This recipe stumbled into our recipe box and we’re ever so glad it did. It’s a macaroni and cheese dish like none other you’ve had before. It’s got a bit of Caribbean flair to it, just enough to make you want to book a ticket RIGHT NOW to Trinidad so that you can taste this dish. Since we can’t just hop on a plane and fly to the Caribbean, we’ll have to settle for making this dish at home. And while we sit around the dinner table enjoying an amazing meal, we can start planning our vacation!
In many ways, this is like any homemade macaroni and cheese: elbow macaroni, cheese, and milk are essentials. A Caribbean macaroni bake takes advantage of a few more flavors from the spice drawer, including dry mustard and a little cayenne for heat. Evaporated milk helps to make the cheesy sauce extra delicious, while the sharp cheddar cheese gives the dish a nice bite. All of these ingredients, along with a few more, are baked together in a casserole dish and out of the oven comes the most savory and rich macaroni and cheese you’ll ever taste.
Nothing is overly done here, the seasonings are just right and just enough to make this different from conventional macaroni and cheese recipes. When we think of tropical island vacations, we often think of fresh fruit and fish, not of a rich and savory baked noodle dish. As we sit around the dinner table enjoying each and every bite of our macaroni and cheese and fantasize about our Caribbean vacation, we know that on the itinerary would have to be this macaroni bake. In the meantime, we’ll enjoy a little Caribbean flavor right at home in our kitchen.