Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese

I love macaroni cheese and after eating a fairly disappointing one at the Caballo Lounge in Epsom, I decided to make my own. I had a magazine cutting from You magazine (the only thing I like about the Mail on Sunday!) which is from a Nigella Lawson recipe. It can also be found in the book Simply Nigella and you can read the recipe here.

Nigella says this is the best macaroni cheese she's ever eaten and while I might not quite go that far (the way they do it in America is brilliant if calorific), it really is very good- and a bit more healthy than it might be with the addition of some veg.

It uses a combination of feta cheese and Cheddar and the sweet potato gives the dish a lovely colour as well.

This is really easy to make, delicious and the leftovers are good on the second day. Something I will definitely be making again!

I'm sharing this with Meat Free Mondays, hosted by Jacqueline at Tinned Tomatoes.

Macaroni Cheeseburger, Cheesecake Factory-style

When I went to America last year, I was very excited to visit the Cheesecake Factory in Las Vegas, as I'm a huge fan of Big Bang Theory (the main female character is a waitress at the Cheesecake Factory) and of course I love cheesecake. But I discovered their main courses were just as good as the desserts; I had a macaroni cheeseburger, which was a burger with a deep-fried ball of macaroni cheese on top (inside the bun); when you bit or cut into it, the cheese oozed out. You can read more about it here.

Ever since I came back I've wanted to recreate the macaroni cheeseburger, but I never cook burgers at home (since I occasionally eat them when out). I decided that it wouldn't be so bad if the burger was homemade.

First I made some macaroni cheese, though I didn't have any macaroni pasta so used fusili, and made a basic cheese sauce. I left this overnight (actually, I had it for my lunch at work, and kept a small portion for this recipe).

To make the burger, I took some minced beef, and mixed it with finely chopped onion, oregano and salt.

I shaped it into patties, though they aren't perfectly round as you can see!

Next I took the macaroni cheese, which had clumped together now it was a day old

I did my best to shape the pasta into a ball and cover it with breadcrumbs then I fried it in a couple of centimeters of oil.

I fried the burgers in a separate pan

When the burger was cooked, I topped it with the deep-fried macaroni cheese

It made for a pretty big burger!

I loved the taste and texture together, but when I bit into the macaroni cheese, the cheese sauce didn't ooze out in the same way when I ate this at the Cheesecake Factory. I don't really know how you keep enough of a liquid sauce in the cheese for it to be the right consistency while at the same time make it thick enough that you can make a ball of the macaroni and deep fry it. Has anyone tried to make this at home?