Gone Over To The Dark Side... Back in 30 Minutes
Posted by: Greg Bulmash in Cooking & RecipesRecently, on a sick day, I found myself browsing Food Network's video on demand offerings. I'll sometimes see a recipe that inspires me to create my own variation and make my family happy. But there's one dark corner I've refused to visit for years: Rachael Ray's 30-minute mayhem. I've generally thought a lot of her stuff is unappetizing and her cutesy catchphrases had me wanting to chew my own foot off, not to escape, but to get the taste out of my mouth.
But I've been trying to perfect my own Mac and Cheese recipe and she had a show labeled as Mac and Cheese. I was curious about what kind of Mac and Cheese recipe she could do in 30 minutes.
The recipe was her "Florentine Mac and Cheese and Roast Chicken Sausage Meatballs".
The meatballs looked gross, but the Mac and Cheese recipe was a simple mornay, using only parmesan, with a couple of boxes of chopped spinach added, some fresh ground nutmeg, and some chicken broth substituted for part of the milk. It actually looked sort of tasty and a way to get my 3-year-old to eat spinach.
So I tried her recipe tonight with some minor variations. I cut the parmesan in half, substituting 4 slices of American cheese (for my kid) and adding about a cup of mild cheddar because I like my Mac and Cheese to be really cheesy. I used 14 ounces of broth instead of 8, because it doesn't come in 8 ounce cans. To compensate, I only used a dash of pasta water. And I spiced it with a couple teaspoons each of some ground cumin and some garlic and spice powder I got at Costco, instead of using nutmeg.
Last, I nuked some frozen beef meatballs from Costco and stirred them in at the end. Served it up with some bread to wipe up the leftover cheese sauce on the plate.
The result: a weeknight Mac and Cheese that got my kid to gladly eat spinach and which pleased my discerning palate.
Darn you, Rachael Ray!
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I started reading Rachel's "Florentine Mac and Cheese and Roast Chicken Sausage Meatballs" and stopped at 'Preheat oven to 450 degrees F'. T'was about as enjoyable as reading a pipelined parallel processor instruction manual.
Where has all her professed "its all about the love" gone? Or am I thinking about that retard who shows up periodically at Oprah's?
Maybe you should write up recipes punctuated with jokes and an occasional fairy tale, just to get people to read it.