Who knew you could curdle cheese?

So I had all these thoughts on what I wanted my first blog post to be. I've played through different scenarios thinking oh well I'll introduce myself...give some background...yada yada... well.... turns out, my first post will be on cheese. Yes... cheese.

I went to Rosebud a few weeks ago in the highlands with my friend, whom I will affectionately call “A,” to catch up. I ordered the pork ravioli (which I remembered being significantly better but I’ll save that talk for another day) and he ordered the blue plate. A very tender roasted chicken with a side of green beans and mac n' cheese… but wait for it... the mac n' cheese had dried cranberries! I was pleasantly surprised, especially since I'm not normally a fan of cranberries -- but back to my story -- I get it in my head that I want to toy with a traditional mac n' cheese. 

Totally thought it was going to be a piece of cake.

1) Melt some cheese

2) Boil some noodles (in this case I'm using penne)

3) Mix and bake. Sounds easy enough, right? HA.

So I boil my penne... that part wasn't a problem. I set a second pot on the stove, set it on medium heat and pour in a bit of heavy cream, milk and a bit of butter to melt. I stir and once it's heated I put in the Gouda cheese which I've already cut into chunks. So far so good right?

Well apparently I forgot one key little thing.... FLOUR. (Because if you didn't know, flour or a bit of cornstarch will keep your cheese or sauce from clumping and curdling.) As a result my cheese never really melts. Instead it breaks down into crumbles and just kind of curdles. I will spare you the photos because to be quite honest, it's not a good look. I then frantically Google "how to fix curdled cheese sauce." Lucky for me there are apparently others in the world who don't know how to melt cheese. So I try everything from "adding milk" to "whisking continuously on low or no heat." Alas I am unsuccessful.

At this point I feel like an utter failure and am about to give up and break out the Velveeta cheese... but as they say, sometimes you just need to take a step back and breathe. So I let it cool. Get another pot, heated some cream and this time remember to add a tbsp or so of flour and stir. Then I added in a little bit of the crumbly cheese at a time while whisking like my life depended on it. Never have I been more excited to see cheese melt. Pathetic, I know but it's the little things in life. So I add a pinch of cayenne pepper a couple dashes of garlic salt and a quarter fistful of dried parsley. Top it with some Parmesan Herb Panko Bread Crumbs and bake for 30-40 minutes till brown.

Who knew I'd have such a hard time melting cheese? It's quite embarrassing but key lesson to learn: Don't forget to add that flour or cornstarch to your cheese sauce because it will save you a hell of a headache!

Final product?

Not too shabby. I went a little heavy on the Parmesan Panko bread crumbs and since Parmesan tends to be an oily cheese, it’s a bit greasier than I'd like. So next time I'll probably cut back on the crumbs but add more Gouda cheese to give it a creamier texture. Last tweak? Rosemary... I think it'd be really awesome with a bit of rosemary in it.

And thus concludes my first foray into food blogging. Here's to more posts (hopefully more concise) and better outcomes. :)