COOKIES AND CREAM MAC n CHEESE

A serendipity cooking moment that I am still not sure if it needs to be repeated or not!  However the children do want a repeat!  This was one of those cooking moments when you reach for an ingredient and add it to your cooking without really looking at what you have actually picked up, this I can assure you means your taste buds are going to be in for a shock!  

This reminds me of the time I decided to have a little nostalgia and brought myself some cherryade, something I never do, after several sips I declared that the cherryade tasted funny only to be informed that I was actually drinking strawberryade!!!  The point here is I did not listen to my taste buds as I believed I was drinking cherry flavour.  

In this case I thought I had used Jersey full cream milk to make the roux white sauce, however after serving this to my family our taste buds soon realised I had used the cookies and cream flavoured Jersey milk, the kids loved it, insisted on Oreo cookies as a side order and it brought a whole new flavour level to Mac n cheese!

Ingredients

(Serves 4)

1ltr cookies and cream Jersey milk

1onion

1 clove

1 bay leaf

5 black peppercorns

50g butter

50g plain flour or rice flour (gluten free)

400g medium strong cheddar grated

200g Parmesan grated

White pepper

1kg macaroni pasta or brown rice pasta (gluten free)

1 pack Oreo cookies

Place the milk in a saucepan and warm, don't let the milk simmer, take the onion and using the clove as a pin fix the bay leaf to the onion, add to the milk along with the black peppercorns and leave to infuse for 10-20 minutes, meanwhile...

Bring a pan of water with a pinch of salt to a rolling boil, add the macaroni pasta and cook until just tender (al-dente), this will take approx 10 minutes, meanwhile pre-heat your oven to 200 degrees and then make the cheese sauce, the cheese sauce can be made a day or two in advance.

Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour and stir in well, cook the roux on a medium heat for a couple of minutes to cook out the flour taste.  Strain the milk and start to add approx 100ml at a time to the roux and stir in until all lumps become smooth, don't worry the lumps will work out as you stir.  There is a school of though that you should use warm milk as this will absorb into the fat and flour quicker and more evenly, this I find is true but it also works the same for cold milk you just have to stir a little longer as the milk comes up to temperature.

Once all the milk is incorporated, gently simmer the white sauce for around 10 minutes then add all the cheddar and half the parmesan, stir until incorporated, taste and season with salt and white pepper, sprinkle the remaining parmesan over the top and bake in a pre-heated oven 190 degrees for around 20 minutes until golden brown and bubbling hot.