Awesome mac and cheese

Last weekend, my wife S and I, accompanied by two friends, had brunch at one of Singapore’s most talked about new restaurants, Mimolette. Since it opened a few months back, we’d heard both very good but also very bad things about this little restaurant, discretely located next to the Bukit Timah Saddle Club on Fairways Drive. Early reports were a tad scary. We heard that the chefs and owner were serving what seemed to us inedible fusion fare, things like fried rice with foie gras and apricots. And while we’re usually pretty happy to try out any new restaurant, we decided to wait a little while and hear what friends said before heading over on our own. Some friends, who went when it first opened, reported that the restaurant was beautiful, done up in a chic, colonial yet comfortable style. They said that the food, however, was only so-so. More recently, however, we’ve been hearing great things. Especially about Mimolette’s brunch menu. Various people have told us that the food that they’ve eaten there was really, really good. So good in fact that several of these friends have even become regulars.

After visiting it this past weekend, I have to agree. Not only is Mimolette a beautiful and charming little restaurant, it serves great food. The brunch menu is fantastic. It’s a long list of European and American classics (yup, not a fusion dish in sight). It took me quite a while to decide which of the many delicious-sounding things to order. In the end, I decided to have one of my all-time faves, corned beef hash. In addition, I convinced S and our friends to share an order of macaroni and cheese. S had a croque madame, while our friends had a salad and a plate of mini-burgers. Everything was good, but the dish that blew us all away, and which I am now (after just one visit) addicted to, was the macaroni and cheese. It was light yet rich. It was powerful and savory and simply beautiful. It tasted to me like it was spiked with a bit of white wine or kirsch, but when I asked, I was told that no booze went into making it.

Like any other slightly obsessive foodie, I knew I simply had to recreate this amazing mac and cheese as soon as possible. Mimolette’s macaroni and cheese contains, according to its menu, mimolette (of course), gruyere, mozzarella, and emmental. With this list of cheeses in hand, I made my way to Jones the Grocer‘s absolutely awesome cheese room. I picked up 100g each of the mimolette, aged gruyere, and emmental. Sadly, Jones was all sold out of mozzarella, but fortunately Culina, just next door, had a couple packets left in stock.

Of course, I have no idea what porportions the chefs at Mimolette use for their mac and cheese, nor do I know what else they put into their sauce. So, I simply made what I felt would taste good. Fortunately, it did.

Mimolette-inspired macaroni and cheese
serves 4 for lunch or dinner

300g macaroni
650ml milk
500ml water
1 bay leaf
1.5 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons butter
2 teaspoons flour
150g buffalo mozzarella, shredded
100g emmental, diced
100g mimolette, diced
100g gruyere, diced
30g grated parmesan
1 tablespoon kirsch
salt and pepper to taste

Pour the milk into a large pot and combine with the water. Add the bay leaf and the 1.5 tablespoons of salt and bring the liquid to a simmer. Add the macaroni and cook until al dente. Be careful not to let the poaching liquid boil over. Drain the macaroni, reserving the poaching liquid.

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees Celsius.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Take the pan off the heat and add the flour, stirring quickly until combined. Then put the pan back over the fire and slowly add the reserved poaching liquid, stirring constantly. Stir until the sauce begins to simmer and thicken a little. Set aside a handful of the diced hard cheeses and add the rest to the sauce, stirring slowly until all the cheeses have melted. Add the kirsch. Then add the macaroni to the sauce, stirring. Cook for a minute and then transfer to an ovenproof dish. Cover with the reseved cheese bits and the grated parmesan.

Pop the dish into the oven for 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

Mimolette
55 Fairways Drive
Singapore 286846
Email: enquiry@mimolette.com.sg
Phone/Reservations: +65 6467 7748

(The management of Mimolette does not allow any patrons to take photographs, which is why no pictures of the restaurant or the food we ate accompany this post.)