Spicy Thai Curry Mac & Cheese

We put Mac & Cheese on the menu tonight, but on my walk home from work I had an idea for a cookbook that made me want to try something new with the recipe.



I'm reading a book called Will Write for Food, which I bought with the aim of improving my ability to write about the food I eat. It covers a variety of areas of food writing, from restaurant reviews to food history journalism, to writing recipes and cookbooks. Since I'm a complete cookbook addict, there's a kernel of desire inside me that would love to self publish a cookbook. A recent chapter I read talked about how to decide topics for writing, including cookbooks, and the bottom line is specificity is key to appealing to a specific demographic and standing out among the thousands of cookbooks on the market.



With that in mind, I was thinking about our meal plan for tonight, and how Mac & Cheese has got to be one of the top 5 classic American comfort foods - and making the same version again and again is a bit boring. So I thought about what international cuisines I could fuse with it to add some spice (either figuratively, or literally), and how a American Comfort Fusion cookbook might be a good angle for me (Steal the idea and I'll hunt you down).

The last batch of Mac & Cheese I made included a bunch of chili powder, which was great, but not very specific. After our great meal from Thai Recipe last night, I was inspired to create a mac & cheese that combined flavors from Thai cuisine (chilis, coconut milk, and curry) with the American classic.

Having spiced up Mac & Cheese already, I wasn't worried about chilies. My biggest fear was combining cheese with curry and coconut milk. Thankfully, Dan bought a variety of cheeses for me to choose from, including white cheddar and gruyere. I hoped the nuttiness of the gruyere would combine well with the coconut milk, and that the curry flavor would be mild enough to let the other flavors shine through. My official recipe tester (Dan) was very pleased with the results, which seemed to successfully meld the two cuisines to create something new. The curry and coconut flavors were fairly mild, but still noticable, and the chilis lended the dish good heat, though not so much as to distract from the gooey texture or the flavor combinations.

Spicy Thai Curry Mac & Cheese
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs
2 Tbspn melted butter
8 oz macaroni
2 Tbspn butter
1 clove garlic, minced
6 small dried red chilis, chopped
1 Tbspn all purpose flour
salt & pepper to taste
1/4 tspn curry powder
1 1/2 cups coconut milk
1 cup white cheddar
1 cup cup gruyere

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2 qt casserole dish. Place panko bread crumbs into a small bowl and mix well with melted butter. Set aside. Bring a pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until al dente. Drain well, shaking off as much residual water as possible, then place into prepared casserole dish. While pasta is cooking, melt 2 Tbspn butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir in garlic and peppers and cook until garlic begins to brown (about 2 minutes). Stir in flour, pepper, salt, and curry powder until incorporated, then pour in coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Simmer, stirring constantly until the mixture has thickened (about 10 minutes). Take the mixture off the heat and stir in the cheeses until melted. Pour cheese sauce over the pasta, then sprinkle evenly with buttered bread crumbs. Bake (uncovered) until the top is golden and bubbly, about 20 minutes.