Cooking Mama's Cooking Challenge #58: Macaroni Gratin

 Deceptively complicated as it made no sense to me to make the different parts in the order the game proposes... So we sneakily started the pasta on to boil first and the sauce last but here it is in game order anyway.

Melt the butter!

The game just recycles gameplay of using a knob of butter, but im pretty sure they want me to make a full on white sauce so I measured 50g of butter.

Mix!

Think i found another weird localisation mistake! So in the game it says "mix butter with milk" even though in the very next minigame it says "add milk".. and it just sounded really wack to me that we're making a sauce with just butter and milk?? Thats weird right? So i googled around and im pretty sure we mix BUTTER AND FLOUR so I did that. About 2 tablespoons.

Stew!

Here's where we add milk, salt and pepper. I had a bit of cream to use up as well so i tossed that in. about 500ml in total.

Peel the shrimp!

I bought cooked and peeled prawns again, but here's me separating out a decent amount of prawns, scallops and sliced mushrooms from my freezer and freezing the rest.

Saute!

So I actually sneakily fried the bacon before these as well, since i didnt want to rely on the oven to cook raw pork when everything else is cooked... then i took the bacon bits out and cooked the seafood in the bacon fat, you also add white wine and more salt & pepper. And I cooked the mushrooms as well since they were frozen.

Boil some macaroni!

Instead of using macaroni shapes, i just had to be extra and use the fideua pasta i already had in my cupboard. Purchased no doubt in a fit of whimsy.

Add toppings freely!

So, not unlike the pizzas, mama's mad pasta bake toppings are: Shredded cheese (which i opted for a GENEROUS LAYER of), bacon, scallops, prawns/shrimp, and mushrooms. I also sneakily poured the rest of the bacon&wine juice from the pan on top, be a shame to waste it.

Set the timer!

I mean, i could take a pic of the outside of my oven but heres a pic where ive just poured my barely seasoned butter, milk and flour into a dish of pasta, and im pondering if ive just made some kind of nauseating bible belt mac&cheese. TIME WILL TELL, 15 minutes to be precise.

Finish!

*****

Ohhh this is so good! Its like a cross between a macaroni cheese and a seafood linguine. Still weird to not put garlic in it (or nutmeg or mustard), but with the strong flavours of the bacon and fried mushrooms, you actually don't miss it too much. Plus ive made a nice big pasta bake to last me a while.