The pleasure of white food

There is an undeniable comfort which I find in all white food (or called nursery food by some). I grew up with congee, cooked with water (no stock, thank you very much) and simply dressed with pork floss or sometimes mixed in with a lightly beaten egg with dashes of soy sauce (heaven!). It could be any meal of a day, served under all conditions and eaten at a family table or curled up on the sofa. During my childhood, I was also fed with white toasts topped with peanut butter and jelly or butter and strawberry jam, countless times. Then I moved on to porridge when I reached my late teen. Cooked with milk by my mom but now I prefer it simply with water.

I still enjoy all these food, perhaps even more so now. Not only do they bring me back to a time when a world can be carefree and uncomplicated, but also I now appreciate more of so-called plain food. That's what growing old (sometimes known as maturing) does to me. I used to mistakenly assume complication as sophistication but now I enjoy simply being simplistic, comfortably. White food, unadorned, sometimes is the best way to appreciate the true flavor of food. As I layer flavoring upon layer, I notice how its taste transforms and develops. I guess it's a bit like people.

Needless to say, comfort food means different things to different cultures and to different individuals. For one couple of mixed cultures (yours truly), it's mac and cheese. Especially with a weather where Spring still feels like winter and with a workload sometimes felt multiplying by the minute, we relish our mac and cheese gratefully.

Easy Mac and Cheese

This version requires no bechamel sauce. I use curd cheese (of cream cheese like texture) to thicken the sauce up and it provides a lovely tang, very light, to balance the taste of the dish.

- 250 g tubular pasta, cooked, drained and with a cup of pasta cooking water reserved
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 medium onion, minced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced
- a splash of white wine, optional
- 1 cup of stock
- 1 cup of single cream (or half cream half milk)
- 1 pot of curd cheese* (~227g)
- 1 teaspoon of dry mustard powder
- ground black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon of grated nutmeg
- pinch of paprika/chilli powder (optional)
- 1 teaspoon of salt
- 1 cup of grated cheddar (or a mixture of easy melting cheeses)
- 1 cup of panko

Heat olive oil in a pan, cook onion and garlic until they are fragrant and onions translucent. If you have some white wine at hand, a generous splash is very nice. Add in stock and cream. Bring the pot back to boil. Add in cooked pasta. If the pasta looks a bit dry, use the reserved pasta cooking water to adjust the moisture content. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for a couple of minutes.

In another bowl, mix together curd cheese, mustard powder, black pepper, nutmeg and paprika/chilli powder. Add in 2/3 cup of grated cheddar. Fold the curd cheese into the pasta mixture. If you are short of time, you can skip the panko and simply cook the pasta on the stove until the sauce thickens lightly. If you have time, adding a layer of cheesy crisp topping is worth a try.

Pour the pasta into a buttered baking dish. Mix the remaining 1/3 cup of cheddar cheese with panko. Scatter on top of the pasta. Bake the pasta at 200C for 20 minutes until the top turns golden and pasta bubbling lively.

Serve with sliced hams, grilled sausages or burgers.

*Curd cheese is a type of fresh cheese which has a texture close to cream cheese but has much lower fat. Use cottage cheese instead if you can't find curd cheese. If using cottage cheese, use a stick blender to puree cottage cheese curds and mix in one egg.