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I haven’t been posting lately because of the “vegan-at-home” thing we’re doing.  I wish I could say I’ve had some resounding triumphs and flashes of culinary inspiration, but I haven’t.  So for the sake of having SOMETHING to write about, I’m giving my recipe for mac and cheese, in all it’s animal-fat-filled glory.

For ingredients, you’ll need a pound of pasta (cooked just UNDER al dente, elbows or penne work best, cooled under plenty of water, and drained), a stick and a half of unsalted butter butter, four oz. of flour, a teaspoon of sea salt, a quarter teaspoon of cayenne pepper, a quart of half and half, 2 cups of buttermilk, a pound of extra sharp cheddar cheese sliced or grated, and breadcrumbs.

Grease a 9″x13″ baking dish or aluminum foil pan.  Add the pasta to it.  In a large sauce pan, melt the butter over medium heat.  When it begins to foam, whisk in the flour, salt, and cayenne.  Whisk constantly for one minute to make a blond roux.  Turn the heat up to medium high, and gradually whisk in the half and half.  Keep whisking.  When  the mixture is smooth and thick, whisk in the buttermilk.  When steam begins to rise from the sauce again, gradually drop in the cheese, and whisk until all is smooth and melted.  If you’re using a saucepan that tends to scorch, keep the heat down.  It will turn out fine, it’ll just take longer (I don’t recommend using non-stick for this because of all the whisking; it’ll scratch the coating, which isn’t good for the pan or for you.).

Turn off the heat and pour the cheese sauce over the pasta, scraping out the sauce pan with a nylon spatula.  Use the spatula to then incorporate the sauce throughout the pasta and to help express any air bubbles.  Top with breadcrumbs, parsley and paprika.  Ideally, let the mac and cheese sit for half and hour before baking at 350 degrees for one hour, or until browned and bubbly.  It can also be stored covered in the fridge before baking, but let it sit out at room temperature for an hour before baking.

This is very popular at parties, and people will begin to request it from you.  Brace yourself for the pet peeve that bothers me most about this recipe…Other people never bake it enough!  Party-goers can become impatient for it, or it’s sharing oven space with three other casseroles, and the top won’t get brown and crsipy.  But it’s still fabulous stuff.

This recipe can be tweaked into the stratosphere, by the way.  Chunks of ham, tomatoes,  broccoli, or fresh spinach leaves are yummy additions.  If you want to prepare it for a fancier grown-up dinner party, think about dividing the mixture of sauce and pasta into individual ramekins and adding truffle shavings or chunks of seafood.  Top each serving with buttered panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), put the ramekins on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 degrees for fifteen or twenty minutes.  Feel free to experiment by adding other cheese, too.  I don’t recommend totally eliminating the cheddar, though, because it contributes a great deal to the flavor profile of the finished dish.  It lends incomparable smoothness, and the natural acids from the extra sharp cheddar (as well as those from the buttermilk) cut through the richness of all the butter and cream.  Those acids are what makes you take bite after bite, because they keep your palate from being fatigued from the fats in the dish.

I haven’t posted in a LONG time, I know.  The simple reason…I really don’t cook at home anymore as much as heat stuff up.  Veganism at home is NOT the same experience as dining in the high falutin’ raw food restaurants popping up in larger cities.  Those places have the time, money, and resources to do some truly remarkable things with vegetables.  Even if I did have the time and inclination to prepare something outlandish like flash-frozen radish and lotus root salad with cilantro oil and beet pollen, that’s not exactly the sort of dish you want to cozy up to after a long hard day at work.

One thing I’ve made more than once is a very warming, satisfying lentil soup.  It has distinct Indian overtones (hence the title of this post…”dal” is the Hindi word for lentils), with a spicy kick.  Moreover, it’s VERY easy to throw together and walk away.

In a large, heavy-bottom stock pot saute two chopped garlic cloves and one chopped onion in a quarter cup of canola oil.  When golden, add 2 quarts of water, a vegetable bouillon cube, a half pound of washed lentils, 4 cups (packed) baby spinach, 1/2 cup chopped cilantro and/or mint, 1/2 teaspoon cayenne, a 1/2 teaspoon of curry powder, and a tablespoon of tomato paste.  Bring to a boil, then simmer on very low heat for an hour or more.  Check for seasoning.

With some warm naan (supermarkets around me carry it, an Indian flatbread) and a salad of chick peas, cucumber, and tomatoes with mustard vinaigrette, it’s a simple, hearty supper.