If you can't tell just by looking at the name of our mac, I love autumn. To be fair, I'm honestly the type of person who loves something about every season, but I promise you—there really is something about fall that speaks particularly to my culinary soul. I make pumpkin and butternut squash everything, with very little regard for how the rest of the world feels about these ingredients. In my defense, I do make a very popular pumpkin pasta, which has the distinction of (1) being a repeat dish in my repertoire (no easy feat) and (2) convincing several naysayers and picky eaters that pumpkin is a magical food. I neglected to tell KiKi this when I announced that we should make pumpkin mac 'n' cheese, though, so I can't blame her that much for being skeptical (though I'm still a little sad that she "doubted [our] culinary genius").
There are three major components to this mac 'n' cheese: the brussels sprouts, the pumpkin-beer-braised short ribs, and the actual pumpkin mac 'n' cheese.
"Fall-tastic" Mac - Iteration #1
an original recipe by tammiest (the Passionfruit Fashionista)
First, the Brussels Sprouts:
I love brussels sprouts. I know it's one of the top ten foods reviled by children, but, being the child of Asian immigrants, I actually never had them as a child. My first introduction to brussels sprouts was actually two years ago, when, on a whim, I purchased a bunch of them at the farmers' market and decided to try them out for myself.
Then I was hooked.
For my Fall-tastic Mac, I did a simple roast. My go-to is this recipe by Ina Garten.
Ingredients
1-1/2 lbs. Brussels sprouts
3 tablespoon olive oil
3/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Cut off the brown ends of the brussels sprouts and pull off any yellow outer leaves. Mix them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Pour them on a sheet pan or in a roasting pan and roast for 30 to 40 minutes, until crisp on the outside and tender on the outside. Shake the pan from time to time to brown the sprouts evenly. Sprinkle with more kosher salt.
Then, set aside—for purposes of the mac 'n' cheese. But steal some when no one's looking for a quick snack.
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Second, the Pumpkin-Beer Braised Short Ribs:
Braised short ribs, when done right, are heavenly. It may seem counter-intuitive to the non- or novice cook, but the more you braise meat, the softer and more tender it gets. And the more flavorful-- although that's not so surprising.
My pumpkin-beer braised short ribs turned out to be a little bitter and not that pumpkin-y—or at least the braising liquid did-- but I suspect it had a lot more to do with the type of pumpkin ale I used, AKA the only kind the local grocery store had. Luckily, the slight sweetness of the pumpkin mac 'n' cheese worked well with the meat, and everyone who had any of the braised short ribs (and I forced 20+ people in my office to tastetest the finished product) raved. Next time, I'll definitely use a sweeter and more pumpkiny option, like Pumpking or the Blue Moon pumpkin variety (more likely—the other local grocery store carries that one).
For this leg of the recipe, I used this one, courtesy of Denise W. of KeyIngredient. I made a few modifications but more because I forgot to purchase certain ingredients (I thought I had beef stock but actually had to use vegetable) than because I thought the recipe needed tweaking.
Ingredients
2 lbs. beef short ribs
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
5 garlic cloves
3 cups pumpkin beer
2 cups beef stock
kosher salt
black pepper
Directions
1. Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Let sit at room temperature one hour before cooking.
2. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Pour the olive oil into a large Dutch oven pan and preheat over medium heat. Add the ribs and brown each side, about 3 minutes per side. Remove the ribs from the Dutch oven and set aside on a plate.
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3. While the ribs are browning, peel the onion and garlic and finely mince. Add both to the Dutch oven once the ribs are finished browning. Stir and cook for 2 minutes. Add the ribs back into the Dutch oven pan.
4. Pour the pumpkin beer over the ribs. Cover the pan with the lid and slide into the oven. The total cooking time is 3 hours. After each hour, stir and add some of the beef stock until all is used.* For the last 30 minutes, remove the lid and finish cooking.
* I didn't exactly follow directions. I put all the broth in at the very beginning. I think, because of the type of pumpkin beer I used, this was probably a good move on my part—I can't imagine how much more bitter this sauce would have been if I hadn't made this error. For the record, by the end of three hours, the meat was fall-off-the-bone tender.
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Third, the Pumpkin Mac 'n' Cheese:
Some people (KiKi included) are initially a little weirded out by pumpkin pasta. But I promise you it's actually pretty amazing.
I based this leg of the mac 'n' cheese recipe off this one, courtesy of Spoon Fork Bacon. But I have to say—I was the least impressed with this leg. I actually upped the ratio of cheese and spices already, and the result was still way too light on the cheese, pumpkin, and spices for my taste and purposes. So the below recipe is actually just what I wish I had done the first time around (essentially doubled the quantity of—oh, everything). I'll leave additional suggestions for next time at the end of the post.
Ingredients
2 cups milk
1-1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 lb. elbow macaroni
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
4 oz. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
4 oz. smoked gouda, shredded
2 oz. white extra sharp cheddar
kosher salt and pepper to taste
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Directions
1. Place milk, pumpkin puree, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a medium saucepan and stir together. Simmer for 15 to 20 minutes.
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2. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Once the water comes to a boil, add a generous amount of salt and then the pasta. Boil pasta for 10 to 12 minutes or until al dente, stirring occasionally. Drain pasta and set aside.
3. Melt butter over medium heat in a medium saucepan. Sprinkle flour over melted butter and whisk together. Allow mixture to cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
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4. Whisk pumpkin-milk mixture into flour mixture and continue to whisk until fully incorporated. Allow mixture to simmer until thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, about 3 to 4 minutes. (BTW, this is the bechamel!)
5. Place shredded cheese into a mixing bowl and toss together with lemon juice.
6. Stir cheese into the bechamel sauce and stir until cheese just melts. Season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to low and gently stir pasta into the sauce, a bit at a time until all of the pasta has been added and is fully coated in sauce. Adjust seasoning.
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Finally, combine for Fall-tastic Mac:
This is the part of the show where we combine everything we just made into one. It's pretty straightforward:
1. Slice the roasted brussels sprouts very thinly and mix into the pumpkin mac 'n' cheese.
2. Shred the pumpkin-beer braised short ribs (they should fall easily from the bone and shred even more easily with a fork) and mix into the pumpkin mac 'n' cheese. I didn't use any of the juice.
3. Mix really well and adjust seasoning as needed.
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The Verdict
I brought a gigantic vat of Fall-tastic Mac to the office the next day and forced all my friends to tastetest. Seriously, 20+ people were cajoled into trying it (though it didn't take that much convincing), and all had positive things to say. Still, a few take-aways for next time:
1. More cheese. Much more.
This I knew, and I've accounted for it above in my re-post of the base recipe-- that is, I've already doubled the amount of cheese and bechamel and generally increased the amount of pumpkin and spice. I might also try different cheese—I'd like to cut out the extra sharp white cheddar cheese and replace it with Gruyere, which is much creamier, and perhaps add a touch of mascarpone, which is even creamier.
2. More pumpkin. Not a whole ton more.
This I also knew, and I think I'd fix this problem by switching pumpkin beers. The pumpkin ale I got was seriously not. good: so bitter and not very pumpkiny. Alas, we were limited by our local grocery store and also by the fact that I *small voice* don't like or drink beer. In fact, fun (?) fact: I actually cut myself trying to open this pumpkin beer without a beer bottle opener. Days later, it's still bandaged up.
3. More spice. Not a whole ton more, but these are my ideas: cayenne pepper and more nutmeg.
Fall-tastic Mac could definitely use a little spice. I toyed with the idea of red chili pepper flakes, but KiKi says cayenne pepper is a better bet.
Until Next Time
KiKi and I will be hosting a tastetesting party this Sunday for Fall-tastic Mac version 3.0, as well as our other secret recipe. Of course, pictures and details forthcoming!
This mac 'n' cheese is legit.... SOOOOO GOOD! Makes me wonder why she is not in the culinary business.
ReplyDelete- a hungry co-worker