Relocating to another country requires significant adjustment. You encounter fresh faces, different cuisines, and unfamiliar tongues. Settling into a new country represents a considerable change. Often you must embrace the local culture whilst preserving aspects of your own. Through conversations with numerous expats, food adaptation appears to be among the toughest challenges. The two cuisines generating the most commentary: Mexican and Mac n Cheese. So today we're featuring a wonderful guest contribution, from my mate Nick, for all you expats keen to whip up some delicious mac n cheese in Australia (without spending a fortune sourcing Velveeta).
Mac n Cheese: The Velveeta Shortage
Through connecting with countless expats over recent years, I've observed that one particular challenge affects virtually all of you when settling abroad: Velveeta Bloody cheese.
This post endeavours to help those of you homesick folks understand that difficulty obtaining this substandard "cheese" product isn't catastrophic by offering an authentic Mac n Cheese recipe.
You will need:
Red Leicester cheese. (90g/3oz)
American Cheddar (90g /3oz)
Sharp tasty cheddar (90g/3oz)
A MASSIVE heap of parmesan ( 170gm/6oz)
Macaroni (500g)
Pancetta (3 x 10mm slices)
Milk (1 Cup)
Flour (2-4 Tbs)
Panko Breadcrumbs (1cup)
American Cheddar (90g /3oz)
Sharp tasty cheddar (90g/3oz)
A MASSIVE heap of parmesan ( 170gm/6oz)
Macaroni (500g)
Pancetta (3 x 10mm slices)
Milk (1 Cup)
Flour (2-4 Tbs)
Panko Breadcrumbs (1cup)
Butter (2-4)
Salt and Pepper to taste.
To begin, you'll be preparing a Béchamel sauce. Béchamel is a French sauce that translates roughly to "How much cheese can I melt down into the thickest reduction imaginable?" or words to that effect.
Melt butter in a saucepan until it foams, then stir in the flour. Whisk until you've created a beautiful golden roux, then gradually add a cup of milk, whisking continuously to blend it until you reach a gravy-like texture. Next, incorporate your cheese—just 110g/4oz of the Parmesan, with the remainder sprinkled on top. The sole cheese you ought to retain regardless of preference is Parmesan; you can substitute jack or any other dubious blend you decide suits your particular palate. Continue stirring until everything's combined and as thick as a Kardashian's grey matter Season with cracked pepper and salt to taste.
Related Post: 10 American Foods That Are Impossible to Find in Australia
On the other hand, we're going to tackle another contentious issue within the community: Bacon.
Pancetta works brilliantly for burgers and as a topping for pancakes. We're not preparing either today, so for this exercise, tell yourself to skip bacon and grab some Pancetta instead. Pancetta is a classic cured pork that makes bacon seem like the cooking equivalent of the Cleveland Browns. The distinction is it's salt cured rather than smoke cured like bacon. Which means two things: It's got a more robust flavour and must be cooked thoroughly before consuming to prevent the spread of harmful pork germs.
You can find it practically anywhere if you search hard enough, IGA, any weekend market. But if you're too busy to spend 20 minutes visiting your local markets, I'm sure you could track it down at Woolworths or Coles. I've never tried. But you do what works for you.
Chop it into small pieces and fry until golden and crispy. Remove and set aside. You'll notice it renders considerably more fat than bacon, leaving a generous amount of rich, flavourful liquid in the pan. Add your panko breadcrumbs to this fatty, delicious base. Toast the breadcrumbs until they turn a deep brown resembling that rather garish Pittsburgh Steelers throwback uniform, then set aside to cool. Instead of plain breadcrumbs, you now have pancetta-infused toasted breadcrumbs with wonderful flavour.
Combine your pasta (Surely you've cooked the pasta already? Obviously you need to cook the pasta properly.) with your excellent cheese sauce and stir until everything is well coated and glossy. Then fold in your crispy pancetta and mix thoroughly.
Spread everything into a baking tray and coat with your breadcrumbs and another ridiculously generous helping of Parmesan. Cover it, place it in the oven at 230 degrees Celsius (450F, honestly people) for roughly 10 minutes, then uncover and bake for a further 15 minutes. Remove it. And savour cracking through that magnificent layer of cheese and crispy breadcrumbs like you'd a proper creme brulee.
Related Post: 9 More American Foods That Are Impossible to Find in Australia
Share photos of it on Instagram, consume a shamelessly enormous portion yourself and boast smugly the next time another Australian you know grumbles about not being able to get that blasted dodgy, foil-wrapped block of indulgence called Velveeta.
Pro Tip: Mix finely chopped parsley through the finished dish as garnish, because we all know parsley's sole purpose in life is to make mediocre food appear as though it's got everything sorted.
If you're still not satisfied, you can always grab Velveeta from your local American foods shop and fork out $15 a block. Because let's be honest, you deserve it.
To begin, you'll be preparing a Béchamel sauce. Béchamel is a French sauce that translates roughly to "How much cheese can I melt down into the thickest reduction imaginable?" or words to that effect.
Melt butter in a saucepan until it foams, then stir in the flour. Whisk until you've created a beautiful golden roux, then gradually add a cup of milk, whisking continuously to blend it until you reach a gravy-like texture. Next, incorporate your cheese—just 110g/4oz of the Parmesan, with the remainder sprinkled on top. The sole cheese you ought to retain regardless of preference is Parmesan; you can substitute jack or any other dubious blend you decide suits your particular palate. Continue stirring until everything's combined and as thick as a Kardashian's grey matter Season with cracked pepper and salt to taste.
Related Post: 10 American Foods That Are Impossible to Find in Australia
On the other hand, we're going to tackle another contentious issue within the community: Bacon.
Pancetta works brilliantly for burgers and as a topping for pancakes. We're not preparing either today, so for this exercise, tell yourself to skip bacon and grab some Pancetta instead. Pancetta is a classic cured pork that makes bacon seem like the cooking equivalent of the Cleveland Browns. The distinction is it's salt cured rather than smoke cured like bacon. Which means two things: It's got a more robust flavour and must be cooked thoroughly before consuming to prevent the spread of harmful pork germs.
You can find it practically anywhere if you search hard enough, IGA, any weekend market. But if you're too busy to spend 20 minutes visiting your local markets, I'm sure you could track it down at Woolworths or Coles. I've never tried. But you do what works for you.
Chop it into small pieces and fry until golden and crispy. Remove and set aside. You'll notice it renders considerably more fat than bacon, leaving a generous amount of rich, flavourful liquid in the pan. Add your panko breadcrumbs to this fatty, delicious base. Toast the breadcrumbs until they turn a deep brown resembling that rather garish Pittsburgh Steelers throwback uniform, then set aside to cool. Instead of plain breadcrumbs, you now have pancetta-infused toasted breadcrumbs with wonderful flavour.
Combine your pasta (Surely you've cooked the pasta already? Obviously you need to cook the pasta properly.) with your excellent cheese sauce and stir until everything is well coated and glossy. Then fold in your crispy pancetta and mix thoroughly.
Spread everything into a baking tray and coat with your breadcrumbs and another ridiculously generous helping of Parmesan. Cover it, place it in the oven at 230 degrees Celsius (450F, honestly people) for roughly 10 minutes, then uncover and bake for a further 15 minutes. Remove it. And savour cracking through that magnificent layer of cheese and crispy breadcrumbs like you'd a proper creme brulee.
Related Post: 9 More American Foods That Are Impossible to Find in Australia
Share photos of it on Instagram, consume a shamelessly enormous portion yourself and boast smugly the next time another Australian you know grumbles about not being able to get that blasted dodgy, foil-wrapped block of indulgence called Velveeta.
Pro Tip: Mix finely chopped parsley through the finished dish as garnish, because we all know parsley's sole purpose in life is to make mediocre food appear as though it's got everything sorted.
If you're still not satisfied, you can always grab Velveeta from your local American foods shop and fork out $15 a block. Because let's be honest, you deserve it.
-Nick
