Evil Mac N Cheese Empire 2014, Steve Wilchek

Steves Mac N Cheese

Ingredients:
Cheese/Dairy
lb Gruyere
lb smoked Vermont cheddar (yellow variety)
lb smoked Gouda with jalapeo
1 stick of Velveeta
2 cups of heavy cream
1 cup of half and half
Other
2 orange bell peppers deseeded and medium diced
6 medium jalapeos deseed half of them, medium dice all of them
1 lb of Campanelle pasta noodles (If you cannot find Campanelle, Gigli works)
1 heavy table spoon of ground black pepper
1 light teaspoon of Himalayan pink sea salt
Beer of your choice (no heavy beers)
2-3 cups of Panko style bread crumbs
Tools:
Medium and large pot
Teflon spatula type stirrers
Medium fry pan with lid
Large baking pan
Instructions:
1. Cook 1lb of Campanelle pasta (10-11 minutes, ere on the side of al dente), strain, rinse with hot
water and set aside.
2. Cut all hard cheese up into small cubes appx to in size this will greatly aid in their
melting time. Set aside.
3. Dice the bell peppers and jalapenos. Size should be about pieces. Set aside.
a. To deseed the jalapenos, cut about of the top of the pepper off (stem plus some of
the pepper) then somewhat aggressively roll the pepper between your hands, as if
crushing it and rolling it combined. This should loosen up everything inside which you
can then shake out over a trash container to clean out the pepper.
4. Melt cheeses in a large pot (can do concurrently while pasta is cooking to save time). There are
many methods to melt cheese into a rue, I have traditionally used the all at once method and I
Evil Mac N Cheese Empire 2014, Steve Wilchek

just pour both half and half and the heavy cream into a pot, along with all of the hard cheeses
(every cheese but Velveeta) .
a. While making the rue, keep the stove top on a 2-3 out of 10 setting as to avoid causing it
to boil or burn.
b. It will take about 20 minutes to make a single serving rue
c. Cut the Velveeta cheese block up into 5-10 smaller parts and start adding it in once the
other cheeses start melting.
d. Use a Teflon spatula type stirrer and constant agitation to keep the cheese from settling
on the bottom of the pot and burning constant scraping of the bottom of the pot
combined with stirring is the best way to make sure everything is melting.
5. Pan fry the bell pepper and jalapenos by adding everything into a medium sized frying pan, then
pouring beer into the mix. Stove top should be between 5/10 and 8/10 setting, heat is wanted.
Use lid when not agitating the mix to keep moisture in. Add beer when mix starts to get dry.
a. The intent of the pan frying here is to knock down the hot taste of the jalapenos and
soften up the bell peppers. Cook for about 5-10 minutes, until orange color and green
color of the bell peppers and jalapenos respectively start to fade.
b. After searing, turn heat down to 1/10 for simmer and keep an eye for burning.
6. After cheese rue starts to reach uniformity in texture (i.e. all cheeses have melted so that only
small bits of the harder cheeses are seen floating in the rue), Add in the ground black pepper,
sea salt and pan fried bell peppers and jalapenos.
7. Keep cheese rue on simmer now until it has reached creamy perfection usually takes 20-30
minutes after starting the rue.
8. Pour cooked Champanelle noodles into a large bake pan with high sides (size of pan should be
appx 16-18 long, 10-12 wide and 3-4 tall). Teflon coated steel bake pan HIGHLY
RECCOMENDED! Soft tinfoil single use pans may not hold full weight of mac n cheese when
done be careful if using them!
a. Spread the noodles out so it is a flat surface, loosening noodles if stuck together. Leave a
void in the center of the pan so you can pour the cheese rue here.
9. If cheese rue/vegetable mix is all done, pour over noodles in pan, use Teflon stirrer to mix the
mac and cheese up so that cheese is evenly distributed. Level mixture out and remove and spilt
cheese on sides of pan. Cover pan with layer of tin foil
10. Pre-heat oven to 350*F, once heated, put the tin foil covered mac and cheese in for about 15
minutes
11. Remove from oven, take off tin foil from mac and cheese and sprinkle appx. 2-3 cups of panko
bread crumbs on top, about enough to cover/absorb all cheese on top, but not enough to
visually block out the mac and cheese below. Do not re-apply tinfoil.
12. Set oven to Broil (or you can set to really hot ~500*F as well). Put the panko covered mac n
cheese in the oven for 3-6 minutes, keep a close eye you want to visibly see the top of the mac
and cheese noodles as well as the panko start to turn tan/brown but avoid burning
(black/brown in color).
13. Remove mac and cheese from oven, cover with tin foil for transportation purposes and
#Winning.