Growing up this was my favourite dish. My mum used to make it every Sunday for me.

After an entire week of swimming training and a weekend filled with galas and swim meets this is just what the doctor ordered that my body needed to recover.

I used to patiently wait for the early Sunday morning swimming drills to be over just to rush home and smell the cheesey deliciousness.

10 years later I have not set foot in a pool again. How time changes things. I like to sometimes look at the photos, the medals, the ribbons and all the photos’ I look so different I had short hair way back then, it was so easy to maintain when you spent most of your holidays on a swim team bus travelling around the country. For those of you who are wondering what I am on about. In my hey days I used to be an Eastern Province swimmer.

Ingredients:

• 500g x mice.
• 30ml x cooking oil.
• 2 x onions chopped.
• 1 x clove of garlic, chopped.
• 50ml x tomatoe paste.
• 1 x tsp salt.
• Black pepper.
• 1ml x cinnamon powder.
• 5ml x dried thyme.
• 1ml x grated nutmeg.
• 25ml x margarine.
• 25ml x cake flour.
• 500ml x milk.
• Pinch of cayenne pepper.
• 100g x grated cheddar cheese.
• 250ml x plain yoghurt.
• 250g x cooked macaroni.

Method:

• Fry the mince in a heated pot with the cooking oil, until it turns colour, make sure there are no lumps and if lumps of mince do start forming break them up.
• Add the onion, garlic and sauté till the onion becomes transparent.
• Add the tomatoe paste and sprinkle the spices over.
• Fry for a few minutes to allow the spices to infuse and then remove from the stove and set aside.
• Melt the margarine in a separate pot over a low heat.
• Add the flour, mix well and allow to fry for a few minutes. This mixture is called a roux.
• Gradually add the milk to the roux.
• Add half the cheese and season with a pinch of salt and cayenne pepper.
• Remove from the heat and stir in the yoghurt.
• Place the macaroni in an oven proof dish and pour over half the sauce.
• Spoon the mince mixture over, followed by the remaining white sauce.
• Sprinkle the remaining cheese over and bake at 180 degrees for 30 minutes or until the cheese is nice and crispy.