A Year of Butter – Macaroni and Cheese with Crab

Finally cool weather has returned, and I’m eager to cook again.  Mad Housewife Wine spritzers got me through the long hot summer, but now I am anxious to consume some calories from food for a change.

Yet, before I tie on my apron, I anxiously await the results of my boyfriend’s annual cholesterol test.  Just how much fun will I be allowed to have?

It was about a year ago that I decided that life was too short to live without butter.  I started cooking when I was twelve.  My father had had a heart attack, and my mother went to work fulltime, so I did much of the cooking.  I diligently followed the cardiologist’s dietary instructions.  Fish and chicken, fruits and vegetables, whole grains.  No butter, skim milk only, no cheese, no red meat, no sugar.  For twenty years, not a stick of butter entered my kitchen.  I was proudly discriminatory against anything white—white rice, white flour, white bread, sugar, potatoes, milk, and cream.

But a year ago, I decided to cast aside my prejudices: I wanted to see what I was missing.  Oh, Brave New World!  Soufflés, crepes, cream sauces, chocolate, cheese cakes, and above all else, cream puffs, those marvelous fluffy creations made of eggs and butter and not much else.  Julia would be proud.

I didn’t go completely crazy.  I’ve been judicious, using a sliver of butter on top of a steak rather than sautéing it in butter.  Using only lean cuts of meat.  Cutting in half the amount of sugar and butter in most recipes.  Neither of us has gained weight.  So maybe I got away with it? 

The moment of truth arrives in the mail.  Are my sins going to show up on paper?  How humiliating.  In truth, I really don’t want to go back to brown rice and steamed vegetables.  To pancakes cooked in canola oil.  To yogurt instead of sour cream.  I no longer have the heart to throw those lovely yellow egg yolks down the drain.  I want my butter.

I pour each of us a glass of Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon—at least that is good for our hearts.  I take a paring knife and slit open the envelope.

Yippee!  The cholesterol reading is 168, which is fabulous!  It must be all of the Mad Housewife Wine we’ve consumed.  Pour me another glass, will you?  How about macaroni and cheese for dinner.  And maybe some cream puffs for dessert! 

Macaroni and Cheese with Crab 

An updated version of an all-time American favorite.  Serve with Mad Housewife White Zinfandel and a bitter salad of arugula or watercress.

 

12 ounces hollow pasta
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
3 cups milk
8 ounces mixed Italian cheeses (Parmigiano Reggiano, Provolone, Romano, Fontina, Asiago, Mozzarella)
½ cup Mad Housewife Chardonnay (or brandy)
1/8 teaspoon cayenne
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
black pepper
8 ounces Alaskan snow crab or lobster meat, sliced
4 scallions, chopped
½ cup bread crumbs
1 cup grated Parmigiano Reggiano

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bring a 4-quart saucepan of water to boil.  Add pasta and cook until half done.  Leave in water and turn off heat.

2. Melt butter in saucepan.  With a wooden spoon, stir in flour and cook about one minute.  Whisk in milk, and cook until sauce has thickened and coats the back of a spoon, about 10 minutes.  Add wine.

3. Remove pan from heat and stir in cheese, cayenne, nutmeg, thyme, and pepper.  Drain pasta and add to sauce.  Mix well.    

4. Stir in two-thirds of the crab meat and scallions.  Transfer mixture to a baking dish and sprinkle mixture of breadcrumbs and Parmigiano Reggiano.

5. Bake until golden brown and bubbly, about 30 minutes.  Let cool for 10 minutes.  Garnish with remaining crab (tossed in melted butter), scallions, thyme, and black pepper. 

Comments

[Tony]

This recipe RULES!!! I've gotten lots of requests to make this again. The thing that is a drag, though, is shelling the fresh crab-but well worth it.