My Grandfather's Macaroni Schotel

 

The best food is a food born out of love. Eating this special dish recalls precious memories and spread the warmth snugly feeling inside your soul, or nothing too instantly. You feel unpretentious and comfortable on your skin because of the simple message it conveys (love) or you may feel nothing at first. It will grow in you and take a little space of your heart and it will stay under a reserved area that is always special.

My Grandfather's Macaroni Schotel

 

For me, the name is Macaroni Schotel, the irreplaceable taste of my very dear late grandfather’s Mac & Cheese. My mother siblings love it, and all the grandchildren grow up with it within a walk away. Yes, he loved walking. Whether it is a 1 km or 5km, my grandfather is the man who would get up early in the dawn to sip his coffee and cook his grandchildren favourite’s foods and visit us with a warm yummy foods wrapped in a kitchen cloths as soon as it is ready to eat. I don’t know which one comes first, our favourite foods or his foods, because ultimately what he cooked for us is our favourites. I remember all the moments with him very vividly. He was the best cook I know who showed passion and love in every food he made, it was so sad that He passed away before any of us could digest how much our love of food is his legacy.

Nobody can make the meanest Macaroni Schotel like my grandpa. Not my mum, not my aunties, not even my uncle or my grandma, even when all of them know the exact ingredients. You see, my grandpa was a bold person, and it showed in his cooking. He put the best and fattiest milk and the best Edam cheese and smoked ham. The rest of the family is way too scared of the high cholesterol profiles ingredients and stayed away from it. We, the children were exempted, we were growing and young we need the “good fat”. I am glad for the spoonful of love that we tasted

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Today I want to share with you this warm feeling through a recreation of my grandfather Macaroni Schotel; obviously with some ingredients substituted mainly because Iam not as bold as he was.

This is what I used:

6 cups of water to boil 2 ½ cups of fussily pasta for 8 minutes

100 grams of fermier ham ( the best from quebec)

100 grams of cremini mushrooms

1 tsp of minced garlic

½ tsp of chicken bouillon powder

¼  of sweet onions minced

1 ½ cups of milk

3 tbsp of flour

80 grams of smoked gouda cheeses

50 grams of silani mozzarella cheese

2 tbsp of butter of substitute with olive oil

Pinch of nutmeg

Panko crumbs

Salt and black pepper to taste

Once you prepared the ingredients, boil the fusilli or macaroni pasta al dente, then you sauté the onion and garlic with butter/olive oil. Once its browned, throw in the mushroom and the cut up hams until the mushroom wilts. Put in the flour to make a roux and then pour in the milk, and the pasta. Season with nutmeg, salt and pepper. If you are so tempted like me I normally stop at this stage and put in the cheeses and eat it right away. But, if you are patient enough, you could put in the pasta into a baking pan and top it with the cheese and panko crumbs on top.

Baked it for 10 minutes on broil to make the top crispy or bake for 20 minutes on 350 F for crusty, schotel version of the Macaroni. Whatever works for you should be good.

I treasured the memories with my grandfather very much and I miss him a lot. Macaroni Schotel is just one thing that always brings me a little warm fuzzy feeling. What is your best treasured memories of food?

Passion + Patience *Gastrobutterfly* A food to your soul.