20 Trends for 2002 - Page 2

Thanks, it's been awhile.....

Thank you Shroom, I think that we taxpayers living in 'democratic' company should pay a lot closer attention to how our money is spent. Especially when it comes to food, pharmaceuticals and weapons (or 'defence' as we are supposed to call it - although what a nuclear submarine site in the middle of a Scottish loch is supposed to be 'defending' i don't know - Nessie??). The appropriation of OUR money to big businesses is incrediable.

Athenaeus: Good macaroni and cheese isn't all that different from Pastitsio if you don't include the ground lamb or beef.

Welcome back Shroom.

I beg your pardon?

Athenaeus: I said GOOD macaroni and cheese. It wasn't an insult on pastitsio which I happen to like very much. In the way I learned to make pastitsio, you start with a nice bechamel sauce and you either add the cheese to the sauce or layer the cheese. I usually added the cheese to the sauce because it somehow tasted cheesier. The way I make macaroni and cheese is the same way. I just make a bechamel sauce and add good cheese. With pastitsio, you would also have a meat layer, but you wouldn't have that with mac and cheese. Now both would also have pasta such as macaroni. Isn't that pastitsio or have I been misled? Now that I think about it, my friend from Athens called it something else that sounded something like macaroni -- makaronia?

:lol:

Risa! My question was not a rhetorical one!
I wondered what had to do with trends that's all

Pastitsio is a great dish but I think it is Italian

:)

Colored blue ketchup on mac and cheese , wow what a concept .
All I know is that mac and cheese is a simple dish with no stable recipe . Cook your macaroni al dente and mix with your most favorite cheese sauce ( home made ) place in a buttered 2 inch baking pan and top with seasoned and buttered bread crumbs .
Bake at 350 till bread crumbs brown and you have a great pasta dish that most everyone likes .
P.S. I love the gorgonzola effect also ..................

To get back to an earlier question: Who is the customer for these lists of trends -- the "average" consumer, or the culiary-industrial complex, or the high-end food professional (that is, all ChefTalkers!), or or or ...?

Whoever the lists are aimed at, it's not always such a terrible thing when "trendy" stuff gets interpreted by the chains and Con-Agra types, so that it trickles down (oops, sorry about the image!) to the supermarket or fast-food level. Think about it. A lot of people are eating a wider variety of foods than they used to 20 years ago. Why? Because somebody decided to try to make money on a strange, ethnic delicacy. And succeeded at popularizing it. I may not like Taco Bell (actually, I do :blush: ) or P.F. Chang's (no, sorry, can't stand them) -- but they have made some new foods readily available to the general public. Is their stuff "authentic?" Of course not! So what?! People who a few years ago never heard of tofu or shiitakes now eat them, and maybe, if we're all really lucky, sometimes buy them to use at home. (Well, that's a stretch, but you get the idea.) And that means that farmers have to grow different things, not just the same 5 crops over and over ... AND it means that maybe, just maybe, people are becoming a teeny-tiny bit less provincial. Of course, I too am generalizing, and placing too much hope on the power of food to open minds as well as mouths, but still ...

Gee, anybody want to join me on starting a chain of aushak restaurants?

As a member of St Louis Culinary Society, I've been privy to hearing local members that speak nationally on food trends. Many of the speakers are PR/Marketing people for large corps.
Yes there has been an insurgence of interesting foods (Thank you Frieda). BUT, the land that is growing altered crops and the pollen generated from them is blowing onto organic or non-GMO crops....Corporations are suing farmers for using saved seeds....it is a scary time for many of us, you can not bring back what is lost.
Mexican corn has been in the news the last few weeks, there has been an effort to keep pure strains of corn and they've found traces of GMOs in these plots.
It's the politics behind it. If there were not wind drift nor soil contamination or seed companies bought out, nor gov't subsidizing corporations that makes an unlevel playing field in the marketplace, then I would not be as adament.....but this shtuff is happening.

GOOD Mac'n Cheese for Athenaeus

I will start with a bit of history, then a recipe:

It’s difficult to know exactly when the first batch of macaroni and cheese was cooked, but the dish’s history reaches back at least to the colonial era. Thomas Jefferson returned from a trip to Italy with a pasta machine, and served macaroni and cheese at dinner parties. Centuries later, in 1937, Kraft introduced a version that came packaged in the familiar blue boxes that are staples in pantries across the country. The following version of macaroni and cheese is one of my favorite comfort foods—rich, flavorful, and easy to make.

MACARONI AND CHEESE
Serves 12

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, plus more for dish
6 slices good white bread, crusts removed, torn into 1/4- to 1/2-inch pieces
5 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste
4 1/2 cups (about 18 ounces) grated sharp white cheddar cheese
2 cups (about 8 ounces) grated Gruyère or 1 1/4 cups (about 5 ounces) pecorino Romano cheese
1 pound elbow macaroni

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside. Place the bread in a medium bowl. In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt 2 tablespoons butter. Pour butter into bowl with bread, and toss. Set the bread crumbs aside.

2. In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, heat the milk. Melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a medium pot over medium heat. When butter bubbles, add flour. Cook, stirring, 1 minute.

3. While whisking, slowly pour in hot milk. Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick.

4. Remove the pan from the heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar cheese, and 1 1/2 cups Gruyère or 1 cup pecorino Romano; set cheese sauce aside.

5. Fill a large saucepan with water; bring to a boil. Add macaroni; cook 2 to 3 minutes less than manufacturer’s directions, until the outside of pasta is cooked and the inside is underdone. (Different brands of macaroni cook at different rates; be sure to read the instructions.) Transfer the macaroni to a colander, rinse under cold running water, and drain well. Stir macaroni into the reserved cheese sauce.

6. Pour mixture into prepared dish. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese and1/2 cup Gruyère or 1/4 cup pecorino Romano, and bread crumbs over top. Bake until browned on top, 45 to 60 minutes. Transfer dish to a wire rack to cool for 5 minutes. Serve garnished with sour cream if desired.



:lips:

It's seems that I am the only one who suppose to hate Mac'n cheese although I said that I haven't tasted it...

What so ever, thanks a lot especially for the story.

This reminded me of the children that don't want to eat something and they tell them stories to swallow it down...
I am SURE that trendy or not Mac n cheese is a wonderful dish.
I swear, I believe you. Very soon I will have the opportunity to taste it.Or after second thoughts I will make it tomorrow since I didn't know what to cook anyway.

Strange though... My husband lives for the last 45 years of his life in the States (NYC) and his best -like brother- friend is one of the biggest restauranteurs of NY... Both of them haven't even tasted this thing ( the world thing belongs to them) although the latter serves it

:)

Mac & cheese

Back to the mac & cheese for a minute - my mom used to make a side dish from canned tomatoes, croutons and a little sugar to put over the mac & cheese. Has anyone heard of this?

What a wild thread!

Let's see.........
from mac and cheese,
to green ketchup,
to Rioja,
to more mac and cheese,
to TV,
to food politics,
to more mac and cheese,
then to pastitsio,
the back to more mac and cheese,
to mad cow disease,
to more food politics,
to coffee,
to saltfish,
to Taco Bell,
to Mexican corn,
and aaah, back to mac and cheese?

I don't know how to respond?!;)