Macaroni Cheese

Macaroni Cheese is without doubt, my all time favourite food. By macaroni cheese, I only mean my mum's version, unadulterated with anything but unhealthy amounts of cheese. What could be better? Its like a hug in a bowl. As with all the best food, its steeped in memory for me, we always have macaroni cheese as part of a roast dinner (its a West Indian thing), believe me, it works! Try it with roast chicken and gravy - mmm....

Since leaving home, I've tried many times to recreate this myself, and whilst they were good, they were never the same. But I think I finally cracked it last night. Basically, you need to use more cheese than I feel comfortable using, and there needs to be a lot of thick cheesy sauce to macaroni. If you're going to do it, you need to do it properly I say!

My mum always makes her white sauce in the microwave and I can testify it does work really well, I do however, usually do it in a pan. Recently, I've got particularly lazy and even use cold milk when making a white sauce, as long as you whisk it in slowly, its fine!

In an attempt to feel more virtuous (and not end up feeling sick) I had mine with a mustardy pea, rocket and tomato salad(trying this mustard dressing), although I eat plenty more out of the dish afterwards, but still had enough for my lunch the next day.

What follows is (a version of) my mum's recipe...

Macaroni Cheese
serves 2

• 30g butter
• 30g flour
• 300ml (½ pint) milk
• 175g mature cheddar
• ½ tsp english mustard
  
• 200g macaroni

Cook the macaroni in plenty of boiling salted water until al dente. Melt the butter in a pan, whisk in the flour and cook for a few minutes more. Take off the heat, whisk the milk in the slowly to avoid lumps. Return to the heat and cook slowly until the sauce thickens (it will coat the back of a spoon). I usually wait until it just starts to bubble. Take off the heat, season well and add the mustard and cheese, wait a few minutes for the cheese to melt and mix with the macaroni. Bake at 200°C for about 30mins or until bubbling and golden.

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