Insert Cheese Here

My father-in-law likes to joke that roast chicken uses the oldest recipe in the world: add meat, apply fire. Last week I stumbled upon a recipe for rotini and bleu cheese. By the time I started to put it together, I realized that this was a macaroni and cheese recipe -- substitute rotini for macaroni, bleu cheese for cheddar. Add cream (no butter). A few minutes later, I realized the same was true of a fettuccine alfredo recipe I make (instead use fettuccine, Parmesano Reggiano, and lots of butter). I have not seen bleu cheese in a macaroni & cheese recipe, though Mac & cheese has almost as many variations as there are recipes fitting my father-in-law's joke.

I decided to give it the Mini Chef challenge: She loves Mac & Cheese, but thinks bleu cheese is disgusting. The recipe I found gave a 3-1 proportion of cream to bleu cheese. I used a fairly strong bleu, Roth Kase -- and wound up using 4 or 5 - 1 cream to cheese ratio. In my two iterations, she went for it once, but rejected a second. Either she was on to me or I didn't disguise the offensive cheese with enough Parmesan in the rejected batch.

Perhaps this is only kid friendly to the French. I hated bleu cheese as a child, but it has grown on me over the years. The recipe is nearly as simple and quick as any box variety. By itself, this dish is big on flavor, but low on contrasts. I've added Parmesan and vegetables. I recommend peas, carrots, celery and green onions for texture and color. A dash of cayenne may cut the cloying creaminess.

The site I found this on was Frugal Cuisine. Frugal Cuisine looks like a good place to browse when payday is still a few days off . . .

Rotini & Bleu (4 servings with salad)

1 pound of Rotini
3/4 C of Heavy cream
2 Tbls of Bleu Cheese (adjust with strength of variety)
1 Tbls of grated parmesan
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
Pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
Diced vegetables of your choice

Directions:
1. Boil water with a lot of salt (I use a tablespoon per 2 quarts of water).
2. Cook rotini for about 7 minutes.
3. While rotini cooks, gently heat heavy cream and bleu cheese until well combined. You can do this on the stove or in the microwave.
4. Drain rotini, add cheese sauce, parmesan and vegetables.

Some Call it "Fusion," I Call it Cleaning out the Fridge

Cooking this Week -- Saturday Dessert for Friends and Doro Wat on Mac 'N Cha

Saturday I cooked and I didn't. I promise to write about the cooking class I finished this week, but I thought I'd dash this off first. We made an Orange Souffle dessert on the last day. It was not baked, but frozen with the usual eggs, whipped cream, but Grand Marnier for the orange flavor. It is a little fussy, the difficult part is converting oranges into serving cups. Some friends invited us over for an ice cream social, so I thought -- what the hell? I've made it in class, we had the Grand Marnier. So I did and it was a hit. What I didn't do was pipe the whipped cream, but the taste was good. Although this was my only real cooking of the day, I'd rather talk about an accidental discovery.

I've been haunted by the leftover Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew). It was too time consuming and delicious to throw out, but it didn't seem right to serve without injera. I haven't figured out making injera. Lunch was going to be Mac n' cheese, then I realized -- we didn't have any chili in the house. Cheap Hormel Chili is my favorite method for livening up the Mini Chef's bland favorite. Would the Doro Wat might make a good substitute? I missed the absence of beans, but the incredible richness of flavor made up of it. Consider "seasoning" macaroni and cheese with: spiced butter, onions, garlic, ginger, berbere, fenugreek, dry mustard, cumin, basil, turmeric and the Mekellesha spice mixture (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, allspice). Oh, and a dash of salt. It's a little absurd, but was very tasty.