Working Man's Porter Mac & Cheese


Normally K and I like to go out to dinner on Saturday nights, but with yesterday's blizzard, we were in for the day. In fact, we went out to do round one of snow clearing right before dinner and when we came back in we basically agreed we were on our own for dinner. We had had a big feast on Friday with spaghetti and meatballs, and I realized we had a ton of left over ziti, and I also had some Working Man's Porter, so I decided to whip up some Working Man's Porter Mac & Cheese. It's really a snap to throw together homemade mac and cheese - it doesn't take much longer than making a box mix and tastes about 10X better. Seriously, you can make the sauce in the time it takes for the macaroni to cook, then it's just a matter of broiling the top (if you want that). You can also do without the crispy breadcrumbs, but why would you want to?

Recipe follows - but bear in mind I literally did all of the below without measuring, so effects may vary.

Ingredients:

4 oz pasta - I'm not wild about elbows, and any past will work, but I like something chunky
1/2 cup shredded cheddar
1/2 cup Working Man's Porter (any stout or porter will do - but I happened to have Working Man's on hand because it's a good NH brew)
2 tbsp heavy cream - I happened to have it on hand - maybe 3 tbsp milk if you don't have cream
1 tbsp flour
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp panko break crumbs

Directions:

Cook the pasta according to instructions. I had leftovers, so I could skip this step.
In a medium (2 qt) sauce pan, gently melt the butter. 
Add the flour and whisk into the butter. 
Once the flour is well mixed, add the Porter and cream. Allow to reduce down by about 1/3. 
Add the cheese and stir until melted and well mixed. 
Remove pot from heat, mix in the pasta.
Pour the mac and cheese into an oven-safe cooking dish. 
Sprinkle the panko over the top.
Pop the dish under the broiler for 3-4 minutes or until the panko starts to brown. 
Eat with gusto.


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