Thursday 22 February 2018

Baked mac n cheese steak



Brunch knows best



Steak, onions and peppers are another match made in heaven. Especially when cheese is added. I have a recipe for a cheese steak scallion pancake wrap and some simple cheese steak sliders already on the blog. But one can never have enough cheese steak. This time cheese steaks, meet macaroni and cheese.


I guess you could say this is really a no brainer. The way the onions peppers and beef flavor the cheese sauce so perfectly, it seems like this might be my new favorite mac n cheese. The idea for this blog post went through so many distinct phases. I originally wanted to make some cheese steak stuffed tater tots. Can you imagine how epic that would be, with the onions peppers and cheese crusted in crispy fried potatoes? That’s definitely on my to do list.

The other idea I had, since it’s a month of brunch, was to combine the French toast and the cheese steak. I was going to stuff the peppers, onions and cheese inside a thick slice of bread. Dunk it in sweet custard, roll it in crushed cornflakes, fry it in butter, drizzle maple syrup on top, die and go to heaven. But a-lass, I had no bread that could withstand that pressure. Only a few thin slices of wheat. Again another recipe added to the “to cook in future ” list. Since the recipe had to double as dinner anyway I decided to go for a more versatile recipe. I opened the pantry and spotted a bag of macaroni and said that is it!

I don’t think I was expecting it to be as flavorful as it was. I thought the milk and cheese and pasta would over power the steak and onion and peppers but its quite the opposite. They steak onions and peppers perfumed the whole thing. You are eating the mac and cheese but you are smelling it at the same time; cheesy, and beefy. This recipe would be a hit with anyone who is a lover of beef, and especially a Philly cheese steak lover, you might have to double the amount of meat in it for them.



Ingredients (printable recipe)

For the steak
1/2 cup sliced Onions
1/2 cup sliced Sweet pepper
1 sirloin steak or rib eye thin sliced
3 tablespoon Butter
Salt to taste
For the macaroni
¾ to 1 lb elbow macaroni
3 tablespoon butter
3 tablespoon flour
3 cups whole milk or cream
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground mustard seeds (or 1.5 teaspoon ground mustard)
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 cup shredded Provolone or gouda
2 cups Sharp cheddar


Instructions

For the steak
  • Melt the butter on high heat
  • Sauté in the same pan but on different sides the thin slices of steak and the peppers and onions
  • season everything with salt once in the pan
  • Stir each side to make sure the onions and peppers cook while the steak is also cooking
  • Once the steak has no more red in it mix the two together cover remove from the heat and set aside
For the macaroni
  • Preheat the oven to 400
  • Cook the elbows in salted water according the package directions, drain and set aside
  • Melt the butter and add the flour, stir and cook the flour for about a minute
  • Add the milk stir and dissolve all the flour and butter
  • Bring to a boil and allow it to thicken, the mixture should be getting creamy
  • Add salt, paprika, onion powder and mustard
  • Add the shredded cheese, leaving back ½ cup of cheddar
  • Add the steak onions and pepper
  • Add the cooked macaroni elbows
  • Transfer to a baking dish and to with the remaining cheese and sprinkle over the cheese with more smoked paprika
  • Bake until golden brown on top
  • Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before serving

Greedy tips:
  • I recommend having your butcher slice the steak thin for you, or sometime you can buy pre-sliced steak. If you are slicing the steak, I found this tip online and it helped. freeze the steak so its just firm and it will be much easier to slice with a very sharp knife against the grain. Although if your knife is extremely sharp it should be easy to slice the steak without freezing.
  • the steak when cut thin and against the grain cooks very quickly, so make sure to remove it from the direct heat once there is no more pink





Xoxo Greedygirl


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