Souffled Macaroni Cheese & Adventures With Eggs

Another Delia Smith creation. I just can't bring myself to type out the whole set of ingredients and instructions on this cold, frosty, slightly hungover morning, so click here for the info.

The French have a term, mise en place, which essentially means preparing everything before you start cooking- this is the kind of recipe where that's sound advice, as there's a bit of grating and measuring to do, and everything gets thrown together fairly quickly.

The prep time is longer than the cooking time, but boy this dish is good. It was delicious, with a beautifully rich sauce- there's no way I'll be using a pre-made cheese sauce again. Despite my best efforts to sabotage it. I used eggs that had been skulking around the kitchen for a while. Note to self: use fresh eggs if you're going to separate them!

Unexpectedly, this dish is a bit of a milestone for me. It was the first time I'd made a cheese sauce from scratch. It was also the first time I'd tasted and cooked with Dolcelatte. I also had a go at separating eggs for the first time. It always looked like a tricky task- I wanted to use the shells to siphon off the egg whites, but I suspected it'd be quicker & easier to just use my hands, which didn't really appeal.

So, I cracked an egg, ready to catch the yolk, and the yolk just dripped out of the shell, along with the white. No problemo, I thought, I'll just bite the bullet and use my hands for the last egg. I thought it was my suspect technique, so cracked the (last) egg into my hands, expecting a lovely, wobbly yolk to rest in my palm, while the whites oozed down into the bowl. Back to reality, and again the white & yolk were interwoven, and the whole lot dribbled through my fingers. I nearly threw the eggs away, but persevered as I'd got all the other ingredients ready.
No doubt it would have been fluffier and lighter if I'd have used fresh, properly separated eggs, but it turned out brilliantly- good enough to serve to guests, and get the nod of approval.

Another first was trying out a new (to me) sort of pasta- I used cellentani instead of macaroni. They're basically little corkscrew shapes, perfect for holding sauce- I've since realised that they're great with tomato-based sauces too- they pick up any excess sauce- so they taste good, and help with the washing up too.