Chilli cheese macaroni bites

I've been ordering deep fried macaroni cheese bites in pubs and cafés whenever they've been available, as I really adore them as a snack. When I saw the cooking video How To Cook Deep Fried Mac and Cheese Balls by Gran Luchito on YouTube, I think I just stared at it with my mouth open, as I knew that I had to try to make them as soon as possible. I really wanted to try a spicier version of the usual macaroni cheese bites and this seemed like the perfect recipe. The video shows in a nice and colourful way how to make this dish. Gran Luchito's smoked chilli paste adds such a nice smoky spiciness to these bites. However you can probably substitute it with another smoked chilli paste, if you like.

I only watched the video for guidance and didn't read their written recipe. Therefore mine is slightly different. My partner does not like milk, so I used vegetable stock instead and I also used wholewheat gomitini as the pasta. These turned out really good, a bit naughty of course, as deep fried. Here is my take on the chilli cheese macaroni bites.

Ingredients

2 cups wholewheat gomitini

25 g butter

3 tbsp spelt flour

2 tsp smoked chilli paste

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp vegetable stock powder + 100 ml water

200 g grated cheddar

2 eggs

2 cups breadcrumbs

Vegetable oil for frying

Method

Cook the pasta in water.

Melt the butter in a pan and cook the finely chopped garlic cloves in there. Add the spelt flour and smoked chilli paste and stir for a couple of minutes to make a paste.

Add the vegetable stock and cheese and stir into an even paste. Also add the pasta into the mix and let cool.

Shape bites/balls from the pasta mix and roll them in beaten eggs and breadcrumbs.

Deep fry the bites in hot vegetable oil.

Enjoy them with a spicy ketchup.

I thought that it would be nice to share this recipe with July's Pasta Please! cooking challenge about all sorts of pasta dishes. This certainly is a bit different pasta dish to my usual ones. The event is hosted by Chris from Thinly Spread and co-hosted by Jacqueline from Tinned Tomatoes.

Your VegHog