Experimenting: Tap and Cheese

Experimenting is what makes cooking fun for me. Ideas just randomly pop into my head, but it's usually when I'm thinking about food the least.

I was walking around the city, doing a little Xmas shopping, happily secluded in my own little Ipod world (The Joggers rawk, by the way).  Then it hit me.  I craved mac and cheese and decided to make a version on Sunday, my big cooking day.  Then later on that night I saw Alex Lee on Iron Chef America make a fontina cheese based fonduta (cheese sauce, dude).  I thought about making my mac and cheese with a fonduta, but maybe holding the eggs that are in a typical fonduta (i guess this could be a fontina bechamel then, but whatever). 

A few hours later I was walking to the subway and bang.  Tapioca.  Tapioca has a neutral flavor to me, but the texture is obviously phenomenal in the mouth.  I would make the tap just as I would a mac and cheese.   Boil the tap until it was just cooked through.  Make a fontina cheese sauce (bechemel-esque, butter, flour, milk, fontina).  Combine the tap with the cheesy sauce in a casserole dish and cover with panko bread crumbs.  Broil the crumbs until crunchy and warm the tap and cheese through.  It was just as I hoped.  The texture added a different element to the dish, which was exactly what I was looking for.  And it had all of the satisfying, creaminess of a standard mac and cheese.  The key here is serving it very hot.  The tap, when it begins to cool, clings together and firms the casserole up a bit too much.  Good thing it's easy to just rewarm and reheat if needed.

UPDATE: I have created a recipe based on Megan's request in the comment section.  It's a bit of an approximation as putting a recipe together wasn't my intention when making this, so I hope my backtracking was successful.   

Full recipe follows.....

Shopping list

1/2 stick unsalted butter
about 4-5  tablespoons all-purpose flour
about 2 cups whole milk
Pinch fresh nutmeg
kosher salt,fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup grated fontina, couple handfuls of grated gruyere
crushed red pepper flakes
panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup tapioca pearls

Make the Bechamel:

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add a pimch of red pepper flakes and the flour. Whisk until smooth, about 2 minutes. Continue stirring and add the milk.  Continue to whisk until the sauce is smooth and creamy. Simmer until it is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, about 8 minutes or so.  Remove from heat and stir in pinch of grated nutmeg, the fontina and gruyere, salt, pepper to taste and a squeeze of lemon juice.  Set this aside.

Make the Tap:

Place oven on 450.

Place a large pot of salted water on boil. Place the tapioca into boiling water and cook for about 8 minutes, or until soft yet al dente and clear in appearance. Taste continuously in order to get a sense of how it comes along. Drain.

Finish the Dish:

Bring the bechamel in your pot to a simmer again.  Add the cooked tap and mix until thoroughly combined.   Taste and re-season.  Pour the entire pot into a baking dish. Smooth out top and sprinkle with just a handful of either the fontina, gruyere or both. You can finish this in a few different ways.  Either add a layer of panko (not too thick of a layer) and broil for only a minute or two to get a nice brown top quickly and serve right away (this is what I did) or you can just add the panko and place the dish in a hot 450 oven and bake for about 5 minutes letting it warm through while toasting the panko (what I probably should have done). Remember to serve this piping hot.  If you need to reheat before serving or even having seconds, I recommend it.

Comments

[megwoo]

Uh, this sounds *incredible*. Any chance you could share a recipe--or approximate measurements for the ingredients? Pretty please?

[joe]

hi megan. sure, i'll post some approximations but am just swamped so will need a couple of days to get it together. check back here soon!