Wowzer! I impressed myself with this one.
Macaroni and Cheese (or Macaroni Cheese as we call it here in the UK) has never been a big favourite of mine and I think I have only made it once before – to the fabulous Pearl Bailey’s recipe. That was GOOD, but at the risk of offending Pearl, Philip’s formula takes it up a notch. There is an INSANE amount of cheese in this, plus a hint of chilli, and in my book, that’s what makes it so good. am going to write quite a few notes about the making of it, because if I ever get invited to a potluck party (in all my years I never have as they are not a “thing” here, but here’s hoping) this is what I will take!
Scroll to the bottom of this post to get straight to the recipe.
I have never seen Colby cheese here, and we can get Monterey Jack from some of the larger supermarkets, but usually only in slices or pre-grated, and certainly not infused with Jalapeño. So I had to wing it a bit on the cheese front. I used 4 oz of cheddar and 8 oz of Monterey Jack, adding 2 chopped pepperoncini to the cream cheese/sour cream mix.
This resulted in just the right amount of zing for me, which made me stupidly pleased with myself. Also, there is nothing I like more when the dish I am testing fits perfectly into the receptacle I have selected for it. This is what I think of as my enchilada dish
after I bought two of these for Mary Pickford’s enchiladas. Yum yum.
Look how perfectly it fits! For info, this dish measures 18 x 25 x 7 cms.
Philip says this serves four, but I got six portions out of it. Two went in the freezer for another day,
A quarter of this dish would defeat most people I reckon.
I had one portion for lunch with my chum Lady Jane and the other two once a day the days before. To say that I was walking around with a pasta-baby belly after three days of Mac and Cheese is an understatement. The body didn’t know what had hit it. Someone, please invite me to a potluck party so I can make this again but not eat almost all of it myself!
Served with some Elizabeth Taylor haricots verts I found in the freezer
This will definitely go in the Cooking the Detectives book. I haven’t yet found a favourite recipe for Don Johnson, does anyone know of one? There is still time for me to squeeze it in if so. The only thing I have managed to track down is this fun video of Don making guacamole. I get the feeling from the banter with his camerawoman (his wife I am guessing), that seeing him in the kitchen is a rare occurrence. I can’t get the link to work, but if you google Don Johnson guacamole you’ll find it.
Haha!
Thanks, Ricardo for this ace recipe. I am a CONVERT to the Mac and Cheese brigade now.
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That looks so good! Invite me to that potluck, as I’m too scared to make this by myself ( I know I’ll eat WAY too much).
Haha – it is REALLY addictive A, beware the PMT Macaroni and Cheese – ooh, unless you suffer from PMT? In which case, make it and indulge yourself!
Sometimes wonder why I don’t like mac and cheese more than I do as I love cheese and pasta, but I think it’s too much of both in the one dish that probably does it. A bit like Bogies spaghetti loaf, you just wind up putting way more pasta than you would use or serve with a meat sauce or a vongole say and hello pasta blow-out belly !! There are worse things than that of course and I know I would love the jalapeno edge to it . But you still can’t beat Rudy’s Spaghetti sauce with a small mountain of parmesan !
I agree! I always feel like I have a pasta baby belly after Macaroni Cheese, but I cannot deny, this one had a special certain something! Ooh, haven’t done Rudy’s spaghetti sauce for a while. Yum!