Deep fried mac & cheese bites
It’s tempting to think that cooking - like architecture - is a kind of pattern language, a coherent framework of solutions and solution components arisen in convergent evolution over centuries of human endeavour to become both timeless and yet still remixable enough to delight.
You don’t get to blame me for this, is what I’m saying. They give you a coronary, you go take it up with Christopher Alexander.
Oh, sure, I’ve been deep frying mac and cheese since about 2010. But it has that obvious-once-you’ve-done-it feeling that unites elevated junk food and filthed-up classics. Nobody invented it, it just sort of… is?
In a similar vein, I much recommend reverse-engineering the Findus Crispy Pancake and filling them with actual food. Spanakopita mix or a rich ragu go well.
It’s actually quite upsetting to think of the SEO I’ve missed out on in that decade or so of not writing down this recipe. Or maybe that’s just indigestion. We did have them for dinner last night, so that can’t be ruled out.
Ingredients:
This makes about 16 fairly chunky bites. It’s cut down from the 500g of pasta version I normally end up making for parties. You will also need some means of deep frying, and an actual meal to make these part of. Or just a salad. Please?
Macaroni, 200g
Milk, 300ml
Single cream, 100ml
Butter, 30g
Flour, 40g
Mature cheddar, 100g
Mozzarella, 50g drained weight (probably half a 200g pack?)
Mustard powder, 1/2tsp
Nutmeg, a small grating
For frying:
Flour, about 50g
Breadcrumbs, 200g is more than enough
Eggs, 2
Optional dipping sauce:
Pine nuts, 3tbsp
Garlic, 2 cloves
Creme fraiche, 4tbsp
Olive oil, 1tbsp of the good stuff
Rocket leaves, a handful
A bit of salt and pepper
Instructions:
Up front warning: there’s a “chill overnight” step in the middle here that may irk and surprise the enthusiastic but unwary. I’ve been stung by this in more recipes than I can count, even when I have read them first but just forgotten.
Make the mac & cheese:
It wants to be really thick so that it holds together. Also because it tastes good.
Grate the cheddar, and measure out your other ingredients for convenience.
Melt the butter in a good-sized saucepan on a medium heat, and add the flour. Stir it together to make a thick paste (or “roux”) and let it cook, stirring a little for a minute or two. This brings the fat and flour together, cooking out the flour edge, so that when we add liquid it doesn’t form lumps.
Add the milk little by little, stirring it together until smooth as you go. You can use a whisk but you shouldn’t need to. It will thicken rapidly as is cooks.
Add the cream, working it in little by little, the same way. Add the mustard, nutmeg, and a little salt and pepper.
It should have a “ribbon stage” consistency, maybe thicker - holding just a little shape when you dollop it.
Bring it to a low simmer, and gradually add the grated cheddar, stirring to incorporate and making sure nothing catches on the bottom of the pan. It should be slightly thinner now, and heading for glossy. Give it a taste and tweak the seasoning if you like, or throw more cheese at it if it seems at all moderate or restrained.
Put the sauce to one side to cool a little and cook the pasta.
Do this in plenty of heavily salted water, for about 12 minutes or just under whatever the packet says. We don’t want it fully “proper” al-dente, but it will soften a bit more as it cools in the sauce so don’t take it too far.
Drain it carelessly - keeping a little coating of the pasta water is good for flavour and texture - and mix it thoroughly into the sauce.
Let this all cool for ten or fifteen minutes, until it’s warm but not hot, basically. Then tear the mozzarella into small chunks and stir them into the sauce gently. We don’t need it to amalgamate completely, just to spread out and form little enclaves of stringy gooey joy down the line.
Pour the mix into a deep-ish oven or baking dish, and once it’s cool enough, put it in the fridge to set completely.
I’ve only ever done this overnight, so I have no idea what the least time you need is. Two hours?
Frying:
Once you’re ready to make the bites, get everything prepared: deep fryer up at 200c, eggs beaten and in one bowl, flour in another, breadcrumbs in another. Heat the oven to 100c or so.
Take the mac & cheese out of the fridge and cut it into chunks. I tend to just slice it into little squares about 4cm on each side. But a pastry cutter works nicely too, or you could roll spoonfuls into rough cylinders if you like getting messy.
I find it easiest to breadcrumb everything first. I used to do it in batches while the first batch fries, but this just gets chaotic and messy.
For each bite, dip it gently in the flour, getting a light coating all round. Then dunk it in the egg, draining most off. Then roll it in the breadcrumbs getting a good covering, and put it to one side. It actually doesn’t take too long, and you can totally do a few at once.
To fry them, load up the fryer basket with 4-5 at at time, and cook for 2 minutes, then rest for a minute or two for the oil to come back to temperature, then another minute. They should be crispy and golden, and maybe oozing a little. Drain briefly in the basket then turn out onto kitchen roll to drain properly while the next batch cooks. When you run out of draining space, pop them in the oven to keep warm.
For the sauce:
Toast the pine nuts until golden and let cool. In a food processor, whizz them up with everything else except the rocket, until reasonably smooth. Whizz in the rocket bit by bit to taste - it can make the sauce a little bitter, but you do need it so you can technically say you’ve served a vegetable. Refrigerate until needed.
These are a personal favourite buffet snack or filthy starter. You can make a main out of them with a salad. the garlicky dipping sauce really goes through the cheese, while adding a very slighty classier take on the ambience of that unquantifiable garlic dip distributed by pizza chains.
They’re crispy and gooey, and - look, you know what you’re getting here, and it’s bloody delicious.