Happy Valentine's Day everyone!!! I hope you all have an absolutely marvelous day!
Willie and I decided to cook for each other this year. So I cooked last night and he's gonna cook for me tonight.
Willie is a big mac and cheese fanatic. So I made a Rachael Ray recipe, Manchego Mac with Chorizo. This turned out insanely yummy and it just may be my favorite mac and cheese so far. It's not insanely cheesy but the flavors are just...yum!!!
Manchego Mac with Chorizo
1 lb cavatappi pasta
1/2 lb raw chorizo sausage, casings discarded, chopped
3 tbsp butter
2 shallots
3 to 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
3 tbsp flour
1/3 cup dry sherry
1 cup chicken broth
1 cup whole milk or half and half
2 cups shredded manchego cheese
2 cups frozen peas, thawed
1/4 cup chopped jarred pimiento peppers
1/2 cup coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley
Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt it, add the pasta and cook until al dente. Drain.
While the pasta is working, in a large skillet, heat a drizzle of EVOO over medium high heat. Add the chorizo and cook until crisp, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the shallots and garlic and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Whisk in the flour, then whisk in the sherry. Stir in the chicken broth and milk and cook until thickened; season with pepper. Stir in the cheese. Fold in the peas and pimientos.
Drain the pasta, toss with the sauce and top with the chorizo and parsley.
As you can see from the photo, I just mixed the chorizo in with the pasta. I also left out the parsley.
Then for dessert, I made another Rachel Ray recipe, S'mores Lava Cakes. This was a perfect excuse for me to buy ramekins! My mistake was that I bought ones that were larger than the recipe called for. Larger as in, wider around, not as tall. In hindsight, I should have just made up for it by only making 2 cakes, rather than still trying to make 4, like the recipe called for, and put more batter in the two. The center of the cakes were soft, but not lava-ey. Had they been thicker with more batter I'm sure they wouldn't have cooked as much in the center. But either way, oh my they were good!
S'mores Lava Cakes
1 stick unsalted butter plus more for greasing
1/4 cup sugar, plus more for coating
4 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped
2 large eggs plus 2 large yolks at room temp.
1 tbsp flour
3 tbsp heavy cream
2/3 cup marshmallow cream
1 graham cracker sheet, finely chopped
Preheat the oven to 425. Grease four 6 ounce custard cups, then coat with sugar; place on a baking sheet. In a medium bowl, microwave the butter and chocolate at medium power for 2 minutes; stir until smooth.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and sugar until foamy. Whisk in the chocolate mixture, then the flour. Fill the prepared custard cups two thirds full with the batter. Bake until the edges are puffy, 13 to 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, microwave the heavy cream at high power for 30 seconds. Stir in the marshmallow cream until smooth.
Carefully invert the cakes onto plates and drizzle the marshmallow sauce on the side. Top with the graham cracker crumbs.
Enjoy!
Labels: recipe, valentine
