Rosemary Dijon BBQ Sauce over Ribeye with Homemade Mac & Cheese - Part I

What could possibly be better than a deliciously seasoned, juicy, flavorful ribeye steak? One served with homemade macaroni and cheese, of course!

It had been a while since we had steak and we just so happened to have most of the ingredients on hand to create the rosemary dijon BBQ sauce, so we decided it was time to have it again. Since health concerns must be left for another time when indulging in steak, we opted for a side of mac & cheese. This turned out to be a wonderful combination - tantalizingly good in fact - hopefully we won't be tempted to make this too often as I'm sure it's not the healthiest combination imaginable.

This is what you're working towards. Try not to get too excited :) 

Both the steak sauce and the mac & cheese recipes are adapted from one of our favorite sources: the Dinosaur Barbeque Cookbook. For anyone who hasn't had a chance to visit the Dinosaur - you should make a trek. Not to the one in Harlem, or Rochester, but the one in Syracuse. The original. It's the best.  

The Mac

We started off by preparing the mac & cheese, since we want to leave time to bake it in order to give everything a nice and crispy texture, and have it come out at the same time as the steak. We got a pot of water to boil, salted it, and started the pasta, and then started into the sauce.

The sauce is fairly simple really - onions and green peppers sautéed in butter until browned, mixed with flour, and then combined with milk and cheese until it thickens. We'll take you through it here.

The onion and green peppers are diced into small pieces, about 1/2 cup each for two people. This is about half an onion and half a bell pepper's worth (so plan ahead and use those leftover ingredients for your next night's recipe). You add about 3 tablespoons of butter to a sauté pan and turn the heat up high, melting the butter down, and then adding in the diced vegetables. Get them nice and coated and salt them a little bit. Once they've softened up nicely, add in the flour, a little less than a 1/4 cup.

Adding flour to the sautéed onions and green peppers. 

Let this cook over medium heat for a few minutes and stir really well so that it is blended evenly. Before it gets too browned, add in your milk or half and half. You'll need a little less than a pint. Slowly pour in the milk and mix it in with the vegetables, stirring constantly. You'll notice it starts to thicken quickly as the flour is incorporated. Keep the heat on medium through this as it will help the sauce to thicken. 

Stirring together the cream, flour, and veggies. Make sure to keep stirring so that there are no clumps in your final product. 

Once it's thickened, add the seasonings. We used a teaspoon of dijon mustard, salt, pepper, and some of Bryan's special spice rub (email or leave a comment if you want the recipe :-)) to give it a good balance of heat and flavor. Then, add about 2 cups of shredded cheese. We used mostly extra sharp cheddar with a touch of pecorino romano. 

So much cheese, so delicious. 

Stir the cheese into the sauce until it is all melted in. The sauce should be about to your desired consistency at this point and started to take on the flavor of the cheese. Give it a try, it and add salt, pepper, and cayenne to taste. Tobasco sauce or some more mustard  are other options that can really help to kick up the flavor. 

Combine the sauce and the pasta. In order to make sure it doesn't end up mushy, cook the pasta for two minutes less than the package directions. Then, put it all in a baking dish and throw it in the oven at 375 degrees. If you have breadcrumbs available, you can throw a few of those on top too.

The mac and cheese settles into the baking dish. 

Leave it in the oven for about 10 or 15 minutes. You can make your steak and Rosemary Dijon BBQ sauce during this time, and they'll both be done around the same time. When the mac does come out, it will have a nice crispy top that gives it a great texture. 

In the oven, getting better and better every minute. 

While the mac and cheese is baking, you can start in on your steak and sauce.

To learn how to do that, check out Part II!