While hanging out at a week-long conference with your coworkers, you naturally bond a bit. You’re thrown together in an unfamiliar city, you’re sharing hotel rooms and you’re discovering each other’s likes and dislikes.
In the case of the Rock River Star team and DrupalCon Austin, we discovered a major like, nay, passion: Queso dip. Austin is known for it’s fantastic food, especially their Tex-Mex. We ate really well in Austin. And everywhere we went, we ordered a round of queso. Once, in Shiner’s Saloon after a long day of conference sessions and an early evening of city-exploring, I ordered queso for my main meal. Jon’s eyes went wide when he realized what I had done, “You’re a genius,” he solemnly told me, and just I nodded with a dignified air of cheesy righteousness.
On our last day in Austin, we popped by Torchy’s Tacos (so good) and as we were shoveling our appetizer round of chips and cheese into our gullets, Nate made the off-hand comment, “We should have Queso Thursdays when we get home.” I didn’t say anything at the time, but friends: there was no doubt. Queso Thursdays was going to happen.
And so when I came into the office the following week armed with Velveeta and a mini crock-pot, a Rock River Star tradition was officially born.
So far, we’ve tried a variety of queso dips, from your standard Velveeta and Rotel, to fancy recipes from Emeril Lagasse, to just opening a jar of Tostidos for queso emergencies.
Look, none of our waistlines are getting any smaller, but we have gooey, spicy, melted cheese here. There is nothing the helps fuel the creativity and problem-solving of developers like a delicious queso. We love it so much, we named our office cat Queso.
Below are our two standard queso recipes, the two we make most often for Queso Thursdays.
Adapted from Bon Appétit:
8 oz. Velveeta cheese
2 good-sized handfuls of shredded Colby Jack cheese
2 fully cooked chorizo sausages, casings removed
2 tablespoons of chopped chipotle chilies in adobo
½ green bell pepper
12 oz. of whole milk or half-and-half (depending on how decadent you want to be)
Chop Velveeta cheese into chunks and place in crock-pot. Remove casings from chorizo, chop sausages into small bits. Dice bell pepper and place it along with the sausage into crock-pot with the Velveeta. Set crock-pot to low and then go do some work while the Velveeta breaks down and gets gooey. Once Velveeta has a good melt going on, alternate adding milk and shredded cheese, stirring frequently. At the very end, chop chipotle peppers and add to crock-pot, along with a few spoonfuls of adobo, to taste. Queso is ready when it is smooth and creamy and you can no longer resist its siren call.
Queso pro tip: Don’t put the lid on the crock-pot. Condensation will form on the lid and drip into the queso, breaking up the cheese and giving your queso a chalky texture.
Adapted from The Cookie Rookie:
1 lb good quality white american cheese
8 oz. of pepper jack cheese, shredded
1-2 cups of half-and-half
1-2 jalapenos peppers, finely diced
2 plum tomotoes, seeds removed and finely diced
1/2 onion, finely diced
2 tablespoons of finely chopped cilantro
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Heat half-and-half over medium heat in a medium sized non-stick skillet, or warm in your crock pot. Once simmering (don't allow to boil), reduce heat and stir in the cheese. Stir constantly until fully melted. Stir in the jalapenos, tomato, onion, cilantro, cumin, nutmeg, red pepper, and salt and pepper. Top with more cilantro, tomatoes, and jalapenos if desired.
