Officially, winter is still a couple of months away, but – with a distinct lack of colourful deciduous trees in the sea of bricks and concrete that I call home – I’m not feeling the autumn love. There is a simple equation here: cold + damp + dark = winter, regardless of what the calendar says. I’m glad, then, that bonfire night is nearly here so we can celebrate a man’s failure to blow something up by blowing some things up.
This year, I’ll be spending bonfire night in New York – political fireworks will most likely be a poor substitute for the real thing. It is from the US that I’ve drawn inspiration for this month’s main recipe. Mac and cheese is a dish that I wrote off as a kid after one too many school lunches of limp pasta swimming in a watered-down, floury sauce with a homeopathic hint of cheese. However, when done properly, it is rich, gooey and delicious, if unsuitable for a school dinner – there are enough calories in a bowl of this to power a flight to the moon. This particular version is a hybrid of sorts: an ode to the best welsh rarebit I ever had, which was loaded with onions and mustard and a personal favourite addition – Guinness. It does the same perfect job here, adding a hint of bitter earthiness that turns this simple dish into something more grownup.
My traditional sweet treat for bonfire night is honey comb or cinder toffee: an orange-coloured candy that looks more like shards of amber than it does a Werther’s Original. The main ingredient is black treacle, which – although I love it in small quantities – I find a bit overpowering here. My version uses instead the mellower sweetness of date syrup. Lastly, as much as I love fireworks, bonfire night inevitably ends up with a lot of standing around on a cold hill waiting for something to happen. To help keep you warm and merry, take along a flask of piping hot chocolate with a little bit of alcohol in for extra pep.
Guinness mac and cheese
You’ll notice that this macaroni cheese recipe doesn’t include any macaroni. The aforementioned school dinners left enough of a mark on me that I never touch the stuff. In reality, you can use any short pasta you want, but rigatoni is my favourite.
Serves 4
1 bunch spring onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
Vegetable oil
400g rigatoni (or your pasta of choice)
50g butter
3 tbsp plain flour
300ml Guinness
300g double cream
350g mature cheddar, grated
2 tbsp English mustard
Fry the spring onions on a medium heat with the garlic and a little vegetable oil until just starting to brown. In a separate large pan, cook the pasta in boiling water until cooked but still firm to the bite. Drain the pasta and set aside in a bowl.
In the pasta pan, heat the butter until melted and then add the flour, cooking for a minute or two. Gradually add in the Guinness, mixing well over the heat to ensure there are no lumps. Next, add the cream, along with the onion and garlic mix, and bring the sauce to a simmer.
Add 300g of the grated cheese in handfuls, stirring to melt before adding more. Finally, add the mustard.
Pour the pasta back into the sauce and transfer to a casserole dish. Sprinkle over the final 50g of cheese.
Bake at 200C/395F/gas mark 6 for 10 minutes – the top should be crispy and the sauce below bubbling through.
Date cinder toffee
This will take a while to cook, about 20-30 minutes. Don’t be tempted to turn up the heat, or you’ll end up with a smoky kitchen.
150g caster sugar
2 tbsp date syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Butter for greasing
Grease a roasting dish well with butter and set aside. In a heavy-based saucepan, cook the sugar and syrup with a few tablespoons of water on a medium heat.
Stir gently until the sugar has dissolved, then turn the heat down and simmer until a sugar thermometer reads 125-130C/255-265F.
Once the mix reaches the correct temperature, take the pan off the heat, pour in the bicarbonate of soda and stir quickly until well combined.
Pour into the prepared roasting dish and leave to cool.
Amaretto hot chocolate
I prefer dark chocolate here but, if you would rather something sweeter, you could use milk chocolate or a mixture of the two.
Makes 2 large mugs
300g whole milk
100g double cream
100g chocolate (dark, milk or both)
2 shots amaretto
Heat the milk and cream in a saucepan until nearly boiling. Add the chocolate in chunks and return to the heat until melted.
Finally, stir in the amaretto. If serving immediately, froth the hot chocolate with a handheld blender. Otherwise, pour into a flask and enjoy with the fireworks.
- This article was amended on 4 November 2016 to correct the method in the Guinness mac and cheese recipe. Originally, we didn’t say when to add the garlic and spring onions.
