Comfort food: Mac and cheese

When I was in New York last year I was lucky enough to have been told about a lovely place on the Lower East Side which specialised in serving macaroni cheese. S'MAC took the humble dish and added a plethora of different flavours to it. My eight-portion sampler included some French, Cajun, Italian, and of course American flavours. Probably a bit to heavy for lunch, but when in America, who cares about portion size?

Here’s my macaroni cheese recipe

Ingredients
Macaroni – purists will protest, but I have been known to use penne or frusili too
Butter
Milk
Plain flour
Grated cheese – I find it best to use these three types: mozerella, mature cheddar and parmesan, cut so long as it melts, I think you'll be OK.

Cook the pasta to packet instructions, until al-dente

Melt the butter gently in a saucepan then add the plain flour. Mix until it forms a paste. Make sure all of the flour is mixed in.

Slowly add the milk and stir out any lumps. Lumps only form when the flour isn't mixed with the butter properly.

Add the cheeses and season to taste. I use lots of pepper.

Once the pasta is cooked and rained, add it to the milk, butter and flour mix and stir so the past is coated.

Transfer to an oven dish and top with more the parmesan and more grated cheese, if you wish.

Cook in the oven until the top is brown. Leave it to cool down for a bit before eating it.

In praise of carbs

Carbohydrates have had been given a bad rep over the last few years and I don't really know why. OK, I concede if you eat too much of them you'll probably get fat, but come on, this is surely the case with every food group.

It takes a strange person to cut carbs out. You become moody, get awful headaches and a terrible case of envy once the chips come out. The bunless-burger brigade would do well to remember that fruit is a huge source or carbohydrates and more importantly, chips taste good.

Seriously though, it's unhealthy to cut out one food group for a dieting whim, especially when that food group contains very healthy things, like fruit and some vegetables. Replacing it with meat and cheese doesn't really help your general well-being either.

Anyway, not a tip for slimmers, but here are my top three guilty carb pleasures:

Potato duphinoise – carbs + cream = dying happily of a heart attack.

Macaroni cheese – there's so much you can do with this humble dish, but on it's own the carb/cheese combo is an unbeatable treat.

Roast potatoes – surely no one can resist a roast tattie come Sunday? There's been great debate on how to get the best results, but it doesn’t really matter. I don't think I've ever had a bad roast potato, even the rubbish ones tasted nice.

Porcini mushroom and chestnut pie

Ingredients:
Porcini mushrooms
Chestnuts
Other mushroom varieties of your own choosing. I use field, chestnut and button
Tomato puree
Onions
Garlic
Potatoes
Cheese
Milk

Boil the potatoes and make a mash in the way you prefer. If you're like me, this will involve lots of cheese.

Soak the porcini mushrooms in luke warm water. Make sure they are covered completely, but down drown them.

Chop and fry the garlic and onions until they start to brown. Chop and fry the other mushroom varieties.

Add the soaked porcini mushrooms and the water they were soaking in so that all the ingredients ate just covered with the water.

Roughly chop the chestnuts, not too small, and add them to the frying pan.

Turn the heat down and let it reduce, adding the tomato puree if you need to thicken.

Season to taste.

Once the mushroom mix is nice and thick, transfer to a baking dish and pile the mash on top. Smooth it out, as if you're making a shepherd's pie, and top with some cheese.

Put it in the oven at gas mark 7 (220C) for about 15 mins, until the top browns.