Some foods have no geographical boundaries, age limitations or cultural restrictions. Mac n cheese is one of those kinda foods. It certainly IS a comfort food for many, including me, and an easy whip up for dinner or lunch when you are out of ideas.
Today, is about revamping the cult classic Main course dish into an awesome Side dish, the Mac n cheese fry!
We are gonna take the essence of a good mac n cheese and turn it into an amazeballs (yeah i said that) side dish for your next luncheon. These are balls of a more sturdier macaroni mixture which is coated in a crumb coat and deep fried or baked. They go perfectly well with all popular dips and sauces and work beautifully to make your food spread more elaborate and delicious. Similarly, I’ve also served them for a brunch and they were quite the hit!
Bonus feature: You probably already have all the ingredients in your pantry to prep these bad boys! Let me walk you through the recipe, follow me…
What will you need?
Answer? Very basic house-hold ingredients that you can see here. This recipe calls for adding 2 cups of minced meat. I usually have a bit of pre-boiled meat in my freezer at all times which I used here. ( Cooked by boiling in garlic, ginger, black pepper, salt, water and green chilies paste). I used ditalini pasta, but you can use any pasta available, just make sure they are smaller in size which will make them easier to manage.
GETTING STARTED
We start by heating a little oil in a sauce pan, and add our garlic ginger paste, macaroni, minced meat, capsicum and sauteing it all together at medium to high heat. Then we add all the spices and seasoning and milk and saute a little bit more. The next step is to add the all-purpose flour which is always done after removing the saucepan from the flame.
TIP 1: If the flour is added while the mixture is still on the flame, it may cause lumps in the mixture, therefore you should always remove the pan whenever you are adding flour to any milk based mixtures.
And then the mixture goes back on the flame for 2 more minutes. Remove the mixture and let it come down to room temperature. We don’t want the cheese to melt at this point so we will make sure our macaroni mixture is cooled down and then add the shredded Mozzarella and mix well. You can do a taste test at this point, but make sure all your seasoning is a little bit overpowering than you like, because once you crumb-coat it, the flavors will mellow down a bit.
MAKING THE MAC N CHEESE FRY BALLS
Finally you have landed on your last step of the process. I usually just put some oil on the palm of my hands and take heaped tablespoons of the mixture and form rough balls. But this might be trickier for beginners to manage. If you are finding it hard to make the balls from your hands, you can take a cookie sheet and drop tablespoons full of the mixture all over the tray and freeze it. Alternatively, you can use a cupcake tray instead of a cookiesheet for more regular shape of the balls. Once frozen, you can take them out and coat in the coating mixture.
The balls are dipped in all-purpose flour, then eggs and then crumb coated.
TIP 2: Adding chilled water to your beaten eggs give you a crispier crumb coat.
After crumb coating, its upto you when you want to use it. If you are preparing this for guests, I would suggest to make these in advance and freeze them. You can then take them out 20 mins before frying and fry them on medium to high flame. All the ingredients in the balls are cooked so you dont need to worry about leaving anything raw inside, its only the cheese that needs melting. Simple ketchup works really well with them honestly but you can go ahead and try any exotic sauces that you would normally eat with your mac n cheese.
More Snack-style-Mains you may like.
Do you have any questions? I’m happy to help! And of course, If you try this recipe, I’d loveeeee to see it or simply hear about it! Hit me up in the comment section below and I’ll get back to asap! Happy Cooking!
Mac n Cheese Fry
Ingredients
- 2 cups Dry Ditalini Pasta
- 2 cups Pre-cooked Minced Meet optional
- 1 cup Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
- 2 medium Capsicum Chopped
- 1 cup Milk
- 1 tsp Garlic Ginger paste or 2 cloves of garlic and 1 small piece of ginger shredded
- 2 tsp salt or to taste
- 2 tsp black pepper powder
- 1 tsp paprika powder
- 1 tbsp Soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Siracha sauce
- 2 tsp All-purpose flour + extra for coating
- 1 large Egg beaten with 1/2 cup chilled water
- 1 cup Bread Crumbs
- 1 cup Oil for frying
Instructions
- The first step is to add 1 tbsp of oil in a saucepan along with garlic and ginger paste. Put the flame on at medium heat.
- Add your minced meat, pasta and capsicum. Saute for about a minute or 2.
- Add all your sauces and spices. Saute for another minute or 2.
- Pour milk in the saucepan, mix all the ingredients and remove from flame.
- Add 2 tsp all-purpose flour and mix well. Put the saucepan back on the low flame and stir constantly. When you can see bubbles forming in the milk and your mixture seems visibly thick, remove from flame. Cover the mixture and allow it to cool down.
- Once the mixture is cooled, add shredded mozzarella and do a taste test at this point.
- Put oil on both your palms and take 1 heaped tablespoons of mixture and make rough balls out of them. Alternatively if you find the mixture hard to handle, you can line a tray with cookie sheet and drop table spoons of mixture on the sheet. Freeze the mixture and then use when hardened.
- Finally, coat the balls first in all purpose flour, then beaten eggs and finally with the breadcrumbs
- Fry the balls at medium flame until golden brown.
- SERVE – Serve as a side with your main course or as an appetizer.
Dinesh says
Great, I will try it…