The best macaroni and cheese

I had never even made mac n cheese before the other night, which shocked me because it is such a delicious meal. I hadn't actually eaten it for a couple of years which also came as a shock, and probably added to the reason why I loved it so much! I bought Lisa Faulkner's new cookbook (which is absolutely amazing by the way, will post a link at the bottom) the other day, and I found this recipe in there, and it worked perfectly. I was sceptical at first about using leeks in this dish as I'd never heard of it in mac n cheese before, and I wasn't even sure I liked leeks. But honestly, the leeks work so well in this - and they don't have an overpowering flavour like I thought they would - they are just soft which mixes well with the roux sauce. I'd never even made a roux sauce before and everyone always barks on about how difficult it is because it can get lumpy etc. But I had no problems with the ratio of milk, butter and flour, or with the method in this book. The sauce was so smooth, silky and cheesy that I practically ate half of it before it even went in the oven! This recipe has pancetta/bacon in, but of course it would be just as lovely without if you are vegetarian. The only complaint me and my mum had about this dish was that we wanted more! So definitely try this recipe, because it is hands down the best mac n cheese I have ever tasted....

(Sorry for the long intro and that the pictures aren't that clear/great. Need to invest in some fancy square white plates!)

Serves 4-6  (I halved it)
- 300g macaroni
- 75g pancetta, cubed (or bacon)
- 2 leeks, trimmed and thinly sliced
- 50g butter
- 50g plain flour
- 600ml milk
- 1 tsp mustard powder
- a dash of Worcestershire sauce (like Lea & Perrins)
- 225g cheddar cheese, grated
- 75g parmesan cheese, grated
- 65g breadcrumbs
- salt and pepper

Few notes: definitely make sure you stick to the ingredients because they really do all add different flavours and textures to the dish which make it so delicious. Particularly the flavour of the Worcestershire sauce, and the texture of the crunchy breadcrumbs on top!
Also, don't be afraid of making a roux sauce, just stick to the method!

1. Preheat the oven to gas mark 5/190 degrees. Cook the macaroni for 10 minutes in salted water, then drain.
2. Meanwhile, in a small frying pan, brown the pancetta over a medium heat, add the leeks and fry until softened. Set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the flour, beating with a wooden spoon to form a roux. Cook this for a couple of minutes, stirring constantly.
4. Add the milk gradually, stirring all the time until the sauce has thickened. Add the mustard powder, Worcestershire sauce and salt & pepper. Take the pan off the heat and stir in the cheeses (saving a little to sprinkle on top)
5. Mix the leeks and pancetta into the macaroni then spoon into an ovenproof dish. Pour over the cheese sauce and sprinkle over the breadcrumbs. (My sauce was quite thick so I mixed the sauce with the macaroni, leeks and pancetta, and then spooned into the dish - I'm sure the other way works just as well though!)
6. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until bubbling and crisp on top

Enjoy :)

Amazing book - definitely recommend - so many different recipes to suit all different styles and tastes. Love how it is separated into Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, rather than starters, mains etc. Her mini intros of each recipe really make you inspired to try them. I sat for about 2 hours reading it from cover to cover!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Recipes-My-Mother-Daughter/dp/0857206168/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334007221&sr=8-1

Oven-baked rosemary & bacon potato rosti

As I was grating all the potatoes I thought to myself, is this really worth it!? For some reason, I had the expectation that this would be watery and bland (even though I seasoned etc.) Boy was I mistaken! This was one of the best potato dishes I've ever had, and definitely the best one I've ever made. I don't think I've ever even had a rosti before - if I have it wasn't memorable. So I was just going to make a traditional rosti and fry them individually, but then I decided to oven-bake one big one so the potato is cooked for about an hour, meaning the result is a soft, creamy inside, and a crisp outside, mmm. I served this with balsamic, rosemary and tomato marinated lamb which complimented it perfectly. I will post the recipe for the lamb over the next couple of days. Who would have thought grated potato would taste so satisfying...

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

- 3 rashers streaky bacon

- 750g potatoes, peeled (waxy potatoes - I used Sainsburys taste the difference Vivaldi)

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1/2 onion

- butter, for greasing and topping

- dried or fresh rosemary, for sprinkling

- handful of parmesan, grated

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees/gas mark 5. Dry-fry the bacon in a pan until golden and crispy. Cut into pieces once cooled.
2. Boil the potatoes whole for about 5 minutes. Drain and place in cold water.
3. When cool enough to handle, grate the potatoes into a large bowl, occasionally adding olive oil.
4. Finely chop the onion and add to the grated potato along with the bacon.
5. Place a baking tray in the oven to heat. Grease a loose-bottomed cake tin with butter and scatter the potato mix into it. Do not pack it down with your hands. Sprinkle with rosemary and parmesan, and scatter butter over the top. (Picture below is at this stage)

6. Place on top of the baking tray in the oven and bake for 1 to 1 and a half hours - until the potatoes are cooked through and crisp on top.

Enjoy :)

Italian chicken bake

I bought the 'Eat In' magazine yesterday which I love, but don't usually buy because it's £2.50 and quite thin! Having said that, it gives me so many brilliant ideas for meals or baking, and offers really good tips on things like matching different herbs to different ingredient. The recipes are also really easy to follow and the photography is great. So I spent most of my train journey home yesterday with my head in this magazine; I even started to annotate some of the recipes!? Haha. I made this last night, and I only changed two things from the original recipe: not using pepperoni on top (my mum doesn't like pepperoni), and adding my favourite ingredients for Italian cooking, which if you read my other posts, is of course, balsamic vinegar! I served this dish with a bit of pasta, but I can imagine it working just as well with rice or even potatoes. Or just a larger portion of the bake with some cheesy garlic bread mm. 

Serves 2
Ingredients:
- 1/2 onion chopped (I used 1 small onion)
- drizzle of olive oil
- 2 chicken breasts, sliced/chopped
- sprinkling of garlic granules
- sprinkling of dried oregano
- 400g can of chopped tomatoes
- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional)
- 60g ball of mozzarella, sliced
- 25g sliced pepperoni (I didn't use this)
- salt and pepper


1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees/gas mark 6. Fry the onion in the oil, until translucent.
2. Add the diced chicken to the pan and brown for 5 minutes. Add the garlic and oregano and fry for another couple of minutes. Pour in the chopped tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and bubble for 5 minutes.
3. Pour into an ovenproof dish. Top with the sliced mozzarella and pepperoni, if using, and bake for 25 minutes or until bubbling. Season and serve with a carb of your choice!

Enjoy :)

Spaghetti alla carbonara (al forno)

I love pasta and I'm always tempted to order carbonara whenever I go to an Italian restaurant even though I always leave half of it because it's too rich, and even though I know I can make it easily at home! I remember going to stay with a friend in the South of France and there was this restaurant where we always used to order carbonara, and on top of the thick creamy sauce, was an egg exploding with the rich yolk - it was delicious but only for about 2 or 3 mouthfuls. This recipe I prefer because it is much lighter, but can be too dry for some people so just make sure to add more double cream depending on the consistency you prefer. I also love that it is baked (al forno) in the oven because it means the top layer of spaghetti is crisp, as is the parmesan. I wish I had added a bacon breadcrumb topping because that would have made this dish!

(The photos above were taken before I baked it in the oven, sorry)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

- 200g spaghetti pasta

- 4 rashers of smoked bacon, chopped

- 150g mushrooms, sliced (optional)

- knob of butter (for frying)

- 1/2 garlic clove, finely chopped or 1 tsp powdered garlic

- 1 egg, beaten

- double cream or crème fraiche (as much as you want to add)

- parmesan (as much as you want)

- handful of parsley, finely chopped

1. Boil the spaghetti in salted water, following cooking times on the packet.

2. Meanwhile, fry the bacon with the mushrooms, if using, in the butter and garlic.

3. Once the spaghetti is cooked, drain, and return to the pan, adding the bacon and mushroom.

4. Stir in the egg, double cream, half the parmesan and half the parsley. Season to taste.

5. Transfer the spaghetti to an oven proof dish, and sprinkle with the remains of the parsley and the parmesan. (This is where you can add a bacon crumb - chopped bacon fried with breadcrumbs).

6. Bake in the oven at 180c/gas mark 4 for about 20-30 minutes, or until the golden brown colour and crispiness you desire.

Enjoy :)

The basis for this recipe comes from my Comfort Food book which I love - every page is mouthwatering!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Comfort-Food-Love-Parragon-Books/dp/1405456833/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1330773975&sr=1-2

Baked raspberry cheesecake

This cheesecake was divine! I had never baked a cheesecake before this; only ever whacked together some cream cheese and mascarpone and put it on top of a biscuit base - and the conclusion is that it really doesn't taste that good this way, you might as well be eating cream cheese out the tub! And we all know that feels far naughtier than one slice of this crunchy, creamy, soft, juicy, sweet cheesecake. Or maybe not...

I got this recipe from the Comfort Food recipe book I have (which I linked and put a picture of in my baked carbonara post). The recipe was for a Manhattan Cheesecake with a blueberry topping - basically just a syrupy coulis drizzled on top. I had seen so many pictures online, however, of marbled cheesecakes, and so I really wanted to try this. The majority of the recipes were from American writers, however, where cups are flying at you in all directions - I don't think anyone has the time or effort to convert those! So I followed the recipe from my cookbook for the vanilla cheesecake, but I didn't do a soured cream topping which is typical of a Manhattan style cheesecake. I then made a raspberry coulis and marbled it in and the outcome was fab. It didn't really sink that much in the middle which was brilliant as well. So this cheesecake is perfect if you're trying to impress (as the marbling technique looks great and is fairly simple to do) and if you want a naughty, comfort food.

Ingredients:

- 85g butter

- 200g digestive biscuits, crushed

- 400g cream cheese

- 2 large eggs

- 140g caster sugar

- 1 tsp vanilla essence

- raspberries (can't remember how many I used, but probably a punnet)

- icing sugar (couple of spoonfulls)

1. Preheat the oven to 190 degrees/gas mark 5 and brush an 8-inch springform tin with oil.

2. Melt the butter in a pan and add the crushed biscuits, stirring until coated in all the butter. Spread in the bottom of the tin, pressing down with your knuckles to check it is firmly covering the surface.

3. Place the cream cheese, eggs, sugar and vanilla essence in a food processor and process until smooth (I did this by hand, may take longer though). Pour over the biscuit base and smooth the top.

4. Crush the raspberries through a sieve (doesn't have to be particularly fine), and stir with some icing sugar. Spoon the raspberry liquid on top of the cheesecake in patches - basically blob it on in various places. Next, using cocktail sticks or a small pallette knife - depending on the effect you want - gently swirl through the raspberry patches. The picture below is what mine looked like at this stage, before I baked it.

5. Place on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, or until set. It should be a bit wobbly in the middle, but not liquid. Leave to stand for 20 minutes, then chill in the fridge for 8 hours, or overnight. (I think mine was only chilled for about 6 hours and it was absolutely fine so don't worry too much, as long as it is set enough to cut slices!)

6. Serve on its own or with extra raspberries, or cream, or a chocolate truffle.

Enjoy :)