Deep Fried Mac n Cheese

When we first started our kitchen adventures, most of them involved something with cheese... baked brie, cheese fondue, cheese-based dips, cheese in a pumpkin. Over time, we experimented with other ingredients but have always seemed to come back to cheese-based recipes. As cheesy as it sounds, we just love cheese.

So in a twist to the traditional mac n cheese we know and love, we decided to try making deep fried mac n cheese--- if anyone is familiar with the origins of deep fried mac n cheese (we suspect the Calgary stampede, or some Southern state) please leave a comment!

Mac n cheese: 
Ingredients:
200g gruyere cheese
200g marble cheddar
3 cups macaroni
500mL 2% milk or half n half cream
Half a stick of butter
5 TBSPS flour
Seasoning of choice
Salt and pepper


Procedure:

1. Boil water in a pot and add the macaroni. While this is happening, combine cheese by grating them in a mixing bowl.
2. Melt the butter in a sauce pan and add the flour to create a rue. 
3. In medium-low heat, add the cream, salt and pepper and cheese and mix until it becomes thick, creamy and velvety.
4. Add your seasoning of choice (we used garlic powder and a mix of parmesan and herbs).
5. Once the macaroni is cooked, drain the water and combine with the cheese mixture until everything is well coated.
6. Set aside to cool in a sqaure pyrex.
7. Cover in cling wrap when warm, and place in the refrigerator overnight.

The mixture is ready! Try not to eat it... 

Then we wait..... 

The next day.... 

To fry the mac n cheese: 

Ingredients:

3 eggs beaten

Flour

Panko bread crumbs

Seasoned bread crumbs 

Olive oil (or any oil used to fry)

1. Cut the mac n cheese into little cubes (we used cubes, balls are hard to form) and set aside.
2. In three separate bowls, prepare the eggs, flour and  mix the panko and seasoned bread crumbs in even proportions in the third bowl.
3. For each mac n cheese cube, cover the surface evenly with flour, eggs and then bread crumbs.

   

   You can build some sort of tower that looks like this...
   

   
   

   4. Deep fry until golden brown. We didn't want the extra hassle of cleaning the deep fryer, so we just used a nonstick pan with oil and fried each side until golden.

These mac n cheese cubes/bites would have been great with a cheese sauce with truffle oil, but truffle oil is expensive. Other options include marinara sauce or maybe some roasted tomato soup, which we COINCIDENTALLY have a recipe of right here. 

Check out that gooey cheese melting into the tomato soup.... A proud moment right there.