Source: The Orange Strainer (Hubby)
Time: 40-50 minutes prep time, 2-3 hours cooking on low in crock pot
Ease: 2
Taste: 7
Leftover Value: 7
Down the Drain or Keep it in the Strainer: Keep it in the Strainer!
In reality, this was not just any day queso, but game day queso. Apparently, my hubby is always in charge of creating nacho heaven at his parents' house on Super Bowl Sunday. This was news to me, but I took him at his word.
Since BJ's and Shoprite were completely out of queso when we stopped by late Super Bowl Sunday Eve and then again early Sunday afternoon (gee, I wonder why?) he decided he would have to make his own.
I've learned over recent years how particular hubby has become with his cheese. Whenever we order chips and queso, I'm always satisfied. After all, cheese in itself is delicious. How could cheese with extra ingredients ever go wrong?
Hubby, on the other hand, instantly becomes a food critic and will become disgusted if the cheese falls short of his ultimate favorite from Qdoba.
This said, his goal on game day was to create a Qdoba effect in his cheese. If you've never been to a Qdoba, it is similar to a Chipotle, Moe's, Pancheros, etc. However, he claims Qdoba serves up the best burritos and has the best queso.
Here's what you'll need:
3 roasted poblano peppers
1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
2 plum tomatoes finely diced
1 cup heavy cream
And, of course, cheese. Cheese, cheese, and more cheese.
1 cup monterey jack cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese
1 cup american cheese
Begin by placing the poblano peppers on a baking sheet. Put the pan in the broiler, and turn the peppers occasionally. This is going to sound strange, but you want the peppers to be blackened on all sides.
(Note: The hands featured in this post are my hubby's. But you knew that already because the minute you saw them you recognized them instantly as manly man hands.)
Trust me, life will get better soon.
After the peppers are blackened on all sides, wrap each pepper in a piece of tin foil.
Let your tin foil art sit for about 30 minutes to cool.
While you're waiting for the peppers to cool, you can begin placing the other ingredients in a 1 and 1/2 quart crock pot. Start with 1 and 1/2 tsp of minced garlic.
Dice up two plum tomatoes. Make sure to put them in a cute bowl like this.
Only to then dump them into the crock pot.
Dump in a cup of Monterey Jack cheese...
then decide that the picture looks better with you sprinkling the cheese in with your fingers, and sprinkle in a cup of cheddar cheese.
*Note: If you like your queso to have an orange color to it, then use orange cheddar. Hubby must have had a traumatic childhood experience with orange cheddar. For as long as I've known him, he has refused to go near it.
Crumble up a cup of American cheese,
and dump it on top of the other two cheeses.
By now your peppers should have cooled. With your fingers you want to pinch and pull off the blackened skin of the peppers.
Knives like these terrify me. It's only been in recent time that I've been able to pick one up without crying like a baby.
However, they are so very photogenic, especially when paired with slivers of poblano pepper.
Dice up the pepper slivers.
Due to my recent knife confession, now you know for sure that these are not my hands.
That was my plan all along.
Slide the peppers off your cutting board and on top of the cheese.
Here's the very very bad part.
Dump in a cup of heavy cream.
Do it quickly and don't look back.
If you want, you can give it all a little mix, but we didn't. Let it cook in the crock pot on low for about two hours. After the cheeses start to melt you will want to begin giving it the occasional stir.
While it didn't knock hubby's socks off, I liked it just fine. It wasn't too thick, a quality which I can't stand in queso. The flavor and texture both carried smoothly throughout the many many servings I took.
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