We egged last night's smoked & glazed pork specifically for this dish tonight, with the added bonus of extra for sandwiches. Cooked macaroni mixed in with a very special cheese sauce, topped with a toasted breadcrumb and bacon rub topping.
The cheese sauce was made with the usual roux method of butter and flour cooked out for a few minutes and milk stirred in gradually to avoid lumps however, I softened two finely chopped shallots, a good sprig of fresh thyme leaves and two minced cloves of garlic in the butter before I added the flour & milk.
I then added strong organic "Montgomery" cheddar, stichelton cheese and gruyere, all grated and stirred until the sauce was thick and unctuous.
Time to stir in bite sized chunks of yummy egged pork and put in a shallow, oven-proof dish then topped with a layer of toasted breadcrumbs, bacon rub (very crispy streaky bacon rashers ground to a powder, brown sugar, hot smoked paprika, ground black pepper and ground fennel seeds) and grated cheddar.
Due to the weather being completely crap, we decided to cook this in a normal, boring oven at 180 deg C for 30 mins. Served with salad.
Mr W is not normally a big fan of pasta with creamy sauces, so I knew this dish was a bit of a risk but he loved it. The different cheeses, beautiful smoked pork and the sweet/salty bacon topping gave the dish a pleasing variety of flavours with every bite. Oh...and there's plenty left for tomorrow!
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