Lobster Mac and Cheese

Because Lobster is for Lovers!

This is a little more bad than my usual dinner entrees, but it was for Valentine's Day and my sweetie had been telling me all about his Mama's homemade mac and cheese growing up.  I told him how once when I was very young my mother asked me "What should we have for dinner?"  My immediate response was "MACARONI AND CHEESE!"  meaning the kind from the box with questionable powdered cheese.  Her response to let me down as gently as possible was, "Well...your dad doesn't like that, so we'll have something else..." I was appalled at my dad's utter lack of taste.  My opinion of him was lessened forever (Not really; love you, Papa!).

In sum, because we had talked a lot about macaroni, I have a few healthy mac and cheese tricks up my sleeve, and because my pumpkin LOVES seafood, I decided that Lobster Macaroni and Cheese would be the perfect wintertime comfort food for a Valentine's dinner in.

WARNING-- true to the holiday for which it was prepared, this dish was really a labor of love...ie pretty time-consuming.  Valentine's was a Snow Day for me (hooray!), otherwise I would never have had time to do this on a week nigh.  Good luck. 

INGREDIENTS:

-1 small  (or ½ of a large) butternut squash, peeled & cubed

-4 cloves garlic, minced
-1 pound veggie or whole wheat elbow macaroni
-1 ½ c skim milk, warmed up but NOT boiled

-2c low sodium chicken stock
-5 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided

-1/4 cup organic, unbleached flour
-2c Gruyere cheese, grated
-2c extra-sharp Cheddar, grated 

-1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
-1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

-½ teaspoon cayenne

-Generous dashes of salt & pepper, to taste

-2 lobster tails, steamed, peeled and roughly chopped

-2/3 c Panko breadcrumbs

-Parsley, finely chopped for garnish

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

-Add the squash cubes to a large saucepan or small Dutch oven with the chicken stock.

-Heat pot over medium heat and simmer until squash is tender, about 10 or 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. 

-When squash is soft, use a stick blender and puree until pretty smooth.  (Or allow to cool and then puree in a blender)

-Meanwhile, cook pasta al dente, 6 to 8 minutes. Drain well.

-In a separate saucepan make a rue: melt 3T butter and add the flour. Cook over low heat for 2 minutes, stirring with a whisk. Still whisking, add the hot milk and cook for a minute or two more.  (Yeah, having the squash mixture, the butter mixture, and the warming milk all in separate pans will mean lots of dishes…sorry.)  Whisk until smooth.

-Now, add the rue to the squash/stock in a small saucepan and heat it up, but don't boil it. Add garlic and spices. Cook over low heat for a few minutes, stirring with a whisk until thickened and smooth.

-Turn off the heat and add the cheese.  Add the cooked macaroni and lobster and stir well. Place the mixture in gratin dishes.

-Melt 2 tablespoons of butter, combine them with the Panko & some extra spices, and sprinkle on the top. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the sauce is bubbly and the macaroni is browned on the top.

-Garnish with parsley

I combined a few different recipes and techniques for this particular recipe.  As I said earlier, because it was Valentine’s and I didn’t want my sweetie to feel cheated, I made it a little more decadent than my regular baked mac & cheese (recipe here).  But believe me, this recipe is MUCH less artery-clogging than the Ina Garden recipe (here) that I also looked to for inspiration.

Isn't he handsome?  Well worth the effort :)  And that was a lovely sparkling pomegranate drink, yum!