The Procrastinator EXTRAORDINAIRE Strikes!

Well well well, what have we here? Oh, it’s now gone multiple weeks without a new Danielle con Queso post you say? I say…

I could give you my typical laundry list of excuses, but I’ll just leave it at one: perfectionism + procrastination = nothing is good enough so why bother doing anything at all. I’ve been trying to come up with a rating and ranking system I can use across all queso recipe reviews, and I haven’t finalized that yet, so there ya go.

Seriously though, I’ve realized quickly that making a blog about making queso is very much like the process of eating the queso itself – the sooner you bite the chip or write the post, the better, because leaving queso out means it can get congealed in ways that are not as appealing. So please forgive the tardiness and potential unsightliness of this post, and I’ll move on and forward into better commitment to more frequent posting. I mean… it really can’t get much worse than five weeks, can it??

CIRCUMSTANCE IN WHICH I MADE THE CHILE Verde con Queso

This was on a Saturday when Reid and I had our college friend, James, in town. Reid and James had checked out LA’s Grand Central Market on Friday and purchased 2 different concentrated spice mixtures to make mole, so while they prepared that for our late-afternoon lunch, I started the process of roasting the chiles and tomatoes.

We decided to wait until after playing games to make the queso, as everyone filled up on the mole, so queso was our late dinner.

Reid and James had both corn and flour tortillas to try their queso, while I just had all flour ones because I’m all about that gluten.

PROCESS OF MAKING THE CHILE Verde

This recipe calls for Anaheim chile peppers, which I had never paid any mind to previously as I’d never made a recipe that used them. Upon first glance and even further inspection as I placed them on the baking sheet for roasting, they appear very similar to poblano peppers…

ATTENTION: ANAHEIM PEPPERS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE SPICY THAN POBLANO CHILES.

Not only were there 20 peppers this time which was a lot to peel and seed, but because I didn’t think they were that much spicier than poblano peppers, I wasn’t careful about not getting them under my fingernail or removing them promptly once they were there. Pretty immediately after washing my hands after peeling and mostly de-seeding the peppers, the pads of my fingertips started mildly burning and would feel an odd coolness if a breeze brushed past them. This sensation continued strangely on for a couple of days.

RECIPE REVIEW: Chile Verde Con Queso

SUBSTITUTIONS AND CHANGES

I ended up not making this recipe until more than a week after I had bought the ingredients, so the tomatoes that I had stocked as per recommended use in the recipe had molded, which I discovered upon opening the produce bag to begin making the queso. Thankfully, Reid had bought 2 tomatoes he intended to mix in with the chicken and rice mole dish, but weren’t a necessary component, so I was able to steal them and avoid a trip back to the store, however they weren’t the plum tomatoes recommended in the book.

IMPRESSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

Spicy – I thought wearing gloves just to cook made you a wuss, but now having lived through the trauma of making my eyes burn every time I inserted or removed my contacts FOR FOUR DAYS AFTER making the queso, I say wear the dang gloves.

Overall though, the consistency of this queso was much thicker than the first, and while it was great in tortillas it was also great just to dip chips in. And, it was good the next day to make chilaquiles for breakfast with!

Queso Chilaquiles: 

• Scramble eggs (2/person depending how many people cooking for)
• When eggs become ~75% done, add in any kind of queso really, mine was from the Chile Verde con Queso recipe from the QUESO! cookbook, and for amount I just did about 1 serving-spoon-full per person
• Any tortilla chips, crushed in hand, then sprinkle on egg/queso mixture, enough to cover the top layer of eggs/queso in skillet
• Stir to combine then plate and top with drizzle of Sriracha!