30 March 2008

ANCILLARIES: Fried Mac and Cheese


What You Need:

- a dish of homemade Macaroni and Cheese, chilled*
- 1 to 2 cups of whole milk (or half and half) for dredging
- homemade bread crumbs**
- oil or bacon grease for frying

* Make your favorite Macaroni and Cheese - traditional, spicy, Kraft blue box variety, what have you. We start with the delicious baked recipe from Ulika team member, BP. Let the dish chill in the refrigerator as it's easiest to work with the Macaroni when it's cold. This is a perfect way to use your leftovers too.

** For ours, we threw a few slices of white sandwich bread, butter crackers, saltines, pecans and a little flour in the food processor. You could also use panko bread crumbs.

What You Do:

1. Prepare two dredging bowls - one with the milk and the other with breadcrumbs.



2. Make your macaroni bites. Using a spatula, remove the refrigerated macaroni from the dish and cut it into triangles (or squares, rectangular slices, etc.).

3. Dredge each piece through the milk then through the breadcrumb mixture. Let the pieces sit in the breadcrumbs for a minute or two to set up while you get your oil ready for frying.



4. Fry each macaroni bite in oil until it is golden brown on all sides. Sometimes we'll fry the bites in oil in the deep fryer, but tonight, we fried them in a large skillet in bacon grease.

5. Let the bites rest on a wire rack for a few minutes until they are cool enough to handle. Place a paper towel underneath to catch any excess grease.



Serve them while they're hot!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

yes, this is what I've been told heaven is like: Ulika's fried mac and cheese. perfect.

BP said...

Good stuff.