Mac and cheese with cauliflower and leek

Last year my 15 year old daughter cooked an impressive Christmas dinner for her and her dad.  She piled their plates with mac and cheese, marinated tofu, roast potatoes, roast carrots and peas.  The amazing mac and cheese was really rich with lots of cheese.  It was a viral Tik Tok sensation.  Our Prime Minister might be intent on banning social media for children under 16 years old but this fantastic dish shows me just how younger kids can benefit from this online world.  So today I am going to tell you about our version of Tini's Mac and Cheese!

First, let me warn you that this mac and cheese is not for the faint of heart.  It requires vision and boldness, planning and lists, time and energy!  We have made it three times: once for a practice run, once for Christmas and once for a birthday.  The recipe is from Tinike Younger's Tik Tok and since it was posted on 13 November 2023, it has amassed over 900,000 views.  It is that good.  Check out the review on the Kitchn.  The recipe has been posted in a blog style (ie writing not video) on Ima Food Blog. 

Tini's recipe is huge.  It will effortlessly feed a crowd.  We are a small household so we have reduced our version of the recipe to about half the original recipe.  It is also really really rich.  We have added leek and cauliflower because we like these vegies with pasta.  The added vegies make it easier to stomach the rich cheese sauce and make us feel slightly healthier when eating it.  It will give you plenty of energy but you need some stamina to make this recipe.

This recipe takes a lot of time so I find it easiest to break it down into smaller steps.  It also is a good recipe to make with a helper.  Firstly prepare all the components: chop and fry leeks, chop vegies, grate cheeses and get spices together.  I get the leeks on first and let them slowly soften in the frypan as I potter around.  I find it easier to measure the pepper if I measure peppercorns and grind them with a mortar and pestle.  Sylvia likes to grate all the cheeses in front of the tv.  It is important to have them in a bowl with a bit of space you you can mix them together so all of them go in at each step of the recipe.

Then I put on the pasta and cauliflower to cook and start making the cheese sauce.  It does not take much effort to bring a pot of water to boil and simmer some pasta and veg.  The cheese sauce is another matter.  It took me a while to get use to making them but now they are not too hard.  Yet they are still quite a few steps: melt butter, stir in flour to make a roux, fry the roux, add the liquid a little at a time making sure that it is well mixed after each addition, and then finally bringing it to the boil when it will thicken.  

This roux does not thicken much until all that cheese goes in.  I don't usually add so much cheese so it was a surprise to be instructed to add it a few handfuls at a time but I can see the sense of it.  Nobody wants to have to tackle a huge mass of unmelted cheese in their sauce. 

If you also have never made a roux with this much cheese you too might stop when you have finished it to lift the spoon from the sauce to admire the cheese stretch.  At this moment, we were excited about how good the mac and cheese would be because that sauce was so cheesy and stretchy.  I usually make a roux with milk but this recipe used evaporated milk and cream.  So it is really rich!

It is so satisfying to mix together the cheese sauce, the pasta and cauliflower and the fried leek.  The promise of the cheese stretch in the sauce does not disappoint when the mixture is all together.  Again we found ourselves lifting up big spoonfuls of it just to admire all those stretchy cheese strings!  Sylvia found the end result could have been more salty so I had added some extra paprika in the below recipe to pump up the flavour!

Next you layer the pasta mixture and extra cheese in a large baking dish.  For the topping there is lots of cheese and we also added a lot of breadcrumbs for Sylvia and sesame seeds for me.  This make the top so crispy and satisfying. 

Now it is ready for the oven but you can pause here if you wish.  When we made it for Sylvia and her dad's Christmas dinner, we made up to this point the day before, kept it in the fridge overnight and then it was baked the next day.

Then you bake it until the cheese is melted and golden brown.  It smells amazing.  It looks amazing.  It tastes amazing.  Once it is ready, it has taken so long and the smell calls to you like a siren so you can't wait to dig the spoon into the mac and cheese and hear it crack that crispy topping. 
 

This photo is of Sylvia's mac and cheese that she served on Christmas day with lots of vegies.  What a feast!  Her and her dad raved abut how good it was.  I had a taste when I came home from Christmas day with my family.  Now while I love mac and cheese, I don't usually see it as a festive dish.  It is not part of my Christmas traditions.  But this was different to a bog standard mac and cheese.  It was so special and so delicious that even I found this meal fit for Christmas day!  We made it again  in the new year to celebrate her birthday!  It made a truckload but it makes for amazing leftovers if it is not devoured by a grateful crowd.  Mac and cheese might not be part of my festive traditions but leftovers certainly are welcome after rushing around like crazy to prepare for a celebration.

On an ordinary weekday we get by with something quick and easy that will do.  We save our energy for when we really want something special.  This mac and cheese is a lot of work but it is worth all taking more time and putting in extra effort for when you want something that is amazing enough, rich enough, scrumdidliumptious enough to impress a crowd and celebrate an occasion!  It can be changed up to use different vegetables or leave them out depending on your preference.  And if your 15 year old daughter wants to make it for Christmas dinner, you would be a fool to refuse, not matter what your traditions.

More recipes with mac and cheese on Green Gourmet Giraffe blog:

Mac and cheese layered nut roast
Mac and cheese pancakes
Macaroni cheese with sauerkraut, cauliflower and blue cheese (v)
Quick one pot mac and cheese
Vegie mac and cheese money bag dumplings

Mac and cheese with cauliflower and leek
Adapted from Ima Food Blog
Serves 6-8

1 tbsp oil
1 leek
 
1 cauliflower
500g pasta cavatappi (or another corkscrew pasta)
 
250g mozzarella cheese
250g sharp cheddar cheese
125g red leicester cheese 

1/4 tsp black peppercorns (or ground pepper)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
 
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp plain flour
340ml tin of evaporated milk
250-300m heavy cream
1 tbsp seeded mustard

Optional topping:

Breadcrumbs (panko works well)
Sesame seeds

1. Fry the leek

Heat oil in a frypan while you slice the leek.  Let it fry over medium low heat, stirring occasionally for 15-20 minutes or until the leeks are soft and cooked.

2. Prepare other ingredients - pasta, cauliflower, cheese and spices

While the leeks fry, prepare other ingredients.  

Put water on the stove to bring salted water to the boil in a stockpot to cook the pasta.  Trim the cauliflower and chop into bite sized pieces.  Add cauliflower pieces and pasta and simmer for 8 minutes.  Drain and return to the stockpot. 

Grate the cheeses and mix them together.  Grind a 1/4 tsp of peppercorns and add to the salt, garlic powder and paprika.  

Preheat oven to 200 C (if baking straight away).

3, Make the cheese sauce

Melt the butter in a large saucepan or a frypan.  Stir in flour and spices to make a roux.  Cook a few minutes over low heat until fragrant.  

Gradually stir in evaporated milk, cream and mustard, a little at a time making sure it is totally mixed with roux before adding the next amount (start small and add more each time as the mixture thins.)  Once all the liquid is incorporated, turn up the heat and bring to the boil, stirring regularly.  It will thicken slightly.  

Add half the grated cheese, a couple of handfuls at a time until it melts and then add more until all of it is incorporated to make a cheese sauce.  The sauce should be stretchy and thicker now.

4. Mix together the mac and cheese sauce

Pour the cheese sauce onto the pasta and cauliflower.  Add the cooked leeks.  Stir everything together gently. 

6, Layer and bake

Tip half the pasta mixture into a 9 x 13 inch rectangular baking dish and spread out evenly.  (No need to grease or line it because there is enough grease in the mixture.)  Sprinkle with half the remaining grated cheese.  Spoon the remaining pasta mixture evenly on top of the cheese and sprinkle with remaining cheese.  If you are using breadcrumbs and sesame seeds over the cheese.

If you want to serve within hours of coming out of the oven, bake now.  Or, if you want to serve the next day, the unbaked lasagna can be refrigerated overnight and brought out to cool to room temperature a few hours before baking the next day.  Bake at 200 C for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

7. Serve and store any leftovers!

Ideally let sit for 15-30 minutes once out of the oven before serving but it can be served straight away piping hot.  Leftovers will last a few days in the fridge in an airtight container once cooled.  We heated ours up in the microwave.

On the stereo:
Good Humour (Part 1): St Etienne