Homemade Baked Mac And Cheese
No one likes a bland noodle. When you cut your jalapenos make sure to take out the seeds and membranes. If you fail to do this your mac and cheese will be incredibly spicy, which isn't always a bad thing, but you'll have less of a jalapeno taste and more of an overall heat.
Also, if you're sensitive to the heat of peppers you may want to cut your jalapenos while wearing gloves. Once you've prepped your ingredients you can boil your noodles, drain them, and set them aside. If your noodles typically stick, you can boil them with a drizzle of olive oil and they won't stick anymore, although this will also make it more difficult for the cheese to stick to the noodles as well.
If you want the best quality product, you have to use quality ingredients. Don't use the vacuum sealed bacon you find at grocery stores, specifically ask your butcher for some quality cuts. You'll know the difference immediately. Good quality bacon is thicker cut and feels far less slimy. This is far easier to cut and will brown up quicker. It also can be flavored and seasoned to your liking. I personally went with a peppered version. Secondly, you want to buy fresh bricks of cheese and grate it yourself.
The shredded bags of cheese you find in the stores often have preservatives added to keep them fresh, which results in a waxy coating on your mac and cheese. When you buy fresh cheese and grate it yourself you don't have to worry about this happening. It's also a much cheaper route, you can choose various types of cheese, and control the size and amount you use better without waste. While your water is beginning to boil you can start the process of making the best cheese sauce you've ever tasted.
Throw your bacon and jalapenos into a pan and begin to cook them down. The flavor and spice of the jalapeno will mingle with the rendered fat of the bacon, mixing the two flavors together. Cook the bacon until it is crisp and brown, then spoon out the contents, draining as much grease as possible, into a bowl.
There is no need to drain the bacon grease; it will be the base for a roux. Many people make mac and cheese by simply boiling the noodles in milk and getting their creaminess from that, but by using a roux your mac and cheese can become far more cheesy, sticky, and creamy than any other method. A roux is simply flour, butter, and/or grease. Take the drippings from your bacon and throw in about three tablespoons of butter.
Melt the butter down and thoroughly mix it with the bacon grease. Begin to incorporate your flour slowly, whisking it in until the butter and flour mixture slowly becomes a loose paste. If the mixture is runny, add more flour and continue stirring. If the mixture becomes dough-like, add some milk and whisk again until the mixture becomes the right consistency. Once the consistency is similar to pancake batter your roux is complete. The most important part of mac and cheese is the cheese!
The purpose of the roux is it acts as a thickening agent and it incorporates flavors of butter and bacon fat into the mix. Make sure your roux is hot and then add three cups of milk slowly. Always remember "Hot roux, cold milk, no lumps". To keep a creamy and smooth cheese sauce you need to mix the milk slowly, whisking as you go, and making sure no lumps are left.
Once the milk is incorporated and you're sure the mixture is smooth, you can begin to add your cheese to the mixture along with your cayenne and any other spices you'd like. Remember, cayenne isn't only for heat, it also enhances flavor like salt does! Throw your cheese in a handful at a time, mixing it thoroughly so all the cheese melts. Leave one large handful of cheese for later, and mix the rest in.
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