“Good food is very often, even most often, simple food.”
― Anthony Bourdain, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly
Life is all about making the best of the situations. Recently I realized how simple things sometimes make big impacts. It has been almost a week since we landed here and it has been both good and bad. After eating out for the last few days, our bellies & minds both started demanding simple home cooked meal. We have only few kitchen utensils here, or in precise terms we got exactly 3 pieces of pots & pans. I love cooking and all I needed to unwind was to cook. Now the problem was that having only few cooking utensils kind of makes it hard to decide which recipe I could make as every recipe I decided needed something or other which my humble kitchen lacked at this point.
Finally we decided on making stove top mac and cheese as we had cheese in our refrigerator and some elbow pasta and what can be better than a plate full of warm cheesy goodness. Usually I like making it on stove top but at the last stage, I always like to bake my mac and cheese. This time as I had no oven, I decided to follow the simple stove top method till the end. When I was midway, I realized that I had no grater and it’s not really easy to find shredded cheese here. So I tried to be adventurous and threw chunks of hard cheese first and cooked it on slow. I was kind of scared in between when I felt cheese wasn’t going anywhere with the melting. All kinds of thoughts came to my mind and I wasn’t for sure ready to make another one. So I waited. It took some extra effort but at the end it paid off.
So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and make this. It is perfect for freezing weather which some of my friends are enjoying in Chicago right now. I miss you guys and this is for you!
- 6 handfuls of elbow pasta {In absence of measuring cups, this will work}
- Few pieces of cinnamon sticks, broken
- Salt, about 2 tsp
- Olive oil, about 1 tsp
- Olive oil, 1 tsp
- Red onion, ½ Tbsp chopped very very fine
- Garlic cloves, 4-5 chopped fine
- Flour, 1 tsp
- Milk, full fat or toned around 1.5 cups
- Salt to taste
- Lots of black pepper, crushed
- ½ tsp rosemary
- Cheddar cheese, ¾ cup shredded or chunks (Shredded preferred but chunks will work too)
- Gouda cheese, ½ cup (This is what I hand on hands and it worked beautifully but you can opt for Parmesan if you don't like change)
- Fill a big pot with water and bring it to roaring boil. Add salt, cinnamon, oil and pasta and cook it according to package directions or until pasta reaches desired softness. Strain and keep aside.
- In another pot, warm up olive oil. Once warm, add garlic and onion and cook for a minute. Add flour and cook until it browns but do not burn it. Keep the flame medium low and add milk. Keep stirring it constantly for around 10 -12 minutes while adding in between rosemary, salt and lots of black pepper. Once it starts to come to a slow boil, add the cheese and you will notice the sauce beginning to thick. If using chunks of cheese and if using gouda cheese, be prepared for some extra work as it will take some additional time to melt. Once sauce is ready with all the cheese melted, taste and adjust seasoning. Add the cooked pasta into the sauce. Warm on low. Taste and adjust salt or black pepper. If it gets too thick, add milk and warm on slow.
- Serving hot. For a spicy kick, sprinkle some crushed red pepper flakes on top.
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Lovely recipe dear. Will definitely try.