Mac 'N' Cheese

Date: 26th January 2013 (Saturday)

The 16th recipe in 2013. It's from "The Little Paris Kitchen" by Rachel Khoo. I followed the recipe pretty closely but have made a few changes: (1) I didn't sift away the garlic & onion from the bechamel sauce. I feel a bad to chuck away edible good sauce of fibre/nutrients. Hence the finely chopped garlic & onion were poured onto the pasta together with the sauce. (2) I reduced the amount of gruyere cheese from the recommended 200g to 165g (already up from my original plan of using 120g only). 

What I used:

will be posted later.

What I did:

will be posted later.

What I felt: As I didn't use enough cheese, the dish wasn't as cheesy as what we had in restaurants. But it was just too scary to use all 200g. You'd know what I mean if you try to grate 200 grams from a big lump of hard cheese. It just looks MASSIVE and DAUNTING. Of course if you are lucky enough to have no need to watch your weight, then you should definitely use 200 grams of cheese because 165g is more than likely not enough.

Except the fact that it's not too cheesy (my fault), the pasta tastes great in general (Note to self: Have to add more salt than I usually do). I had problem in browning the cheese though. They haven't turned as golden brown as I'd like after 20 minutes. Could be due to my dodgy oven.

How good was it? 6/10 (Could have given a 7 if I added enough cheese)

How easy was it? 7/10 (There isn't any special skill but it takes some time and patience to chop ingredients finely to make the Bechamel sauce)

How economical was it? 7/10 (Pasta, milk, garlic & onion are cheap but Gruyere cheese is not! It's among one of the more expensive cheeses here in the UK. 200 grams would costs about £4. In overall terms, it'd be about £5 to make it for 4. Well still quite economical maybe?)

Will I make this again? I hate to say it.. but NO. Definitely not. There's nothing wrong with the taste and the recipe. But I just can't justify eating so much cheese and carbs in one go. You know there's 50g of Gruyere per person which is about 200kcal? I'd spend my 200kcal on a muffin or ice cream to be honest... of course it's just me. If you love cheese, I'd encourage you to try this recipe out.