Macaroni - deep fried dippers

[Maggoty]

sounds horrible I know, but I took mum and mum in law to TGI's whilst shopping and as a starter they had macaroni deep fried dipper things. There were about 3-4 pieces of macaroni in a cheese sauce, in a crust.

My question is :

how did they get the macaroni to keep together in the crumb/crust whilst they cooked it.

Why didn't the cheese sauce seep through?

Anyone know - its driving us mad!!

Ali

[redcrx]

maybe they cook them from frozen?

[Maggoty]

yeah - but how did they (or the manufacturer) make them in the first place

grrrrr

x

[Jugglering]

You've slightly lost me here... was the cheese sauce inside the (presumably cooked) pieces of macaroni, which were all encased in a crumb crust and the whole lot was deep fried ?

Was it definitely macaroni (little tubes) and not cannelloni (much larger tubes) as I find it hard to understand how cheese sauce could be put inside the macaroni ?

I suspect that egg might have been used to bind everything together (if you drop tablespoonfuls of most foodstuffs into an or egg batter mix, then deep fry them, they will hold together.

[oldwoman]

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?fr=ybr_bt&y= y&p=deep%20fried%20macaroni%20recipe

[Jugglering]

Nice link oldwoman, but it doesn't say how the cheese gets inside the macaroni ! I am seriously interested now lol....

[Maggoty]

Ha ha I reckon you've cracked it!!

The macaroni cheese inside the "dipper crumb" is regular macaroni cheese. The cheese sauce being in the tubes and all over the tubes.

reckon they cooked regular MC then scooped 3-4 tubes and the sauce into "dollops", froze them, then encased them in breadcrums and bunged back in the freezer.

Voila!!

Thank you both

xx

[cardi88]

if you made a really thick cheese sauce, mixed it with macaroni, baked it, let it go cold i would imagine it being firm enough to crumb & fry - not sure about crumbing frozen m/c - to what would the crumb stick,

I asked a friend who worked at TGI's how did they do their onion thing, never again - you would have thought he had signed the official sectrects act!!

[Maggoty]

Ahhh Cardi - that was a problem that came up and I think I have sussed it.

Macaroni cheese (tinned) or fresh cooked and cooled.
Grated cheese
Mix together so its quite thick
Spoon into "lumps" and freeze
Once frozen brush beaten egg on "lumps"
Roll in breadcrumb mix of your choice

I tried it at the weekend and although they looked a bit "tatty" (not like the TGI ones) they tasted lovely.

Will re-attempt them but make them smaller - maybe they'll be less weird looking!!

[crisgal]

perhaps you could freeze them in a silicone bun tray. They would pop out easily and be a nicer shape.

[Maggoty]

Crisgal - you could be onto it there!!

Only problem is will have to clear out the freezer to fit them in!!

(all because I NEED to know how they do it, not because I actually wanted to!!)

Thanks

xx