Recipe: Macaroni and Cheese

I don't want you to get the wrong idea and think that the only thing I'm about is oysters.  My cousins came for a visit this weekend and I decided I'd make them some of my famous homemade mac and cheese.  Well, okay, it's not "famous" but everyone that has tried it really likes it :-). This is a really easy recipe that everyone loves.

Ingredients:

1/2 small onion
4 pieces of garlic
1 tablespoon of dried mustard
4 tablespoons of butter
2 cups heavy cream
Vermont White Cheddar Cheese (1 block)
1 box elbow macaroni (boiled, salted)
bacon
breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste.


First mince all of the garlic and onions.  Make sure that they're all the same size...it makes a difference.

Chop the cheese into large chunks and set aside.

On the side, start boiling the macaroni so that it's ready at the same time as the cheese sauce.

Then set the bacon on a microwave safe dish, and cook it with lots of paper towels layered underneath.  (I usually microwave bacon this way because it comes out a lot crunchier).

While the bacon is microwaving, get to work on the cheese sauce.  Start by sauteeing the minced onions and garlic in hot butter.

Make sure that you don't overcook the garlic, because that'll make it bitter.  When this is a bit golden, add the dry mustard.

and then the cheese and heavy cream, stirring constantly.

You'll end up with a nice cheese sauce.

By this time, your macaroni should be boiled, and drained.  Now fold the cheese sauce into the macaroni.
You should end up with something that looks like this:

In a small pan, toss up some breadcrumbs and garlic in butter and crumble the bacon into it to create a nice crunchy topping.  Then sprinkle that on the mac and cheese and bake it for a few minutes.

TADA!

And since my cousin had never had mac-n-cheese, I wanted to record her first experience.  The video didn't end that well as you can tell by my reaction!! 

But the mac and cheese was a huge success.  Try it at home with your kids, they'll love it.

Recipe: The World is My Oyster

In my last post I described how eating an oyster is like eating a bit of the ocean.  My mom always tells me that the world is my oyster, a saying that means that I can accomplish anything that I set out to in life. I thought it'd be cool to come up with a recipe with that theme.  Here's a way to "dress-up" your oysters with ingredients that represent different elements (earth, air, water and fire).  Hope you enjoy it! :-)

Ingredients:

Oysters
Cilantro
Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
Hot Sauce (optional)
Lecithin

Step 1, Earth and Fire Vinagrette:

The Earth Element is represented by Cilantro, which I chopped away until it looked like cut grass:

My knives are very sharp, so I use a protective glove.

Then, I squeeze lemon juice into the cilantro:

 I squeeze it through my fingers so that I can catch any pits and keep them out of my food!

Next, comes the Fire!  Hot Sauce!

Stir it all together and set aside.

Step Two:  Lemon Sunshine Air

The Air element is represented by lemon foam.  I got the idea for making foam from Molecular Gastronomy, a new way of cooking that combines culinary skills and science.  This was my first shot at it, so it's not the best, but I'm going to keep on experimenting.

This is my concoction of lemon juice and lecithin.

Lecithin is an emulsifier (this one is from soy).  Basically, it allows the foam to keep its shape.  I whisked it with a hand mixer until it created a foam.

Step Three:  Put it all together

My mom shucked the oysters (that's a hard job involving sharp knives so an adult must do that) and set them on ice.  Then I garnished each oyster with the vinagrette and topped it all off with the lemon foam.  This is how it came out:

Delicious!

My name's Xavier Medina, I'm 12 years old and the world is my oyster.

P.s. What do you call a snail on a ship?  A snailor.

Oysters

My family just got back from a vacation in Puerto Rico where I tasted oysters for the very first time.  Well, now I'm addicted to them!   A lot of people (especially kids) might be afraid to try them, thinking that they're slimy and gross.


I was never scared but I wasn't expecting much from oysters.  I thought they'd be gooey and that they'd have no flavor other than the lemon squirted on them. Boy was I wrong!  On the very first try, I thought I'd reached heaven.  The briny juice inside that oyster made me feel like I'd just eaten a bit of the ocean (and not in the same way as when you eat fresh fish).  It was more like tasting the "entire" ocean.  The meat is like eating the creatures that live in it and the briny juice is like tasting an ocean's waters.

After eating half a dozen I even felt energized, like I'd just gone for a 10 minute swim.  This is the stand in Boqueron, Puerto Rico where I had my first oyster experience. It has been followed by many many more :-) and I'm really looking forward to trying different varieties.  They cost $5 a dozen there!

When we got back to New York, my mom bought a dozen at our local Fairway Market.  One thing I realized is that while chomping these pieces of heaven (I like to chomp them twice before I devour them) is easy, opening them is not!

The first thing you have to do to prepare your oysters is to wash and scrub them free of any debris.  Then you have to get an adult to pry them open with a sharp knife.  Here's a cool tutorial: 

My name's Xavier, I'm 12 years old and I love oysters.  Don't be afraid to try something new.