Corn Queso Fundido

Happy 2014! 

We can't believe we just celebrated three years completion of sharing our life through food on this spot. Although we have to admit the last 6 months have not been our best in keeping up with documenting our eats. We should maybe make a resolution to improve on this but we're not big on the resolution thing as it just seems like a sure fire way to fail. So we'll just say we hope to do better in 2014.

But back to the celebrating part. We've been over indulging celebrating with food a lot through the month of December it's almost time to get back to that healthy Paleo eating life again soon I think. 

One dish we love to celebrate with is Queso Fundido. I mean melted cheese in any form is right up our alley. The first time we had queso fundido was at a Tex Mex restaurant in Portland, Oregon called Oba about 15 years ago. And to be honest we've been trying to successfully replicate that version every since. But sadly we've never quite hit it just right yet but we're always trying.

This recipe we found in a recent Food & Wine magazine was worth a shot given it had corn in it which G is always attracted to.  It was good, maybe not as creamy as we would of liked it but the flavors were great overall with the poblano that we roasted it really had some yummy flavor. 

RECIPE: 

Corn Queso Fundido adapted from Food & Wine

1. 1 pound frozen sweet corn kernels (3 cups), thawed
2. 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3. 1 poblano chile—roasted, stemmed, seeded and finely diced
4. 1 small onion, finely diced
5. Kosher salt
6. 1 large garlic clove, minced
7. 1/2 pound Monterey Jack cheese, shredded
8. Finely chopped cilantro, radish matchsticks and thinly sliced jalapeños, for garnish
9. Corn tortilla chips, for serving
10. In a blender, puree half of the corn with 1/2 cup of water until smooth. Strain the puree through a fine sieve into a medium bowl.
11. In a cast-iron skillet, heat the olive oil. Add the poblano, onion, remaining corn and a pinch of salt and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened and barely browned, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant, about 2 minutes. Add the corn puree and cook, stirring, until bubbling, about 2 minutes. Add the cheese and cook over low heat, stirring, until melted. Season with salt and garnish with cilantro, radish and jalapeño. Serve hot, with tortilla chip