If one was particularly determined (and had somehow been spared the lactose intolerance gene), they could definitely prepare an entire week's worth of dinners using just the macaroni and cheese chapter from "Top Chef" star Kenny Gilbert's cookbook "Southern Cooking, Global Flavors."
This book, as the name suggests, focuses on taking classic American recipes — especially those from the South where Gilbert was raised and continues to cook — and adapting them using international inspiration. As a result, Gilbert's cookbook has not one, but five unique macaroni and cheese recipes, ranging from Chicken Wing Mole with Charred Corn-Jalapeño Mac & Cheese to Port-Glazed Chicken Thighs with Saint André-White Truffle Mac & Cheese.
"If I'm talking to one of my best friends who's Italian, and we're talking food, and I want to cook for him, I want him to have something that's like that warm hug from grandma — but his grandma," Gilbert said in a recent conversation with Salon Talks. But also from my side of things in terms of, 'This would make a good mac and cheese.'"
Here are three steps from Gilbert for turning your macaroni and cheese into a full meal, and having fun while you do so.
Start with your base
It sounds like riffing on recipes was just part of Gilbert's culinary DNA.
"All kids growing up in America, regardless of their cultural background, are going to eat mac & cheese at some point," Gilbert writes in the introduction to the macaroni and cheese chapter of his cookbook. "We always had the iconic blue boxes of mac & cheese in our pantry when I was a kid," Gilbert writes. "It was so bad, but so good at the same time. I was six years old when I made my first box. I would doctor it up by adding more cheese to make it as cheesy as possible. I thought I was a big shot standing at the stove making 'my own recipe.'"
When starting to adapt a recipe, sometimes it's helpful to start with a base or a reference point; in this case, it could be the macaroni and cheese your mom made you when you were growing up that used elbow macaroni and mild cheddar cheese. Maybe it's your favorite fast-food macaroni and cheese (Anthony Bourdain famously liked both Popeye's and KFC's mac, by the way).
Or maybe it's a cookbook recipe.
In addition to Gilbert's versions, I'm personally really fond of the version found in Ashley Christensen's "Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner." This recipe, which is served in Christensen's North Carolina restaurant, is a really classic macaroni au gratin-style mac.
"The Poole's Macaroni au Gratin is made to order and is composed of cream (reduced), macaroni elbows (slightly al dente), three cheeses (Jarlsberg, grana padano, and sharp white Vermont cheddar) and sea salt," she writes. "The most important ingredient, though, is a pile of tasting spoons. The cook working the mac station spends all night perfecting the texture and seasoning each order before mounding the same three cheeses on top and moving it to the broiler to be bruleed to a caramelized crisp of bubbling, cheesy perfection (or as close to perfection as we can get."
Once you've mastered your base recipe, it's time to start to have a little fun.
Riff on the basics — the pasta and cheese
In speaking with Salon Talks, Gilbert said of the macaroni and cheese chapter:
I wanted to be able to show, "Hey, this is my basic foundation, how I make mac and cheese." And then now, you can take these cheeses out, add these cheeses in, and then now you have a different experience. And you can pair that up with different proteins, or vegetables, or whatever.
Gilbert is all about taking thoughtful inspiration from different cultures to amp up the flavor profiles in his dish — and he starts with the pasta and the cheese. For instance, in his Chicken Wing Mole with Charred Corn–Jalapeño Mac & Cheese, Gilbert reaches for pepper Jack, cream cheese, Monterey jack and Modelo beer to make a queso-inspired cheese sauce to coat farfalle — the bowtie pasta that has a really nice tooth, which enables it to stand up to the spiced sauce. It's then topped with crumbled cotija.
"I think about all the core basics of flavor profiles," Gilbert said. "Whether it's the cheese, whether it's the type of pasta that would be more relatable, the chicken that's going with it, how am I going to season that to compliment."
Concerned about which cheeses melt best for macaroni and cheese? Here is a very cheesy guide from Salon Food to help guide you through the process.
Time for additions
Macaroni and cheese is one of those foods that seem to inherently feed your inner child, so why not have some fun with additions? This is where you as a cook can take macaroni and cheese from a side to a main course.
Gilbert, for instance, paired all of his macaroni and cheese recipes from this book with some version of chicken. "Chicken is a great lean meat to serve with mac & cheese," he writes. "And the added protein makes for a full meal."
Again, take inspiration from other culture's cuisines when determining what extras to add. Let's say, for instance, that you want to go in an Italian-inspired direction. If you want a more intricate recipe, you could choose Gilbert's Lemon and Rosemary Roasted Chicken Breasts with Taleggio-Pancetta Mac & Cheese; if you wanted something a little more weeknight-friendly, you could add chopped sun-dried tomatoes, frozen spinach and rotisserie chicken seasoned with Italian seasoning to a pot of basic stovetop macaroni and cheese.
There's no wrong way to play here, though a quick note for safety: Never add raw meat to your macaroni and cheese, even if you are planning on oven baking the dish. It's always safer to pre-cook your meat. Many vegetables — including onions, peppers and broccoli — do better with a quick pre-cook, too. However, leafy greens are great to add raw because they will simply wilt under the heat of the pasta and sauce, which makes for an easy opportunity to add a little extra nutrition to your meal.
Some people can be precious about what makes a "real" macaroni and cheese — remember the uproar when Food Network star Katie Lee added brussels sprouts to a baked Thanksgiving mac? — but don't let them deter you from experimenting. It's what Gilbert wants for those cooking from his book.
"I wanted something that would be unique," Gilbert told Salon Food about this chapter. "Because if you're a mac and cheese lover, you're going to be like, 'Oh cool, wait a minute, there's more than one variation.'"
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