Hot Dish Macaroni and Cheese – from Daniel

Hot Dish Macaroni and Cheese

-for Margaret

1 pound De Cecco penne pasta
½ cup Meadowbrook unsalted butter
½ cup flour
2 cups whole milk
¾ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon Allepo Pepper (available in our bulk section)
1 pound Tickler extra sharp cheddar cheese, freshly shredded
½ cup beer (pale ale)
½ cup bread crumbs
¼ cup parmesan cheese, freshly shredded
½ teaspoon Allepo Pepper (available in our bulk section)
1 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cook pasta in plenty of rapidly boiling, salted water until al dente. Set aside.

Melt butter over low-to-medium heat. Add flour. Cook flour and butter to make a blond roux. I like to cook roux for 5 – 8 minutes, so this is done slowly. It shouldn’t get brown, only tan. It’s important to cook the roux thoroughly, though, so as to minimize the flour taste in the sauce.

Whisk the salt and allepo pepper in a little bit of the milk until the seasonings are well-dissolved. Stir this into the rest of the milk and add this resulting mixture to the cooked roux. Raise the flame to medium heat and cook as for a very thick, smooth béchamel (white sauce, n’est-ce pas?).

Add the cheese in small portions, whisking thoroughly after each addition. Add the beer.

Combine the cheese sauce and pasta. Smooth this mixture into a greased casserole dish.

Combine the final four ingredients. I like to use home made bread crumbs for this now, but at Hot Dish we used store bought (yes, the stuff in the big cardboard tube). Sprinkle this mixture over the macaroni and cheese.

Bake for about half an hour or until golden brown on top. Don’t over-bake it. It’s possible that the cheese sauce will break if you do that. A cheese sauce is said to break when the fats and solids in the sauce separate and leave a gloppy mess.

Recipe by Daniel C. McGlothlen

Red Beans and Rice – Vegan Style

Amount Measure Ingredient — Preparation Method
——– ———— ——————————–
1 pound red kidney beans — dry
1 large onion — chopped
1 each bell pepper — chopped
5 each rib celery — chopped
garlic — minced
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme — or more if needed
1 each bay leaf — or more if needed
tabasco sauce — to taste
Creole seasoning (See separate recipe) — to taste (start with a tablespoon)
salt — to taste
liquid Barbecue Smoke® — to taste (start with a teaspoon)

Soak the beans overnight, if possible. The next day, drain and put fresh water in the pot. Bring the beans to a rolling boil. Make sure the beans are always covered by water, or they will discolor and get hard. Boil the beans for about 45-60 minutes, until the beans are tender but not falling apart. Drain.

While the beans are boiling, saute the Trinity (onions, celery, bell pepper) until the onions turn translucent. Add the garlic and saute for 2 more minutes, stirring occasionally. After the beans are boiled and drained, add the sauteed vegetables to the beans, then add seasonings, and just enough water to cover. Add 2 tablespoons vegetable oil along with the seasonings. Add liquid smoke, to taste – start with about a teaspoon.

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to a low simmer. Cook for 2 hours at least, preferably 3, until the whole thing gets nice and creamy. Adjust seasonings as you go along. Stir occasionally, making sure that it doesn’t burn and/or stick to the bottom of the pot. (If the beans are old — say, older than six months to a year — they won’t get creamy. Make sure the beans are reasonably fresh. If it’s still not getting creamy, take 1 or 2 cups of beans out and mash them, then return them to the pot and stir.

If you can… let the beans cool, stick them in the fridge, and reheat and serve for dinner the next day. They’ll taste a LOT better. When you do this, you’ll need to add a little water to get them to the right consistency.

Serve generous ladles-ful over hot white long-grain rice, pickled onions and good French bread. There are some great vegan sausages out there that you can serve as well – grilled, preferably, but you could fry or broil them as well.

Adapted by Daniel from a recipe by Chuck Tagart in the Gumbo Pages (www.gumbopages.com)