Year after year since I started gardening I have grown chile and pepper plants. Year after year I let my husband talk me in to growing way more pepper plants than the average family would **ever** need. This year I held back and only grew a few plants, jalapeno, banana, bell, Serrano and poblano. So with the abundance of pepper produce I am always looking of ways to use them up in recipes.
Including the peppers this is a great way to add sweet delicious summer corn to an already over the top mac-n-cheese. You can add as much jalapeno pepper as you like. My peppers are extremely hot this year, so I only went with one. Of course my hubby added an extra pepper to his dish so it’s definitely a matter of how hot you like your food.
Spicy & Sweet Corn Mac-N-Cheese
Author:
Prep time:
Cook time:
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Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter, plus more for dish
- 1 1/4 cup Panko bread crumbs
- 5 cups whole milk, warmed
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 4 1/2 cups grated sharp white cheddar cheese
- 2 cups grated Gruyere cheese
- 1 generous cup of sweet corn, fresh or frozen (I used corn from two ears)
- 1 large jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely diced, two if you like it spicy
- 1 pound elbow macaroni or fusili pasta
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375 degrees.
- Butter a 3-quart casserole dish; set aside.
- In a medium bowl melt 2 tablespoons of butter then add bread crumbs, stir to mix, and set aside.
- Cook pasta according to directions and set aside.
- Melt remaining 6 tablespoons butter in a deep skillet over medium heat.
- When butter bubbles, add flour and cook, whisking for about 1 minute.
- While whisking, slowly pour in milk.
- Continue cooking, whisking constantly, until the mixture bubbles and becomes thick.
- Remove pan from heat. Stir in salt, nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne pepper, 3 cups cheddar cheese, and 1 1/2 cups Gruyere, corn and pepper set cheese sauce aside.
- Stir pasta into the reserved cheese sauce.
- Pour mixture into prepared dish. Sprinkle remaining 1 1/2 cups cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup Gruyere and breadcrumbs over top.
- Bake until browned on top, about 30 minutes.
- Transfer dish to a wire rack to cool 5 minutes; serve hot.
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I admire the fact that you took cooking on as part of your responsibility to your family. I have recently started to blog, mainly to get some of my favorite recipes in one place for my family. After 45 years of cooking, I have plenty of things to share.
You have a lovely site. I certainly hope I can develop my efforts into something as nice as yours.
with regards
Nona
Hi Nancy,
Thank you for the compliment. Just signed up at your blog. Wow, you have had a tuff time, sorry to hear that. Cooking can be so therapeutic and relaxing. I bet you have wonderful recipes, I will look forward to trying them out. The gentlemen that I used to help me fine tune my blog (which I loved) is giving an online workshop for wordpress bloggers. You check it out and see if you might find it helpful. Here is the link. http://zestyblogconsulting.com/wordpress-workshops/
xo, Amy
well, I see I have contacted you already. If it isn’t directly in front of me, then I don’t have a need to remember.
thanks for the tip on wordpress, I will defiantly check it out.
Not everyone gets a redo in life, so I try to make good use of my time and efforts.
My family enjoyed it and I don’t think they realized there was corn in it. But I will use more cheese the next time.