Help with Queso
OK, I'd never made queso before other than the velveeta kind a long time ago, so I tried it last night. I cooked down some onions and poblano peppers, diced some tomatoes, cooked all that down, then added asadero and monterrey jack cheese. I got a lumpy, watery mess.
Thoughts?
rudeboy
Jan 15, 2004 10:07AM
add a little milk to the brew
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You know, I kinda miss the old Rotel and Velveeta combo. God I used to love that stuff in College and really thought I was cookin!
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Almost there, rudeboy. You just have to try it again. This time add cream to the onion/chile mixture (the tomatoes may be a source of excess water) and bring to a simmer. Then add the cheese, a little at a time to melt and incorporate. I saute the onions in butter (gotta have all the dairy fat groups represented, ya know.) Delish!
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I know this is lazy, but all I do is, I make a sharp cheese sauce (i.e., basic white sauce with cheese added) and just add Pace medium salsa until it's the way I like it!
I've never had any luck trying to get fancy with queso.
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Thanks for the info - I tried to get fancy.
What's a "basic white sauce?"
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For queso, you need a fairly thick sauce to start, so:
Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan. Add 3 tablespoons flour and about a teaspoon of salt and quickly beat it into the butter with a wire whisk. You might want to pull it off the heat to do that; it will scorch easily. Set it back on the stove (medium heat) and add one cup of milk. Stir fairly vigorously with the whisk until it thickens; that only takes a couple of minutes. And that's your basic white sauce. After it's thick you can add grated cheese and stir that in too.
For most sauces, you should use 2 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour. That makes a thinner sauce than the above. You can flavor the white sauce any way you like, e.g. saute some chopped mushrooms and onions in the butter first, add whatever herbs sound good...With the butter/flour/salt base, appropriate seasonings, and a cup of beef or poultry stock you can also make a quick gravy--not very fancy, but it'll do in a pinch.
Have fun experimenting!
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"Chile Con Queso" or just "Queso" for short is really a bastardized version of a Mexican dish called "Queso Fundido" or "Queso Flameada." I've linked below to the best recipe I've found for that.
But if you want a full-blown recipe for an authentic TexMex Chile Con Queso, here you go:
Chile Con Queso
1 C chopped onion
3/4 C chopped peppers - use anything from bell peppers to poblanos to jalapenos to a mixture
2 C tomatoes, seeded, water removed, and chopped
2 T butter
1 t salt (be careful here; remember the cheese is salty)
1 t ground black pepper
1 T paprika, or prepared chile powder, or 100% New Mexican Red Chile Powder (if you use anything but the prepared chile powder, add a dash of cumin & garlic, which are already in the prepared chile powder)
1 T flour
2 pounds processed American cheese, grated
1/2 C whole milk or half & half or evap milk
Saute onions, peppers & tomatoes in butter until tender. Sprinkle in seasonings and slowly cook until spices begin to release aroma. Dust with flour and stir until flour is incorporated. Add hot milk and cheese. Cook slowly until mixture is hot and smooth, about 10 minutes. Serve with sliced, pickled jalapenos on the side.
Link: http://recipes.egullet.com/recipes/r1...
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I like the Bayless recipe for Queso Fundido. I had no idea that that was what was asked for. It sounded completely different.
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Well, the Mexican versions upon which the Tex-Mex "queso" is based, are Mexican cheeses that are melted, usually under a broiler or other flame.
That's where the original poster went so horribly wrong.
Some time ago, somebody in Texas probably tried the same thing. Stir up some Mexican cheeses and see if they melt. When that didn't work out, they tried the same thing with Velveeta and RoTel, and presto, a classic was born!
Both dishes are very similar -- melted cheeses with chiles, etc. You dip into one with your chip, and you heap the other into a nice soft tortilla.
Both are delicious.
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It's funny - I'm from Texas!
I'll try to resurrect this queso this weekend by making the flour/milk mixtre and slowly adding the lumpy mess that I have back to that. It was embarrasing - with all of my (so called) cooking skills, I screwed up something relatively simple as queso!
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~~ "I'll try to resurrect this queso this weekend by making the flour/milk mixtre and slowly adding the lumpy mess that I have back to that." ~~
Ohmygod, you still have it?
You are certainly a fellow far different from me. Had it been I, the whole thing would have wound up in the garbage.
I admire your perseverance.
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well, I just made it Wed, and it does have about 6 bucks worth of cheese in it!!! The flavor was OK - the texture was the problem.
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Ah so. Well then, don't forget to let us know how it turns out.
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Well - the weekend started off with my company's Holiday party, and went downhill from there. I was too hungover to deal with the queso!!!!
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Don't know if you've yet worked on resurrecting your "lumpy mess" by adding it to a cream sauce; and, don't know if this would work since you've already changed the composition of the cheese, but...
Since you have your Mexican cheeses, you might try it the Mexican way. Just slice up your "lumpy mess," and arrange it in a shallow flame-proof dish and run it under the broiler until it gets hot and bubbly and a few brown patches form on the top.
Who knows, that might work better.
Although either method would undoubtedly produce something more appealing than what you've got.
Any updates?
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