(making banana pudding with dad (Wallace wasnt home yet), June 2010)I know this is a photography blog, and not a cooking blog, so it goes to say that I probably should not be posting a recipe here. But! This is also my own personal blog and I would be doing you, my lovely reader, a disservice if I didnt post this recipe for you.
Now see, I love to cook and I therefore watch a good bit of Food Network (its also one of the only stations that is always clean so our kids can watch it)... and one of my most favorite shows (of any channel) is Food Network Star... so Ive been watching it for weeks now... and just a few weeks ago, one of the contestants made this recipe and it looked amazing, so I knew I had to try it.
Oh my goodness yall! Oh my goodness. wow! You have got to try this. Let me preface the recipe with this - I still have my go-to classic mac and cheese recipe that is my grandmother's, but for a different taste, this was amazing - it does make a whole panful which would make this the perfect potluck dish, but I think next time that I make it just for my family I will probably just half it (especially to keep me from eating leftovers of it every night!)....
Ok, lets get to it.... you can find the original recipe here, but I just figured it was easier to copy and paste it in so you could do the same
Ingredients
Two 8-ounce cans creamed corn
1 cup milk
1/4 teaspoon onion powder, optional
1 heaping tablespoon cornstarch
Pinch ground nutmeg (I used cinnamon instead)
Salt and ground black pepper
3 dashes hot sauce, optional, plus more for serving (I used garlic powder instead)
2 cups elbow macaroni
8 ounces grated mild yellow Cheddar (I used sharp cheddar instead)
12 ounces grated mozzarella (I used sharp cheddar instead)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 cup croutons
1 tablespoon olive oil
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Move one rack to the top of the oven.
In a saucepan, simmer the corn with the milk and onion powder, if using, for 5 minutes.
Combine the cornstarch with about 2 tablespoons water and stir well. Add the cornstarch to the corn mixture and whisk over medium heat for 3 minutes.
Season the corn cream with a little nutmeg, salt, pepper and hot sauce if using. Remove from the heat, cover and keep warm.
Boil the elbow macaroni in full rolling salted water for 4 to 6 minutes. Drain the macaroni well and add to the corn cream.
Add the Cheddar, half of the mozzarella and the egg. Stir well. Pour into a 4-cup casserole dish or 12-inch cast-iron skillet and top with the remaining mozzarella.
In a zip-top plastic bag, lightly crush the croutons using a small mallet or rolling pin. Stir together the oil and crushed croutons and spread over the top of the macaroni and corn mixture.
Cook on the top rack until golden, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve with hot sauce.
*a few things that I did differently
- We dont really like hot sauce at our house, so I substituted some garlic powder for that one to still give it some flavor (no measurements, just sprinkled some in)
- I dont like nutmeg at all, so I used a dash or cinnamon instead - key is to just use a dash as cinnamon can overwhelm things quickly, but it paired up with the creamed corn in the recipe like a dream
- I used only sharp cheddar instead of the mild cheddar or mozzerella - this was way tastier
I will absolutely be making this again... and again.... and again.... and you should to!
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