4.182
6 (Sat) July 2013
Cheddar-Muenster Mac & Cheese
3.0
by me
at home
-Oksu, Seongdong, Seoul, Republic of Korea-
with the Family and KIT’s family
To express my gratitude for the 2 free boxes of kimchi that IT had sent me – Thanks! – I invited him and his family over for dinner.
IT, who used to own/operate the restaurant The Kimchi Jjigae has since developed the business into a successful franchise operation with several locations throughout the city. Awesome. Apparently, he’s doing well enough to give away free kimchi that he used to sell to me at/near cost for around 35,000 won per box. Awesome.
At long last, I made a mac & cheese to be proud of. I adapted a recipe from food.com entitled “Fannie Farmer’s Classic Baked Macaroni and Cheese,” originally found in Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking School Cookbook (1946), according to the recipe’s author. The recipe starts with a base of béchamel sauce, to which cheese is added. As a result, unlike the crumbly/chunky concoctions that I’d ended up with in previous attempts (see most recently 2.061 Cheddar-Jack Mac), this time the cheese came out silky/smooth. Instead of going all cheddar, I substituted half muenster, which made it a bit lighter. The breadcrumb topping, to which I added about a quarter cup of freshly grated parmesan, browned beautifully and provided a crunchy textural counterpoint, as well as an extra layer of savoriness in flavor. Personally, I still don’t like mac & cheese per se, but I’ll keep this recipe on hand for special occasions.
(For more details about food, see WHAT)
(For more details about venue, see WHERE IN KOREA)
