This post is part of Food Renegade’s Fight Back Fridays. For more recipes, tips, and info, head there!
My husband is spoiled by his family’s baked mac’n'cheese recipe. I grew up on Kraft mac’n'cheese. The raging debate in our home over something as simple as macaroni and cheese has been going on for years. In my quest to make and eat real food, I finally had to let go of my love for Kraft and find an alternative that was a bit easier than traditional baked mac-n-cheese.
Out comes my Southern Living cookbook. My favorite cookbook. Love it.
I found a page that listed basic recipes for white sauce then what to add to make it cheddar cheese sauce (um, hello, cheddar cheese?). And it was easy. I love easy.
In fact, I found it had only a few more steps as in-the-box mac’n'cheese. This may be common knowledge to many out there, but for me it was a eureka moment. Just let me enjoy the moment, if you please. :)
Basic Thick White Sauce
3 tbs butter
3 tbs flour (to make thinner sauces, you can decrease to 2 tbs of butter and flour, or 1 tbs of butter and flour. See? Easy!)
1 cup whole milk (I prefer whole for a variety of health reasons)
1/4 tsp salt
Dash of ground white pepper
Melt butter over low heat; add flour and stir until smooth, cook 1 minute stirring constantly. Gradually add milk over medium heat and stir constantly until thickened. Stir in salt and pepper.
To turn this into cheddar cheese sauce: Stir in 1 cup of shredded cheddar cheese (4oz) and 1/4 tsp dry mustard.
Pour that over the noodles, or vegetables, or whatever strikes your fancy. It was easy, all-natural, and delicious!
Did you know you made a bechamel sauce? It’s one of the basic sauces in french cuisine. You can modify it and do a bunch of different things with it. You’re cooking in French!
The part at the beginning where you’re combining equal parts flour and butter, that’s called the roux. To thin the sauce, you don’t necessarily have to get rid of the butter. You could increase the cooking time for your roux. The longer you cook your roux, the thinner your sauce. It will also change in flavor too. If you were making gumbo, you’d cook it a long time until it was reddish-brown.
Another french thing to do it to take a half an onion and stick cloves in it. Then, after your milk is combined with your roux, drop the onion in. While the sauce is thickening, the onion/clove thing will add flavor. Just make sure to take it out (and any fallen out cloves) when it’s done cooking. You could also use nutmeg.
Have fun with it!
It took me FOREVER to finally figure out how quick, easy, and so much more delicious this mac and cheese is. Don’t you just feel proud of yourself? I feel proud of both of us! Here my kids are teenagers and I’m just now figuring it out! Good grief!
Total gold star – and thanks for posting about your success!
Blessings,
dina
Saving this – I avoid making cheese sauce as I hate the bought stuff, and never seem to get a recipe to work. Definitely trying this. Thanks.
Tried this for tonight’s tea – made it for a sauce for chicken and broccoli bake – easy and no lumps! Thanks
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If I may be so bold as to suggest something native to Central Illinois, (and completely unhealthy I might add)…
Make hamburger patties
put one on top of a piece of toasted Texas toast
cover with crispy golden french fries
pour cheese sauce all over the top.
This is callded a Ponyshoe. If you double everything up it is called a horseshoe.
You can substitute the hamburger with turkey, ham, chicken, veggies, whatever you like.
I call it cholesterol on a plate. YUMMY!