Cheesy, creamy and savory- what better meal to have on a snow day? I’ll go ahead and say right now the secret to a good batch of mac and cheese is- DUN NA NA. . the cheese. That and a good solid bechemel. Once you get your bechemel recipe down, your mac and cheese options are LIMITLESS.
Bechemel is also known as “white sauce” and is roux-based, meaning it’s made with butter and flour. My favorite and go to Bechemel “recipe” comes from the “Mac’n’Cheese” cookbook, by Laura Washburn.
This book was a little day prize from my sweetie, and while I’ve never actually made any of the exact recipes from this book, I love to look through it for ideas and the food styling and photography is amazing and inspiring. If you’ve never made mac and cheese from scratch- this book is a must have for you!.
ALWAYS use freshly grated/shredded cheese. Do not use pre-shredded, in the bag cheese. Pre-grated cheese is always dryer, doesn’t melt as well and often has some form of preservatives in it causing it’s melted texture to differ as well.
Here you can see I used fresh grated medium Cheddar and Pepper Jack. I had left over bacon in the fridge- so I decided to toss that in too. I always buy shrimp that’s NOT pre-cooked. I feel the texture and flavor is so much more fresh than pre-cooked. Yes, it takes a little longer but I think the end results are well worth it. (I know the pictured shrimp are pink- making it seem like they are cooked. However, this particular type of shrimp are red prior to cooking, not grey.)
For this recipe, I de-veined and de-shelled all the shrimp in the bag, and sauteed them with some olive oil, Old Bay and the jalapenos. I only used 1 1/2 cups of the cooked shrimp for this mac and cheese and saved the rest for lunch this week.
And with the most magical ingredient of all time. BACON.
FTW:
Okay,
- 3 1/2 Tbsp butter
- 6 Tbsp flour
- 2 1/2 c almond milk (here you can use regular milk if you'd like)
- 2 Tbsp dijon
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 jalapeno, chopped
- 4 slices of bacon, cooked and chopped
- 1 1/2 c shrimp, cooked and chopped
- 1 1/2 c fresh shredded cheddar cheese
- 1 1/2 c Pepper Jack cheese
- 1 lb elbow macaroni
- 1/3 c bread crumbs
- 1/2 shredded cheese for topping the macaroni
- Start with cooking your pasta, according to the directions on the box.
- Saute your cleaned shrimp with the chopped jalapenos, some olive oil and Old Bay seasoning.
- Cook bacon to your liking, and chop.
- In a sauce pan, melt the butter whisking in the flour to create the beginning of your bechemel.
- Whisk in your milk, stirring continuously until it begins to thicken into a sauce.
- Add your mustard and garlic.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the shredded cheeses. These should melt fairly quickly because of the heat from the bechemel.
- Stir in your bacon, shrimp and jalapeno.
- Pour into a casserole dish, or cast iron skillet. (This held the 1 lb of pasta perfectly).
- Top mac and cheese with remaining 1/2 c of shedded cheese and the bread crumbs.
- Broil on high for approximately 10 minutes or until bread crumbs begin to brown.
- If you like it a bit spicier, feel free to add more jalapenos, or do all Pepper jack cheese and leave out the cheddar.
This dish is perfect for a cold winter day, and makes a ton of left overs! (WINNING! Y’all know how I love my left overs.) We’ll all just have to do a little extra cardio this week. . .eh?
Enjoy! Kelli