Jalapeño Mac and Cheese recipe by Masterchef Singapore 2018 winner Zander Ng | Chefs at Home
I’ve only really got one rule.
If I’m going to be cooking, then I’m doing no washing. Thanks.
Hey guys, I’m Zander Ng.
And today you’re going to be in my kitchen with me.
I’m going to be cooking you a dish, which I like to make when I’m super lazy.
And no, for all the smart people out there, it’s not a freaking risotto.
I cook now more at home than I used to.
For a lot of private dining events, recipe development, testing stuff for the cookbooks so…
I feel like now I… kind of like live in the kitchen.
So any time out of the kitchen is excellent.
So the dish that I’m making today,
is like ultimate lazy boy I-don’t-care-who’s-judging-me…
I’m going to be making a jalapeño mac and cheese.
I made it when I was in university.
And at the time, I was a university student, super broke and so I needed to come up with a dish that was cost-effective and I could stretch.
And so this dish was kinda born out of there.
And I’ve always kind of cooked it ever since.
So the only piece of chopping, which I’ll be doing today,
is for the jalapeños.
When I think about this recipe, like it’s a real let’s-clear-out-the-pantry-cupboard style dish.
So I think I had this one from the last time I did a little bit of a taco cook-off and challenge.
But, nah it’s fine.
Okay, it’s still safe to eat. It’s good.
Okay, so right now I’m just going to preheat my oven.
Starting off by getting my water to a rolling boil.
For the pasta, we need to salt this.
Okay? It’s such a critical step. I think a lot of people miss that out when they’re making any form of pasta.
Let’s get everything out.
I will turn this on at medium-low heat.
I’m actually not starting with a roux.
A lot of recipes do use that. It’s not what I want my mac and cheese to be like.
Kind of scary amount of cream cheese is going in.
And now I’m going to go in with the evaporated milk.
This is my favorite part. We start to add in the cheese.
The parmigiano-reggiano is going to be a little bit thicker, a little bit sharper.
Already now look where we are.
Guys, this is a seriously trashy recipe, okay?
Mac and cheese should be like the packet stuff. But obviously, we make it better.
So now we’re going to add in the jalapeños and kind of fold them through now.
For a little bit of heat.
I’m going to add in a little bit of my paprika now.
And as well as my worcestershire sauce, a couple dashes.
And now we start to fold that through.
Oh this is some next-level stuff.
The final part, we’re gonna do a little bit of the parmigiano.
Okay so when you pour the pasta in, immediately give it a good stir.
Because we don’t want them to stick together or even stick to the base of the pan.
So what I’m going to do, is actually I’m going to… as the pasta is about maybe three or four minutes out,
I’m going to take some of the starchy water that’s in there, I’m going to pop it over here.
Loosen the sauce a little bit. And then we’re good.
Alright, so I’ve drained out the macaroni and I’ve put it straight into the cheese sauce.
I always add in a little bit more water and liquid because after you bake it for 20 minutes,
a lot of that liquid will be absorbed.
All in all, it will end up where you want.
Alright so let’s get this into our baking dish.
Alright now we pop our baking dish in our preheated oven.
And we let that be, we pray to the gods for a delicious mac and cheese with a crispy top. Crunchiness.
This is the point where it’s time to rehydrate, nice beer, catch-up…
It’s important you stay hydrated guys. Okay.
This is the point of the night that we’re all looking forward to,
this is when you can kick back, relax and everyone else in the room will say thanks.
Thanks dude. Appreciate it.
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