Butternut Squash Macaroni Cheese

Macaroni cheese is one of my all time favourite things to eat when I'm hungover, sad or cold and today I'm cold and slightly hungover so macaroni cheese it is but with a bit of a difference from my normal recipe. I added some roasted butternut squash puree and crispy bacon to the normal cheese sauce and oh my it worked a treat. I thought it would be a bit sweet and I was right it was so adding the crispy bacon and lot's of mature cheddar and Parmesan gave the dish a savoury depth which I think it needed but that's my opinion and everyone has different tastes so leave the bacon out if you want.

Half a large butternut squash
Macaroni
4 rashers of Bacon
Mature cheddar Cheese
Milk
Parmesan
Flour
Butter
Nutmeg
Bread Crumbs




First I roasted my butternut squash in a bit of olive oil for about 45mins.


I then blitzed the butternut into a puree with a drop of milk and put the bacon under the grill and the macaroni on to boil.


I made a roux with flour and butter and slowly added milk a little at time to make a white sauce


I then mixed the butternut puree, mature cheddar, nutmeg and pepper into the white sauce


Then I added the cooked smoky bacon to the sauce


Mix the cooked macaroni with the sauce


Cover with breadcrumbs, grated cheese and Parmesan


I cooked it in the oven for around half an hours on the middle shelf on gas mark 6





It was a bit different to normal macaroni cheese and you can pretend it's 'healthy' because of the butternut squash in it........

Random Recipies #6 Nigella Lawson Macaroni Cheese De Luxe with Honey Roast Gammon

I even put the book on a festive red blanket!

This will be the first time I participate in Dom's Random Recipe Challenge and I'm really happy to be taking part and it's about bloody time I did so here it is.
I have a huge collection of cookbooks and I love them all, I'm one of those people that reads cookery books in bed and I bloody love it I do!
It was really hard to choose due to my undeniable love for each and every one of my precious books, It could have been 'The Prawn Cocktail Years' by Simon Hopkinson and Lindsey Bareham who both also wrote and contributed to 'Roast Chicken and Other Stories' which is another all time favourite and regarded as one of the best cook books ever written. I adore all Nigel Slater books especially 'Good Food' that I am pretty sure I have cooked every dish from! Or what about a recipe from Sam and Sam Clarke from 'Moro' with their rustic bowls of beautiful food......
Well I came to my decision and I know it's July but the weather has hardly been that fabulous and I'd be lying if I didn't admit that Nigella Lawson's book 'Nigella Christmas' was not one of my all time favourite books and the fact I have a year round obsession with Christmas may also have something to do with my choice, I would have been fully prepared to do roast goose with all the trimmings, no joke.
I adore the photography in Nigella's book, it's just so beautiful and I love the way she writes a little story and her own thoughts on each and every recipe which is why it's exactly the kind of cook book I will snuggle up in bed with.
I got my boyfriend to flick through the pages and I closed my eyes and shouted when to stop and it turned out to be 'Macaroni Cheese De Luxe', now I'm not gonna lie I was a teeny bit disappointed because Ive made macaroni cheese a thousand times before and was hoping for something new and exciting but I have never made one using evaporated milk so that was a little bit exciting, every cloud and all that.
I will admit that I did not stick to the recipe exactly as I forgot the Dijon mustard and I almost halved the quantities because it felt slightly excessive to use three cans of evaporated milk so I just used one and omitted the mustard. Here is Nigella's full recipe that unless your cooking for a small army you may want to scale down.

Nigell Lawson's Macaroni Cheese De Luxe
175g Soft butter, plus more for greasing
150g plain flour
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
3 cans evaporated milk 500g in total
1.5 litres of semi-skimmed milk
2 550g packs of macaroni
275g of Emmental, grated
300g Cheddar
75g Parmesan
salt

You make this as you would any other macaroni cheese and I'm pretty sure you all are accomplished cooks here and can make a macaroni cheese so Im not going to write out the reipe and some may say that's lazy but hey ho I say it's paying you all a compliment! The only difference with this one is mixing your semi-skimmed milk with the evaporated milk and use that to make your cheese sauce with when adding to the roux.


Accidentally picked up 'light' evaporated milk, I hate anything that's diet or light so was not impressed when I got home.


I bought a small gammon joint and boiled it before covering in honey and roasting in the oven. And yes there is a bit missing because I ate it alright.




Starting to add the mountains of cheese, you can never have enough cheese in a good cheese sauce and that is a real fact


Yes there is a hell of a lot more sauce than pasta and even I think I may have gone over board this time as that is a very deep saucepan with the macaroni just resting on top, but it was inevitable I like sauce, I always make to much and I always will


Ready to go in the oven


Ohhh....


So gooey and cheesy with a delicious golden crust


You may have noticed that my tomato's are un-roasted and that's because I forgot but still included them because you really do need something to cut through the richness of the cheese sauce.

After trying Nigella's version of macaroni cheese with evaporated milk I don't think I would make it again as the evaporated milk gave it a strange taste and I much prefer when I make it using just normal milk. I usually love the taste of evaporated milk so was a bit surprised by that but there you go. Thanks Nigella and thanks Christmas, I love you both! And Thanks Dom for coming up with such a great idea, I will be taking part far more often!

A Few oF my Favourite things.....Macaroni Cheese

Oh How do I count the ways I love thee..... So easy and so comforting, perfect for cold January days. All you need is a good home-made cheese sauce pored over cooked macaroni with more cheese and a bit of Parmesan for that extra crispy topping, pop in the oven for 10Min's and then serve with whatever you fancy. I decided a thick slice of gammon, corn and fried tomato's, the creamyness of the mac N cheese with the salty ham, perfect.