FLOWER POT KITCHEN: MAC n CHEESE HUSH PUPPIES

10 Feb 2018

MAC n CHEESE HUSH PUPPIES

THIS IS TWISTED!

Gorgeous crispy light little balls of gooey Mac n cheese twisted with hush puppies corn buttermilk batter, these are just divine, once you pop one of these in your mouth make sure you've made plenty as you'll keep going back for more! A great way to use any left over Mac n cheese, but how you can ever have left over Mac n cheese is beyond me!

Prep time 30 minutes / Cooking time 4 minutes per frying batch

Ingredients

50g butter

50g plain flour

400ml full fat milk

300g mature cheddar grated

50g gruyere grated

50g emmental grated

30g Parmesan grated

100ml double cream

1 pinch Himalayan sea salt

1 pinch ground white pepper

1 corn on cob corn off the cob

500 g macaroni pasta

1 1/2 cup self raising corn meal

1/2 cup self raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 cup buttermilk

1 egg beaten

2 ltr oil for frying

Bring a small pan of water to a simmer, season with salt and add the corn simmer for around 5 minutes until tender, remove the corn, place in a large bowl but keep the pan of simmering water now place the macaroni pasta in to the simmering water and cook for 8 minutes, drain and place the large bowl with the corn.

The Roux

Melt the butter, add the flour and on a low heat cook the roux for a couple of minutes, start adding the milk 100ml at a time whisking in until smooth, you want a thicker than usual Mac n cheese roux sauce so stop adding milk while thick, add the cream and cheese and stir in to melt, judge the thickness of your sauce, a dollop would not fall off the spoon easily, add more milk if you think it needs it. Season with salt and pepper and pour over the reserved macaroni and corn and stir to combine evenly.

The Hush Puppies Batter

In a large jug add the corn meal, flour, baking powder and salt and stir to combine, mix the beaten egg with the buttermilk and then mix the wet ingredients in to the dry ingredients to make your hush puppies batter.

The Twisted Mix

Combine the macaroni cheese with the hush puppies batter, heat your oil to 180 C / 350 F using a spoon gently place dollops of the batter in to the hot oil and fry for a couple of minutes until golden brown all over, drain the cooked hush puppies on kitchen towel, repeat with the remaining batter and serve immediately while still hot so that the cheese is still gooey, warm and delicious.

I sometimes add some panko breadcrumbs to the mix for a extra texture of crunch, this just depends on what we fancy on the day. Being a house hold of cooks can get quite competitive at times!

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.