This meal happened totally by accident. Sir Millar was coming around to dinner and I was on a big shopping trip. I had no idea what I wanted to make that night so I was pretty much buying out everything in the shop.
With hindsight, I see this was a bit stupid as on the 24th I get kicked out of halls. I can't actually eat everything in my freezer before then. In my trolley were chicken livers, sirloin steak, a lamb leg steak, poussin, sardines, pork spare ribs, a pack of beef mince and a large selection of vegetables and other bits and pieces. I thought that should give Sir Millar a good choice for what to have. But, as always, Andy wasn't being very decisive and just stared blankly at the meat selection I was packing into the fridge. It seems he really had no idea what he wanted. “Well,†I said, “I could always make macaroni cheese to get rid of some of my pasta.†It was supposed to be a joke. But Sir Millar thought it was a great idea. Apparently he's never had proper macaroni cheese before.I assume by “proper†he means “not from a canâ€. It's true, tinned macaroni cheese is the stuff of nightmares. However it comes a poor second to the school dinner version. I remember being subjected to this horror as a small child in my first primary school and nearly being sick as I was forced to eat the plastic cheese sauce. It took a long while to get over my fear of macaroni cheese. Not as long as it took for me deal with my fear of Yorkshire pudding, but that's a story for another time. When I was a teenager I was made a nice version by a friend's mother and, since then, macaroni cheese has not been an issue.
My two previous attempts at making the dish were successful apart from the fact I hadn't had any macaroni and had to substitute penne. This time however, I had the correct pasta shapes and had quite luckily picked up a load of diced pancetta on my shopping trip.So my macaroni cheese was made. It was a simple combination of pasta, cheddar cheese sauce, pancetta, onion and parsley, baked until golden. It bore no resemblance to the plastic meal of my youth. For a start, it actually tasted of cheese and lacked the slimy texture I remember so well. Thank God! The pancetta was good. Next time I may add even more.
Sir Millar appeared to like it rather a lot. So much, in fact, that he stole the leftovers and had them for lunch the next day.
This meal happened totally by accident. Sir Millar was coming around to dinner and I was on a big shopping trip. I had no idea what I wanted to make that night so I was pretty much buying out everything in the shop.
With hindsight, I see this was a bit stupid as on the 24th I get kicked out of halls. I can't actually eat everything in my freezer before then. In my trolley were chicken livers, sirloin steak, a lamb leg steak, poussin, sardines, pork spare ribs, a pack of beef mince and a large selection of vegetables and other bits and pieces. I thought that should give Sir Millar a good choice for what to have. But, as always, Andy wasn't being very decisive and just stared blankly at the meat selection I was packing into the fridge. It seems he really had no idea what he wanted. “Well,†I said, “I could always make macaroni cheese to get rid of some of my pasta.†It was supposed to be a joke. But Sir Millar thought it was a great idea. Apparently he's never had proper macaroni cheese before.I assume by “proper†he means “not from a canâ€. It's true, tinned macaroni cheese is the stuff of nightmares. However it comes a poor second to the school dinner version. I remember being subjected to this horror as a small child in my first primary school and nearly being sick as I was forced to eat the plastic cheese sauce. It took a long while to get over my fear of macaroni cheese. Not as long as it took for me deal with my fear of Yorkshire pudding, but that's a story for another time. When I was a teenager I was made a nice version by a friend's mother and, since then, macaroni cheese has not been an issue.
My two previous attempts at making the dish were successful apart from the fact I hadn't had any macaroni and had to substitute penne. This time however, I had the correct pasta shapes and had quite luckily picked up a load of diced pancetta on my shopping trip.So my macaroni cheese was made. It was a simple combination of pasta, cheddar cheese sauce, pancetta, onion and parsley, baked until golden. It bore no resemblance to the plastic meal of my youth. For a start, it actually tasted of cheese and lacked the slimy texture I remember so well. Thank God! The pancetta was good. Next time I may add even more.
Sir Millar appeared to like it rather a lot. So much, in fact, that he stole the leftovers and had them for lunch the next day.
