Alpine Mac ‘n Cheeze

Do you remember exactly where you were when special moments happened in your life ??  Well let me tell you, I was sitting on the couch watching the new Tiger King documentary sipping Diet Coke Zero ( pre Christmas starvation mode ) and Kevin Sheridan gave me the green light to design the Sheridans Mac ‘n Cheese. This to me is like winning a Bafta , I accepted the challenge ,picked the biggest hand bag I owned and walked to the Galway shop  to have the Alpine chats with Julian. We chose the Emmental and Raclette for stretch then Schnebelhorn for the gigantic!!!!  I think you will impress any and  all VIPs visiting over Christmas with this one.

You can replace the suggested cheeses with any hard cheese you have at the back of the fridge. This is a particularly good recipe for using up left over bits and pieces. 

Ingredients 

• 1 Bay leaf 
• 85 g of Brittany salted butter 
• 85 g of flour 
• 1 litre of full fat milk 
• 100 g of Raclette, diced into small cubes
• 130g of Emmental, grated
• 200g of Schnebelhorn, grated
• 3 tea-spoons of mustard 
• 3 tea-spoons of Garlic powder or crushed garlic
• ½  medium onion 
• 500g packet of pasta (penne or macaroni), cooked
• 5 cloves
• Handful of chopped thyme
• 200g of breadcrumbs

Method:

1. Before chopping or grating your cheese ensure that it is as cold as possible, then remove the rind.
2. Attach the bay leaf onto the onion by pinning it with the whole cloves
3. Place the onion into a saucepan with the milk
4. Slowly bring the milk to a simmer then remove from the heat
5. In a large heavy sauce pan slowly melt the butter, adding the flour and stirring on a low heat until combined.
6. One ladle at a time add the milk (the onion can be discarded) to the flour & butter mix over a low heat, continuously stirring.
7. Add the mustard and garlic to the mixture
8. Now start to add your cheese to the mix, again slowly while stirring
9. Once this whole mixture is combined remove the pot from the heat and stir in the cooked pasta.
10. Pour the mixture into a baking dish
11. Top with bread crumbs and thyme.
12. Bake in a pre-heated oven for about 25 minutes ta 180c