How to make REAL Mac & Cheese

in #cooking9 months ago (edited)

Here in Canada we have a traditional dish called "Kraft Dinner & Hot Dogs."
Me personally, I reject the Kraft dinner. I make my own dinner, and I am going to show you how.

What you will need:
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-Macaroni (1 cup)
-Cheese (200g) I used chedder but you can add mozzarella if you want it EXTRA stringy
-Ham (400g)
-Spices (I used salt and onion powder, garlic powder is great too)

Now to get started:
First things first, the ham will take the longest to cook so start with that.
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Dice it up into pieces the size of... well... dice.

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Drop them into the pan on medium heat and cover it with the lid. (My stove is at 6/10 heat) Move them around once in a while to cook all sides and avoid burnt spots.

While the ham is cooking, you can start getting the rest of the ingredients ready.
This is a good opportunity to grate the cheese.
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Measure out the macaroni (or you can count them all)

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Now you've got everything ready, you can start boiling the water while you wait for the ham. (Don't worry, I put a lid on it)
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Once the ham looks like this, (starting to sear but not done on all sides,) you can add the noodles to the water, because the ham is about 15 minutes away from done, just long enough to cook the macaroni.
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So once the macaroni is done, the ham should look something like this:
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Turn off the heat, drain the water from the macaroni, and add the spices, in this case just salt and onion powder. Try and do this part quickly because you will want the macaroni to be as hot as possible when you add the cheese.

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Which is what we do next. ADD THE CHEESE, YES ALL OF IT!!

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At this point if you have a small pot, it's easier to stir and melt the cheese now. But since I have a decent sized pot, I just add the ham right away.

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Mmm that looks good, but not done yet. Now once you've added your ham, stir it up.

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If your cheese still isn't melting right away, you can put the lid on and wait a couple minutes.

Then when it's ready, you will have SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE THIS:

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Needless to say, I ate the entire thing in one sitting. I'd highly recommend it.
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This is the dinner that Kraft fears most!! SUPPORT INDEPENDENT MACARONI, DOWN WITH BIG MACARONI!!

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yum, I like me some good mac and cheese. I've usually melted the cheese into bechamel sauce and figured that was the way to go, but seems to have the potential to be even better... Will test this recipe on the next occasion.

Also, thanks for giving some context to kraft dinner. I only knew that term from south park lol