Sunday, August 24, 2008

Beemster Winner

I promised a few days ago to let you know how the Beemster cheese worked out in my mac and cheese dish; here's the review.

Note that I didn't have any elbow macaroni in the house so made do with this farfalle pasta. As the pasta cooked, I sauteed a chopped onion in a knob of butter until soft, then added about two tablespoons of flour, cooking it briefly to make the flour buttery, then gradually added about 1-1/2 cups milk and whisked to remove any lumps. To that white sauce, I added about 1/2 pound of shredded aged Beemster gouda cheese, stirring until it incorporated into the sauce. Draining the pasta briefly in a colander, I added it to the hot sauce, stirring to coat all the pasta. Let it cool; reheated before serving. For some reason, cooling it first really improves the flavor of mac and cheese.

And the Beemster? A complete and total success! It was rich, deep and cheesy, really tasty and satisfying, even better than cheddar. The heat mellowed the cheese a bit from its sharp and salty original state, and really brought out the aged flavor of the cheese. It didn't melt as easily as cheddar does but the extra stirring is well worth it when you enjoy the Beemster winner!

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6 Comments:

Blogger Ms Brown Mouse said...

Hmmmm, I'm almost tempted to give it a go. I guess if I don't like Beemster, Mr Brown will always eat it for me. No cheese experiment ever ends in waste at this house!

Monday, August 25, 2008  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Morgan, how can you have a mouse as your mascot and not like cheese? This one isn't the least bit runny or smelly - you might just love it!

Monday, August 25, 2008  
Blogger Nancy Ewart said...

I made the zucchini pasta dish that was in the Sunday issue of the NY Times and used some old and ..well...unidentifiable cheese for my cheese sauce. It was sharp and pungent but the butter and milk softened it just so. Thanks for the inspiration.

Monday, August 25, 2008  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Nancy, that sounds really tasty - I'm going to have to add the NY Times site to my list of regular visits.

Monday, August 25, 2008  
Blogger Ms Brown Mouse said...

Well, I might, I'll ask the nice cheese man at the City markets on Friday. If he hasn't got it, I'll brave up to the cheese shop down the road.
(As a person who had pet mice as a kid, I can say mice rather like icecream - so we mice have that in common!)

Thursday, August 28, 2008  
Blogger Zoomie said...

Well, sure - everyone loves ice cream - it's the perfect food! :-)

Thursday, August 28, 2008  

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