Wouldn’t Scott Conant just croak if he saw this post! He’s always ranting about something. “Oh I hate raw red onions! You can’t pair cheese and seafood! etc….” Well there are probably many things wrong “culinarily” with these ingredients individually and collectively in many cases, but for some reason when they all come together in “this dish” they make perfect sense to my palate. I almost never use imitation crab or precooked shrimp. Super stinky cheese stirred up with equally stinky fake seafood, hmmm. I better quit now before I turn you off completely. I promise that there is a time and a place for almost everything.
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| Now doesn’t that just look like a motley collection of ingredients! |
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| Helping out mom. |
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| Don’t think that I did not lap up a couple of spoon fulls of this! |
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| I love fresh grated nutmeg! I can’t help grating a little into any and all of my white sauces. |
Seafood Mac & Cheese
Ingredients:
-18 oz. fresh spinach (wilted down in the microwave and excess moisture squeezed out)
-2 lbs. cooked (61-70) shrimp (tails removed)
-16 oz. imitation crab (diced)
-16 oz. large elbow macaroni noodles (boiled for ~ 7 minutes, and then drained)
-8 oz. Jarlsberg cheese (shredded)
-8 oz. dill Havarti cheese (shredded)
-8 oz. Swiss cheese (shredded)
– ¼ c. flour
– 4 Tbsp. butter
-3 to 4 c. heavy cream (warmed)
-1 to 2 Tbsp. dried dill
– 1/8 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
-kosher salt to taste (I used ~ 2 tsp. in my sauce)
-cooking spray
Preheat oven to 350° F. Coat extra-large casserole dish with cooking spray. To wilt spinach in the microwave: Place spinach in large bowl and cook in microwave for ~ 4 minutes on high power. Combine wilted and squeezed spinach, shrimp, imitation crab, and cooked pasta in a large bowl, set aside.
Next, in a large sauce pan melt butter over medium heat. Add flour and stir to form a roux. Begin to add warmed cream a little at a time (stirring constantly so lumps do not form). Keep adding cream a little at a time until all of the butter and flour mixture have been incorporated and mixture has thinned out. I used ~ 3 c. of the heavy cream. Continue cooking cream over med-low heat until mixture thickens stirring constantly. This will take a while, maybe 5 to 10 minutes or so. After sauce thickens, remove from heat. Add dill, nutmeg, and salt stir to combine. Then add all of the shredded Swiss cheese, ½ of the Jarlsberg, and ½ of the Havarti about ½ c. at a time melting completely between each addition. Set cheese sauce aside. Reserve the other ½ of the shredded Jarlsberg and Havarti cheeses for the top of the mac & cheese.
Add cheese sauce to the large bowl of pasta meat and spinach. Stir until well combined. Pour entire mixture into the greased casserole dish. Spread out evenly. Top with reserved cheese. Bake for 40 minutes, uncovered. Turn oven up to 400° F. Bake for 10 more minutes to brown cheese. Remove from oven and let rest for 20 minutes. EAT IT!!!
Compelling Calorie Clue: ~100 calories worth of Life Cereal. Actually, Life Cereal (original) ¾ c. = 120 calories. I don’t really like Life Cereal. It kind of bores me. I guess Sam and Will kind of like it. But I am positive that there is someone out there that loves it! They love it so much that they eat it every day, sometimes twice per day!
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Mac.
Are you reminding me to punctuate my abbreviation?