Homey Mac'n'Cheese with lotsa veggie

Mac n Cheese with lotsa veg

Mr T and I returned from our brief break from sunny and warm Surfers Paradise and was greeted by the wet and freezing cold of M Town.

I was really craving something homey and decide to make mac'n'cheese. It's also Mr T's number 1 comfort food. This is what he would request when he's sick. No Congee for him....

I remember we had this whole head of cauliflower sitting in the crisper section of our fridge that we got at the market nearly a month ago and this long forgotten leek. So thought we'd better use them up now that our oven has been fixed (it was out of commission for nearly 6 months! >.<)

Ingredients (feeds 4 or more)

• 1/2 packet of pasta (I used macaroni coz I like their shape)
• 1 whole head of cauliflower, separated into florets
• 1 leek, sliced finely up to all the edible bits 
• 3 garlic cloves, chopped finely
• 1 carrot (grated)
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• frozen green peas (optional and use as much as you like)
• bacon, diced (optional, use as much as you like)
• butter
• flour
• milk
• white wine
• 1 egg
• 1 heaped tablespoon of whole grain mustard
• mixed herbs
• Slap ya'Mama (cajun/chili powder - optional)
• Dukkah (optional)
• cheese (cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella)
• breadcrumbs (optional)
• Olive oil
• Salt & Pepper

Directions

• Season the cauliflower florets with mixed herbs, salt & pepper, slap ya'Mama and Dukkah in a roasting pan (or whatever you'll be making the mac'n'cheese in), place in oven and roast for 20 mins or so, until soften. 
• Cook pasta on stove top per packet direction til 70% ready (under cook them, because they'l cook further in the oven).
• In a large saucepan, over medium heat, fry up the bacon bits over a splash of olive oil, add the leek, cook for 5 mins.
• Add garlic and grated carrots cook for another couple of minutes, add capsicum & frozen peas, keep stirring so they don't stick to pan and everything is thoroughly mixed, season slightly with salt and pepper.
• Pour out cooked pasta and drain.
• In pasta pot over medium heat, make a roux with the butter and flour until it's a nice nutty tan/brown colour.
• Add in milk and white wine, make sure it's NOT bubbling and crack in the egg, keep whisking so it doesn't form a poached egg!
• Season with whole grain mustard and Slap ya'Mama, keep whisking and add in cheese until it's one gooey gooey glob.
• Transfer cooked cauliflower to the saucepan of veggies along with the cooked pasta and mix well.
• Pour the mixture back into the roasting pan and then add in the cheese sauce, top with a sprinkle of breadcrumb to give it that crunchy top 
• Bake for 20 mins until it's golden. 
• DIG IN!!!

Meatballs with Romesco Sauce

Mozzarella stuffed spicy meatballs with romesco sauce

Meatballs!

So after visiting the Scorsese Exhibition at ACMI I simply could not get the meatballs that his mom Kathy made out of my head! (And wanting to watch all his movies as well, this guy is a cine-genius!)

I knew I didn't want big fist-sized meatballs because I just find them too dry, eating this massive chunk of mince meat did not appeal to me, but little ping-pong ball size ones filled with gooey mozzarella cheese....ooooh yeah baby! Get in mah belly!

We had pasta at a really cute Italian restaurant in the city after the exhibition, called Il Solito Posto, it was quite cozy and the food there was lovely, will definitely be going back there again. Though then made me crave something less traditional to go with my meatballs, so I decided to go Tapas/Spanish style with Romesco sauce, if you haven't tried it before, it is amazing! My Romesco sauce is made with roasted char-grilled red capsicums, so their flavours really intensify and brings out the sweetness and slightly smokiness, there's almond flakes, breadcrumbs to give the sauce body and other spices like smokey paprika to up the pepper and smokey flavour. It went really well with the meatballs. Here's what you'll need to make this simple but yummy dish.

Romesco sauce ingredients:

• 2 large capsicums, grilled whole in the oven on high heat for 30 mins
• breadcrumbs
• almond flakes
• tomato
• garlic
• smokey paprika
• chili flakes
• red wine vinegar/balsamic vinegar
• salt & pepper
• basil
• leek/onion
• olive oil

Directions

• Remove grilled capsicums from oven and place in ziplock bags, careful not to lose any of it's juices, this is vital part of the sauce!
• Let the capsicums cool in bag and remove the skins and the seeds
• In a blender thingy add all the ingredients except the basil and leek/onion and blitz til smooth
• In a saucepan, add olive oil and brown/sweat the onion/leek
• Add in the sauce, it is now ready for the meatballs to be be simmered in.

So let's get right into them.

Meatballs ingredients:

• 500 g of half pork half beef mince, you can incorporate other mince if you like
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
• 1 egg
• breadcrumbs
• mozzarella/bocconcini quartered
• mixed dried italian herbs
• chilli powder/flake
• paprika
• salt & pepper
• kasundi

Directions

• Add all the ingredients except the cheese together, mix well
• Take a spoonful of the mince mixture and flatted it a bit and add the piece of cheese in the centre, then wrap mince around and roll it up into a ping pong ball size
• Add them to a fry pan with butter/olive oil to brown on all size, doesn't need to be cooked through.
• Do this in batches until all the meatballs have been browned, then add them all to the Romesco sauce for simmering for 15-20 minutes until they're cooked through and the sauce thicken up a bit.
• Serve with some chopped basil and you may top it up with shaved Parmesan cheese if you like.

Yuuummm :D