After our trip to the Northern Rhone, we decided that we needed to take a day to just chill around the chateau and catch up on some of the wine we had purchased. However, we had noticed a little shop down the road called “La Grotte Aux Fromages” or “The Cheese Cave” in English. Considering that we had a love affair with the local cheeses that rivaled our passion for wine (well, maybe not quite so much) I felt that we were honor bound to pay this place a visit.
Inside there was a beautiful young lady (by now your should have noticed that this is becoming a recurring theme, the women there were very beautiful) helping a local couple with their purchases. this had given us ample time to peruse the cases, only to be confused by the array of local cheeses that we had never seen in the States. After finishing with her customers, I asked her in my terribly accented French if she spoke English, only to find that she spoke it perfectly, except with a nice Australian accent. I found this to be something which only added to her charm. We exited from this place with more cheese than we should have bought, but after sampling the various types and styles, we had at least two kilos of various cheeses neatly wrapped in packages for our consumption back at the chateau.
In the back of my head, I was also thinking about what were going to do for dinner. There was a total of ten couples on this vacation and group dinners seemed to be the way things were happening. I was thinking about making my shrimp etouffee (a to die for meal that I will get around to posting some day) but was confronted with several vegetarians and people who didn’t like things too spicy. It was Ms Cocktail who brought up the idea of making a mac and cheese for the group. Not only did this fit the dietary needs of the folks here, but it used up the kilo of leftover penne that The Spark Plug had cooked up earlier in the week but never got around to using. (Just as an aside, the Spark Plug is also a pretty decent cook and his never ending energy kept him cooking during his free time. To say that we ate well on this trip is a bit of an understatement.)
This thrown together version so blew away my original version that I’ve decided that I will update the original recipe with what I did. So without further adieu, I present my French Mac and Cheese
French Mac and Cheese
8 ounces penne pasta
3 Tbs unsalted butter
3 Tbs all purpose flour
1 Tbs ground mustard powder
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 cup onion, diced
3 cups whole milk
1 large egg
4 ounces Chévre goats milk cheese, cut into small chunks
4 ounces Camembert cheese, cut into small chunks
4 ounces Emmental de Savoie cheese, grated
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Topping
4 ounces gruyere cheese, grated
3 Tbs unsalted butter
1/2 of a stale baguette
Heat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Bring 2 quarts of water and 1 Tbs kosher salt to a boil in a 4 quart pot. Add the penne and cook for about 9 minutes or until al dente (a tad undercooked is ok as long as it is not hard or crunchy). Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water to stop the cooking.
Melt 3 Tbs butter in a saucier or sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and and cook until the mixture is pale blond in color (about 3 minutes). This is your roux. To this roux, whisk in the mustard, paprika and onion. Cook for about a minute then whisk in the milk and cook for about 7 to 8 minutes, whisking constantly (incidentally, you’ve just turned your roux into a Béchamel sauce but I digress). Remove from the heat.
Lightly beat the egg in a small bowl. Temper the egg into the milk mixture. This means adding a bit of the hot milk mixture to the egg and mixing it in. I usually do it with 4 tablespoons of the hot liquid, one at a time, and thoroughly mixing it in. Then take the heated egg and add back to the remaining milk mixture. This will keep the egg from immediately cooking when added to the milk mixture. Stir in the cheeses, salt and pepper. Fold in the macaroni and put in a casserole dish large enough to hold it all (at least 3 quarts).
Top the casserole by sprinkling the remaining cheddar cheese on the top. Break the baguette into small chunks then buzz it in a food processor or run it over a cheese grater to make fine bread crumbs. Then melt the butter and toss the bread crumbs with the butter and sprinkle on the top of the mac and cheese.
Cook for 30 minutes and then cool for 5 minutes before serving.
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