it burnt. You then add about 2 -3 cups of milk which you have at the ready,stir and stir, not allowing lumps to form. I was too busy trying to take photos as I was cooking that today my sauce went a little lumpy. No problem though as I pulled out the potato masher and squashed the lumps flat - not a tip I learned at school, just previous experience.

White Sauce thickening

You then need to have the hot plate temperature turned medium to low and to stir continuously until the sauce thickens.

Cooking the macaroni elbows

While I was making the white sauce, I was also cooking the macaroni elbows. I put a packet of it into boiling salted water and cooked it until it was done - a bit of a firm bite, not mushy or very soft. I had to stir it several times to ensure that it didn't stick on the bottom of the pot.

cooked macaroni elbows draining

While the macaroni elbows were draining, I added tasty grated cheese to the sauce and gave it a quick stir to blend it.

Ready to add the sauce

In order to please all members of my family, remember, I have to make two versions of this dish. . .  the deluxe version with a plain sauce for the children . . .

Plain Cheese Sauce

. . .  and the Superior white Sauce with added onion, ham, garlic and ham for the adults.

White Cheese Sauce with ham, onion, garlic and mushroom

It's 5.30pm and I am almost done! Only the garlic bread and salad to do and the meal will be ready. I mix the sauces and pasta, throw some grated cheese on the top, remembering to add a bit of Parmesan as well on the adults' dishes and stuff them into the hot oven - 180C.

Macaroni Cheese ready for the oven

About twenty minutes later they are cooked and  bubbling happily. I take them out of the oven just as a child says, " I'm hungry NOW! Do I need to wait for Mum and Dad to come?"

One for the children, one for the adults and one for the freezer for a busy/lazy day

No need to wait. The front door opens and in come the rest of the family.

Kama Lasti!