Real Mac & Cheese

Mhm .

It's our history .

It's , it's our culture .

It's what we know .

Right .

And what we do is we , we'll have a get together and a get together is nothing more than just a large group where family , friends loved ones get together .

That could be Sunday .

After a church service .

It could be , um , after a wedding reception , it could even be like a random Saturday where somebody's frying fish and you've got folks playing , uh , a bit car and whenever we would get together , food is always at the epicenter of the experience .

It's the thing that binds us together .

Right .

It's the thing that we all sort of look forward to and it's our mothers and our grandmothers who are like magicians in the kitchen .

I mean , they are in the kitchen making magic and there's this one dish that everybody is judged by and that just happens to be mac and cheese to get started .

Here's what we're gonna do .

I've got a big old pot of water here .

I'm gonna bring to a boil in the meantime , I'm gonna add lots of really good kosher salt into the water .

What I'm doing is I'm taking a moment to really season the water .

I , I have two golden rules when it comes to making pasta .

Number one , you must over salt the water .

Number two , you've got undercook the pasta .

Now , remember whatever is inside the water is gonna get absorbed into the pasta .

So if there's no flavor in the water , then guess what ?

There's no flavor in the pasta .

And once the water comes to a boil , you're gonna add in a pasta just like this and you wanna give it a stir every couple of minutes so that nothing sticks and we're gonna cook the pasta just until it's done and , and you really want your moment .

That's the moment everybody's been waiting for .

You got family friends , everybody's literally gathered around the table waiting for that perfectly seasoned pan .

That casserole dish of macaroni and cheese that is seasoned to perfection .

It is bubbly and the top is super gold and brown .

Listen , being super cheesy here just isn't a choice .

I mean , it has to be super , super cheesy .

It's just gotta be cheesy for the perfect cheese sauce .

So I'll just start by melting some butter in the pan .

And as soon as your butter comes to a melt , you're just gonna go ahead and add in your flour and give it a stir .

So I'm making a blonde roux and the idea is just to stir together your flour and your butter just until it comes together because what you wanna do is cook out some of the raw taste that's in the flour .

Then I'll whisk in some half and half .

I use half and half because it is super rich and , well , that's just the kind of sauce that we're going for .

Nice and luscious .

I'm just gonna keep stirring it until it comes to a boil and once it comes to a boil , it's going to thicken and then that's when we're going to add in some .

All right .

So I'm going to lower the heat and then I'm gonna just start adding in really good things .

So I'm gonna start with some salt and pepper , obviously .

So here's the salt and here's the pepper .

Then a pinch of garlic powder goes in for complexity , garlic pasta cheese .

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this .

I love adding smoked paprika and sour cream just so it stays nice and moist .

Then I carefully add in the cheeses , the sharp cheddar , the white cheddar Colby Jack shredded mozzarella and then smoked .

Now , I know it's almost sinful , but is it mac and cheese supposed to be sinful ?

I take processed American cheese and cube it up .

Then when I combine the cooked pasta and the perfectly seasoned cheese sauce together , I toss in the American cheese and combine it really , really well so that when it bakes up , it melts all throughout the entire dish , any leftover shredded cheese and just put it on top and then it goes into a hot oven .

I let the whole thing cook for about 35 minutes until the top is super crusty , golden brown and the cheese is bubbly and I think everything is ready .

So let's just go and see how our hard work , how it paid off .

Oh , my .

I mean , look at this , the smells that are coming from , this casserole dish are simply intoxicating .

Ok .

And I could see some of that American cheese is in here and it's sort of , it's melted down and it's gonna be good .

Really good .

All right .

I don't wanna burn myself .

Mm .

Yes .

This is really , really good .

It's creamy .

It is still smoking hot but the pasta is cooked perfectly .

The flavors of all the cheese is with that little hint of garlic .

Oh , just warms my heart .

So much recipes like this .

You must give them a try .

You know exactly where they're gonna be on my website .

It's www dot Darius cooks dot TV .

Listen , y'all , there's two things I wanna tell you as I always do and that's food is my life .

Life .

It's my food .

Until next time I wanna wish you happy cooking .

Mm .

From my heart to yours .

Bye y'all .

Oh .

Mm .