Ingredients & Cookware for Gourmet Macaroni & Cheese Recipe

Series Summary

Boxed macaroni and cheese, or mac 'n' cheese as it is sometimes referred to in less formal circles, has long been a staple of the bachelor diet. While urban legend suggests it was Thomas Jefferson who first invented macaroni & cheese, its widespread popularity must be credited to those who appreciate the simplicity of a meal in a box. For many of us it was the first dish we learned how to cook. We went to college where we experimented with the recipe, substituting the milk with ranch dressing (perhaps out of necessity) or adding a dash of Tabasco sauce and Tony Chachere's, if for nothing more than just a flavor check. But as we get older, our culinary skills must improve. New ingredients must be added to the mix. New cooking methods must be explored. All species must evolve to survive, and boxed mac & cheese is not immune to this law of nature.

While the debate still rages between radicals and purists whether casserole variations can still be called "macaroni and cheese," experimenting with spam, hot dog slices and even tuna can have its own rewards. In this series of free cooking videos, Pamela Bowman, AKA "Chef Blondie" shares a recipe for 5-Star gourmet macaroni & cheese that will take this comfort food classic to the next level. She takes you through the cooking process step-by-step, from boiling the pasta to baking the dish to perfection. By just following these simple instructions, you will set your masterpiece apart from the simplistic noodlings of mere amateurs. Thomas Jefferson once said "I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing..." Be confident that he meant this to apply to the culinary world and prepare to cook "outside the box."

Video Transcript

"Hi, everybody Chef Blondie again and welcome to my show, “I want to be served by you” on expertvillage.com. Food for me is all about sex and romance, obviously you want to make a good first course, second course, third course to get to, well you know the course I am talking about. So today, we are going to be making Mac and Cheese, oh I know what you are thinking, “how can Mac and Cheese be sexy”? You know what I say to you, “kiss my Mac and my silky Roman meatballs” because we are going for gourmet macaroni and these fabulous Roman meatballs and we are going to plate it in such a way that I guarantee you, you won’t need dessert, you can create your own. Before we get started, I’d like to show you a couple of tips. These are really important things. If you look down you’ll kind of notice, I’ve got everything set out, ready to go. This is called good time management. This whole meal shouldn’t take you more than thirty-five or forty minutes. A little bit of prep beforehand is your best friend. But first I want to show you some great gadgets. A girl and guy’s best friend, the digital time, you will never burn something, you will never under cook it when you have this little guy. It does minutes and seconds, you can clip them on your belt, when you hear that little beep you know it’s time to go look at that oven while you are doing other things. Just a little clip right here, turn it on, let it go, you are ready to go, it beeps, turn it off, go to the oven. Another thing I can’t live without is a digital thermometer, you’re noticing digital is a theme here, this guy will actually, in a roast, read you the temperature. I know, who can remember what the right temperature for pork is, or beef, when is it medium rare? The neat thing about this is that right on the other end of the thermometer is all of the temperatures listed for you so you know that if you want that roast to come out medium rare you are going to pull it at one twenty five and because you are watching my show you know that you are going to let it rest and you also know that it is going to have a carry over time of about ten degrees so you will have perfect medium rare at a hundred and thirty-five degrees. But most important to me, is that you have a sharp knife, these little guys are cheap, you can get it at Target, it is a knife sharpener. Spend a little money and buy a good chefs knife, this is an eight inch knife it is perfect for me. You can do a ten inch if you are a big guy and you want a little more blade, but very easy to sharpen. You give it two little pulls on one side and on the thinner side give it another two and I know you are trying to figure out what the heck is this? It comes in my knife case and I still haven’t figured it out. It’s called a “steel” and all it really does is once you have sharpened your knife it takes the little beveled edges and smooths them out. And this knife is so sharp, that if I take it along my hand and if I pull and ran it up here it would literally take the hair off my hand. Also there is a right way and a wrong way to hold a knife and if you would like to not get cut again, I suggest that you put your thumb on one side of the knife, your forefinger on the other, let your other fingers come around and hold that knife and guess what, it is no longer a tool, it is a part of your arm, it is an easy motion and you are not going to cut yourself and let’s face it we don’t need any extra blood in this meal. We are going to get started on our Mac, because that is our longest and it is our best in my ever so humble opinion Mac and Cheese, so let’s get going. Come on over here, we’ve made what is called a mother sauce. If you can master the mother sauce, you can make babies. We have got about a cup and a quarter of whole milk, we’ve got an onion that I’ve studded with these little guys, you just put them into the onion, they are a little garlic, they are little cloves and they are going to add a great little bit of flavor, we have also got a bay leaf in here and we have got this warming, you want to bring it up to a boil and then down so you have some nice warm milk. Our next step is making what is called a rue’. "