by Jordan Caldwell, Training by Tara Brunet –
My earliest memories of cooking are rooted deeply in my grandparents’ kitchen. Enjoying a wonderful lunch was something for me to look forward to. To this day I can trace my love for cooking to these little moments, not knowing at the time that they would stick with me forever.
Some of us may feel like our kids have become disconnected with the kitchen or the grocery store. So for this Mother’s Day, it would be a great idea to get your children into the kitchen and have them help you with setting the table, folding napkins or stirring the sauce. Perhaps you want to surprise a mother in your life with a fantastic lunch. Whatever the plan is, this recipe is an excellent opportunity to get the kids involved.
For myself, every Mother’s Day was a ritual. My parents and I would get into the family car, drive the three minutes it took to get to my grandparents’ house (why we did not walk I still have no idea) and sit down as a family to enjoy my grandmother’s cooking. Almost 100% of the time, the dish that was served is the very same dish that we will be looking at for this issue.
So here is what you will need:
(Serves 4)
450g fusilli or macaroni
1 litre of 2% milk
40g flour
40g butter
200g sharp cheddar (grated)
1 large yellow onion (small dice)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground mustard
salt and pepper
Before we start cooking, measure and gather all of the ingredients.
Measure out 3L of water, add a bit of salt and put it onto the stovetop to boil.
Pour the milk into a pot and heat until the milk starts to steam (do not boil). This is called “scalding” the milk. While that is heating up we can start to make the cheese sauce.
Melt the butter in a saucepan and add the onions. Cook until the onions become soft and translucent. Once the onions are done, we can now add in the flour. Slowly add the flour to your onions and butter; this is called a “roux” (rew). Now that we have formed our roux, turn down the heat, and now we need to leave it on the heat for about 2-3 minutes, just to make sure that we cook the starch out or else it’s going to leave a gritty texture to our sauce.
By this time our milk is hot and ready to be added into our roux. 1/3 cup at a time, add the milk and stir with a wooden spoon. Once all of the milk has been added, switch to a whisk, because this will make the sauce nice and smooth.
Here comes the best part: adding the cheese! Whisk that in, add in the nutmeg, paprika, ground mustard, salt and pepper. That’s it – the sauce is done!
Your salted water should be boiling at this point, so add in your dried pasta and cook for about 10 minutes or until the pasta is cooked all the way through. Strain and dry.
Pour the sauce onto the pasta, mix and serve!
You can always add a bit of breadcrumbs and/or green onions to the dish for garnish. Enjoy!
