This is one of the oldest and all time favorite recipes of mine. Somehow I never got a chance to make it. May be because I was always skeptical about my baking skills.

Today I managed to bake this for our Special Sunday lunch. It turned out well. I intentionally made it a bit lighter than the original recipe because my husband cant digest heavy milk products in his food.

Being a total Indian at heart I couldn’t keep oil out of this dish. So I tweaked the original recipe a bit to suit my requirement.

Ingredients :

• 1 tablespoon salted butter
• 1 tablespoon maida
• 2 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon grated cheese
• Pepper Powder (freshly roasted and ground)
• 1 cup mixed vegetables :
  • Red , Yellow, Green pepper
  • Mushroom
  • Baby Corn
  • Carrot
  • Beans
  • Peas
  • Spinach
  • Finely chopped Garlic
• Macaroni
• 1 tablespoon of Olive Oil
• 2 teaspoons of bread crumbs

Procedure :

For the White Sauce

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Add maida and fry till it turns opaque.
2. Add milk and boil the sauce. If it appears too thick add more milk till the sauce is moderately pasty.
3. Add grated cheese, salt and pepper. Mix well.

Preparing the Vegetables

1. Stir fry vegetables in oil with some salt till they are half cooked.
2. Boil pasta with a Pinch of salt, till its soft. Mix into the stir fried vegetables.
3. Add the white sauce to the mixture of vegetables and pasta.
4. Add some pepper powder. Mix well.

Baking the Dish

1. Preheat oven at 200 °C.
2. Pour the vegetable pasta mixture into a baking dish.
3. Pour Olive Oil over the dish and mix well.
4. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top.
5. Bake at 200 °C for about 15 mins.

Please NOTE :

1. In this dish salt is added a number of times at different stages of preparation. Care needs to be taken to ensure that the overall quantity of salt does not become too much.
2. If you don’t have bread crumbs you can quickly make them. Microwave a piece of bread for 30 secs and leave it outside till it dries up. Crumble it and sprinkle over the dish.
3. While preparing the white sauce pour warm milk into the fried maida. This will prevent lump formation due to temperature difference.