World-Class Mac-N-Cheese

Damn... I'm feeling pretty good n' happy right about now. I just made one hell of a Mac-N-Cheese. Possibly the greatest of my career. I am willing to call it world class. I did some pretty nice things with it.

The method was essentially the Thomas Jefferson Mournay Sauce approach which most people use, but I put plenty of wrinkles in it. Here is the list of ingredients I used:

1. Herb infused canola oil (savory, thyme, rosemary)
2. Chevre goat milk butter
3. A little We Olive extra virgin olive oil
4. Italian high-gluten #00 flour
5. Spanish hot and smoky paprika
6. Himalayan pink rock salt
7. 90,000cu cayenne pepper
8. Herbs de Provence
9. Mustard powder
10. 5 cups of whole Vitamin-D milk
11. 1 cup heavy whipping cream
12. 8 ounces Asiago cheese
13. 5 ounces Parrano Unle Kaas cheese
14. 3 ounces Manchego cheese
15. Half of big red bell pepper, diced
16. 2 Shallots, diced fine
17. 8 small cloves of garlic, diced fine
18. Panko bread crumbs
19. Croutons.
20. USDA organic Conchiglie macaroni

Basically, I went through the following steps:

1. Mixed all my dry ingredients in a small mixing bowl
2. Stripped the skins off my cheeses and used my mighty Cuisinart FP-14DC and shred my cheese.
3. I boiled my pasta for 10 minutes. I wanted it slightly under-done, or super al dente. I strained it and let it rest. I wanted it moderately dry for the mix in.
4. Pulled out my Duxtop 1800w induction cooktop
5. Placed my 15 inch Lodge cast iron skillet on top of it.
6. Began pre-heating the skillet. I tested the temperature with my laser thermometer to ensure we were hot. Never put cold fat in a cold pan. Everything will stick. Hot pan, cold fat, no stick.
7. Drizzled my Canola all over a 455 degree pan, thus reducing the temperature slightly
8. Threw in 2 ounces of Chevre butter, and swirled it around to encourage rapid melting.
9. Thew in my veggies and Sautéd
10. Once the veggies were slightly wilted and browned, I began stirring in the dry ingredients, making a roux.
11. Stirred in the milk and cream.
12. I kept stirring until I reached a measured temperature of 170 degrees. The laser told me I was at this temp.
13. Reduced the the induction power and began stirring in the cheese to melt it.
14. Stirred in the Conchiglie pasta, ensuring a complete mixing.
15. Placed the entire skillet into a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, or until I had a nice browning effect on the top.
16. Pulled it out of the oven, and let it rest for 15 minutes a bit before serving.

Folks, let me assure you that this is delicious stuff. I like the Parrano flavor so much, I think I will dump the Gruyère I normally use on a semi-permanent basis.

As you know I've been starved out with Gastric Bypass, and I am sure my doctors would have a mild heart attack seeing this comfort food monstrosity I have constructed. I needed this folks. I was pretty ornery this weekend due to caloric deprivation.

Alton's Pilaf methodology works extremely well

So, I checked out an old episode of Good Eats, dating all the way back to Season 1, I believe. It was titled Pilaf to the People. You can see the condensed presentation right here.

So, I thought I knew a hell of a lot about rice, and I thought I had made Pilaf about a hundred thousand times. It turns out that I was not quite correct. Close, but no cigar. First the summary.

Pilaf is not a recipe. Pilaf is not a list of ingredients. It is a cooking methodology. Even though the word literally means "rice dish", it should mean, cooking method for rice. You can do a lot of different ingredients. Add a few, throw a few away, change these, bring in some others. This doesn't determine whether you have a Pilaf. The approach to heating defines Pilaf.

According to Alton, the cooking process runs through Seven simple stages.

1. Sweat your vegetable soffritto in butter.
2. Add the rice and sauté until you have a strong nutty aroma.
3. Add the liquid--substantially less than normal for rice--stir it up, and discard your stirring spoon or utensil.
4. Cover with a lid. Bolster the seal with a wet dish rag, which forms a gasket.
5. Place in an oven at 350F degrees for 15 minutes.
6. Remove and let it sit for 15 minutes.
7. Pour the rice out on a serving dish. Flatter is better. Taller is worse.

Notice that this approach only presumes you have some aromatic vegetables, rice, butter and fluid. What those ingredients are is open to your own creative imagination. We are talking about approach to cooking, not a list of ingredients, per se. The absolute key is that you sauté first, use less water, and then finish in the oven. That is the definition of the Pilaf method: Sauté first, use less water, finish in the oven.

This doesn't mean everybody follows the rules or even knows what they are. Certainly, I was not aware of the rules as I broke them 300,000 times. I thought you simply sauté first, then cover and boil. I also used too much water.

Alton's approach was fascinating for several reasons.

1. It seems to be the perfect case for a Lodge 5 quart cast iron Dutch oven.
2. I have never seen anyone stick a dish rag in the oven.
3. I recently had an experience with rice in a pressure cooker that suggested some cooking methods require less water.
4. I have recently had many experiences with Paella which indicate that more water is necessary for this cooking method.
5. The list of ingredients Alton used, including fruits and nuts was quite intriguing. This is a very interesting counter-point to Paella, which never includes any fruits or nuts.
6. Another important difference between Paella and Pilaf is that Paella includes various types of meats. Pilaf does not include any meat. Pilaf is a side dish for meat.

So I chose the following list of ingredients.

Soffritto

1. Carrot
2. Celery
3. Shallots
4. Yellow bell pepper
5. Red Bell pepper
6. Garlic
7. Ginger coins.

Ingredients

1. 3 cups of Sona Massouri rice from India
2. 18 oz of Chicken broth
3. 12 oz of hot water

Spices

1. 1 table spoon of Kosher salt
2. 1 teaspoon of Turmeric
3. couple of grinds of fresh cracked white pepper corns
4. 1 ounce of California extra virgin olive oil
5. 1 tablespoon butter.
6. Way too damn much Spanish Saffron

The cooking approach was interesting.

1. Place the dutch oven on the stove top and cranked up to high. This is only 8,000 btu on my stove, so don't be impressed by the heat.
2. Drop my 1 teaspoon of turmeric on the dry iron and heat it up. This is what all the Indians do. You wake the turmeric by heating it on dry iron.
3. Drop the butter on top of the turmeric and melt it. This forms a type of rue.
4. Dropped the soffritto on into the rue of turmeric and butter.
5. Sweat the vegetables.
6. Drop in the rice, and stir. Continue until the rice begins to brown a bit, and you get a strong nutty aroma.
7. I poured about 4 ounces of hot water into a ramekin, I tried to pull out a few threads and place them in the ramekin. A tumble weed of saffron fell in the ramekin. Lesson learned: extract your saffron with a pair of tweezers. Do it over a very dry surface. Let the saffron diffuse and turn the water golden yellow.
8. Drop the Saffron water in the pot first. Rinse out the ramekin with the remaining water and chicken broth, as you pour them on the rice. Don't loose any saffron goodness.
9. Stir it up, and discard your stirring utensil
10. Wet down a dish rag.
11. Place the rag over the mouth of the Dutch oven.
12. Seal with the lid. Rotate the lid about 5 or 10 degrees to make sure you have a tight gasket.
13. Place in the oven for 15 minutes.
14. Remove and let it sit for 15 minutes.
15. Dump it on a large serving tray, and spread it out.
16. I added dried black currants (from my Spotted Dick episode) and Golden Raisins (Sultanas--also from the Spotted Dick episode). I mixed those in thoroughly.
17. I drizzled with California Extra Virgin olive oil
18. I sprinkled with a little Kosher Salt
19. I cracked a little more white pepper over the top.

I was pissed off over the fact that I used too much saffron and forgot the bay leaves, and the pistachios, but the rest of the process was surprisingly golden for a first run. The results were not only edible, not only delicious, but damn near perfect. My guests were left wondering why I didn't consider this a perfect run. I have to say, I wondered to myself how bay leaf would improve the situation. I believe Pistachios would help. Nuts are great.

I have to say that the Sona Massouri rice was perfectly cooked. It was not to dry, not too wet, not sticky, not too soft, not too hard. It was perfectly done. Whilst I can tinker with the list of ingredients, the methodology is essentially perfect. No adjustments in the cooking process are necessary or beneficial.

I tinkered with the notion of sweating the vegetables in the oil, removing them, then sauté the rice in butter, put them back together and go. This would allow me to brown the rice a bit more. Still, I am not sure this would be a better approach. I am uncertain whether this would yield a better product.

It's hard to improve on Alton's method here. I highly recommend it.

Dave's Gringote Paella

So I am going to publish my first original recipe. Don't bother to tell me that it is not authentic. I already know that the fully authentic Paella was invented in Alevanta, Valencia, Spain by rice farmers. I know it features chicken, rabbit and snails. I know it features a simpler soffritto. I know there is no Tumeric, Hot Sesame Oil, or Fish Sauce.

I have done the fully authentic thing several times, and I like it. I have done the even more authentic thing, which is to go off on a wild tangent and riff on this melody. I have come up with yet another distinct Paella type which I think is pretty sensational. Try it, if you like, for a little variety in life. Remember, variety is the spice of life.

All of these ingredients are scaled for a standard 15 inch paella. You can expand the ingredients to fit any pan by application of simple geometry. Yes, geometric logic does apply here,

The Oil Mixture

1. 2 ounces of extra virgin olive oil, preferably from California
2. 1 teaspoon of chili sesame oil
3. 1 tablespoon (0.5 ounces) of Thai fish sauce
4. 2 good shakes of Chipotle Tabasco sauce
5. 1 teaspoon of Tumeric

You should have just under 3 oz of fluid there.

The Rice mixture

1. 24 ounces (3 cups) of parboiled rice. Bomba would be better, but it is Goddamnably expensive.
2. 1 tablespoon of sea salt (not Kosher salt). This is much better for you and tastes better also.
3. 1 tablespoon of hot smoky Paprika. Accept no substitutes. Nobody beats the Spaniards in this game.
4. The leaves of one moderately large fresh twig of Rosemary
5. 20 threads of real Saffron

Soffritto Robusto

1. 1 Large Red Onion, diced up
2. 5 cloves of garlic, crushed
3. 1 large fresh light green Anaheim Chili, cut into thin strips
4. 1 Fresno Chili, chopped fine
5. 2 Yellow bell peppers, cut into large strips
6. 1 relatively small carrot, chopped fine
7. 2 stalks of celery, chopped thin
8. 1 large Portabella Mushroom, cut into large strips.
9. 8 ounces of tomato paste

Meats

1. 1 pound of custom ground veal (you can substitute chuck if you prefer.
2. 1 pound of fresh ground pork sausage, no skins
3. 13 oz of Aidell's Sun Dried Tomato Sausage

The Wet Stuff

1. 2oz of dried Porchini mushrooms, reconstituted in hot water and red wine
2. 72oz of beef broth (not stock).

The Wet Spices

1. Sage (fresh or dried)
2. Savory (fresh or dried)
3. Basil (fresh or dried)

The Preperation

To prepare this Paella you will need two pieces of cookware (1) a 5 quart Lodge Dutch oven, and (2) a 15 inch Lodge Cast Iron Skillet. Everything tastes better when it is cooked in plain naked iron. Only a fool cooks with high carbon steel. You will get a better Maillard Reaction using naked iron, and your Socorrat with be priceless.

Steps

1. Fill your dutch oven with the 72 ounces of beef broth. Throw in your dry spice. Begin heating. It need to be brought to a light bubbling boil.
2. Spread you oil prep over the Skillet. Apply maximum heat for at least 5 minutes. Heat until the oil is popping.
3. Throw in your meat. Stirr and brown the ground beef and sausage until you have a nice brown Maillard effect. You may season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Clear the meat to the outter edges of the skillet.
5. Pour down the soffritto in the middle of the skillet. Stir and brown it for approximately 3 minutes until you have a gravy-ish consistency.
6. Throw in your rice mixture. Brown your rice in the soffritto mixture for at least 3 minutes.
7. Begin ladling in your beef broth. Just cover all the contents of the pan, which shouldn't take more than 2 or 3 cups of fluid.
8. Allow that to boil off, then re-cover the contents with more fluid. Repeat this process until all fluid is gone.
9. Turn your heat up full-blast for 1 minute to create a Socorrat.
10. Kill the heat entirely, and let the Paella rest for 15 minutes. It will cool, dry and set in this time.

Commentary

If you like, you may add peas or green beans to the surface of the Paella after adding the fluid. The veggies will be steamed by the broth as it boils off.

The main features of this Gringote Paella is

(1) The use of red meats and beef broth rather than white meats and chicken stock. This is accentuated with Porcini mushrooms

(2) A very robust soffritto with a lot of ingredients

(3) The use of exotic spices such as Tumeric, Chili Sesame Oil, and Fish Sauce.

(4) There are also more savory spices than mere Rosemary (which is great)

If you give it a shot, I think you will find it is a flavor explosion. It will blow your jock off. There are a lot of special glutamic acid compounds in here that will blow your frickin' brains out.

One key tip: If you prepare this outside on a hot grill, you are better off. In doors, your cooktop will be challenged severely by the need for heat. My Tappan range absolutely sucks. I need to position my Lodge Skillet over two burners and turn them both up to full blast to get sufficient heat to make this dish happen. This tip may help you.

Any grill will produce more heat than just about any stovetop. Remember: Paella should be cooked Al Freco! This means on a grill, outside.