Macaroni Schotel

Can’t say no to this dish. Frequently made this at home and it come to be one of favorite dish at home especially for me and my son. I will share the best recipe that I have ever found. Many recipe will told you only to bake it, but I found the one that give better taste to enhance the cheese flavor by steam it before baked. For cheese lover like me, the best cheese flavor will be my choice, hahaha…

Macaroni schotel is known as staple food in northern Europe home cooking. Some people in Europe said this dish as macaroni casserole. In Indonesia, this dish was introduced by Dutch during the occupation in there. Schotel in Dutch is schall means dish. Maybe it refer to the container used to make this dish. Originally the recipe only consist of macaroni and a mixture of egg and milk with additional ingredients such as meat, sausage, and of course cheese. But you can add anything that you want like vegetables (sometimes I add broccoli, corn, carrot to my macaroni schotel).

Macaroni Schotel

Source : Ferona in Cake Fever
Modification by me

Ingredients:

• 125 g dried elbow macaroni
• 125 g cheddar cheese, grated
• 150 g ground beef
• 1 pieces of sausage, sliced
• some vegetable as your desire
• 1 piece chopped onion
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• Butter/margarine
• sugar to taste (add only a little as you wish)
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp white pepper powder
• 300 ml full cream milk
• 2 tbsp fresh cream/cooking cream
• 3 eggs, whisk lightly
• 1 tbsp cooking oil

For topping

• 1 tbsp margarine/butter
• 1 tbsp flour
• 125 ml full cream milk
• 1 tbsp cooking cream
• salt to taste
• pepper
• 75 g cheddar cheese, grated
• 50 g mozzarella cheese, grated

Direction:

• Cook macaroni in boiling salted water and cooking oil until just firm to bite (about three-quarter cooked). Drain the water and set aside. 
• Sautee onion with butter/margarine until wilted. Add chopped garlic, and continue sautee until fragrant. 
• Add ground beef and sausage. Stir fry it until the beef change into the darker color. Add other ingredients if you add vegetable. Stir it well just for a while. Add salt, pepper, ground nutmeg. Stir it well. Turn off the heat.
• In different bowl, break the egg and whisk it lightly. Pour fresh milk and cooking cream. Add the beef that has been stir fried before, macaroni, and grated cheddar cheese. Taste it. If the taste still not tasty enough, you can add some salt as your desire. Stir it well. Pour this to the casserole dish (you can use aluminum foil dish). Then take it into the steamer and steam it about 15 minutes.
• While waiting the dish steam, let’s prepare the topping. Sautee butter/margarine, add flour, stir it well and fast (only until the flour dissolve with the butter). Pour fresh milk gradually while fast-stirring to prevent the clumping of the mixture. Add grated cheddar cheese. Add salt and pepper.
• After the dish steamed, pour the topping into the top of the dish, spread it well using spatula. Sprinkle the grated cheddar cheese/mozzarella cheese. Then bake it about 15-20 minutes until the cheese perfectly melt and browned.