My love for the dairylicious usurps much of my day. Apparently, so much so, that as a funk and jazz DJ, my moniker is DJ Queso. It was originally Queso Blanco, but then I considered this choice to be tainted with prejudice. I knew that I wasn’t honoring the other varietals such as queso azul, queso amarillo, queso de cabra, well basically, the rest of the global ring of cheeses.
You see, the dairy universe is an all inclusive brother/sisterhood, so I had to represent. I surrendered the labels and dedicated myself to the non-egoic denomination of Queso. I must confess though, the name was co-inspired, not only from buttery creamdom, but my disciplined attunement to super dry wit, gauche humor and chronic buffoonery. In my eyes, deciding to go with just Queso, was whey cool.
“You see, the dairy universe is an all inclusive brother/sisterhood, so I had to represent.”
On the food front, I leave you with a recipe to make your own cheese right in your very own kitchen. This recipe is amazingly easy and will satisfy all your cheese fixes. We pair this farm style cheese with our watermelon braised short ribs with collard green pasta. Here is how you make our green chile goat ricotta.
green chile goat ricotta
makes 3 1/4 cups
2 qts whole milk (preferably local raw milk, no worries if it's not) 2 qts whole goat milk (preferably local raw milk, no worries if it's not) 1 qt buttermilk
Combine milks in a large stainless, ceramic or non-reactive pot. Over medium-high heat, cook until temperature of mixture reaches 175-180 F, stirring bottom of pot frequently to keep milk solids from scorching. Once temperature is reached, the curds will separate from the whey. Turn off heat. Using a fine mesh strainer or slotted spoon, scoop milk solids into a chinois or multi-layered cheesecloth lined colander. Set inside a medium mixing bowl to catch whey draining from cheese. Drain for 10 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
1 1/2 t kosher salt 1 poblano, roasted, peeled, seeded
Break up cheese and sprinkle salt evenly over it. Transfer a cup of cheese to food processor. Add green chile and spin until chile is pureed into cheese. Fold mixture back into rest of cheese until thoroughly combine. Place mixture back into chinois or colander and rest for another 20 minutes to firm up. Keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 4 days.
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