Pancho's Cheese Dip
"For many, many years, there was only one Mexican restaurant in town. For 'starters', they placed a big bowl of tostados on the table, along with a very commonplace tomato salsa -- and an absolutely fabulous cheese dip. Everybody wanted the recipe, but it was a closely-guarded secret. After the Tex-Mex craze hit and this restaurant started marketing a plastic version of their wonderful dip, I obtained the original recipe by nefarious means. :) Please do not be put off by the fact that it's based on Velveeta. This is 'cheese food' raised to a new level. Addictive!
May I add that it is (quite literally) impossible for a cheese dish with such strong savory seasonings to have a 'sweet' undertone. And it's so thick you won't believe. When you rate 7 recipes and give 6 of them 1*, one wonders...."
- Ready In:
- 40mins
- Ingredients:
- 7
- Serves:
-
30
ingredients
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon black pepper
- 1 tablespoon Accent seasoning
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 (28 ounce) cans whole tomatoes
- 5 lbs process American cheese (Velveeta)
- pickled jalapeno pepper, to taste
directions
- Measure first 4 ingredients into a small bowl, stirring well to mix.
- (Note: As tastes have changed over the years, I have gradually decreased the Accent slightly, measuring a scant tablespoon so it won't be too salty.) Pour 1 can of tomatoes, including juice, into the bowl of a food processor.
- Add 2 tablespoons of spice mixture and 5- 6 slices of pickled jalapenos.
- Pulse on and off briefly several times until ingredients are well-mixed and tomatoes are broken into small pieces but still retain some texture.
- (It should look like a thick salsa.) Pour tomato mixture into a medium saucepan.
- Repeat with remaining can of tomatoes, remaining spices, and additional slices of jalapenos, adding mixture to the saucepan after processing.
- If your food processor can handle it, grate cheese and then put in a large pot or Dutch oven; if not, chop cheese coarsely by hand.
- (A Cuisinart makes it easier, but it doesn't affect the final outcome.) Cook tomato mixture over medium heat, stirring frequently; bring just to the boiling point, BUT DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL!
- The instant the first bubble breaks the surface, remove from heat and pour over cheese.
- Stir well, until cheese seems to have melted as much as it's going to (which won't be much-- it will still be extremely lumpy).
- Using a ladle (or a coffee mug), pour approximately 3 cups of the mixture into the food processor bowl.
- Process approximately 20-30 seconds, until mixture is smooth.
- Remove lid from processor bowl and taste for'heat' and consistency.
- If it is not as hot as you'd like, add a few more jalapeno slices.
- It will be waaaay too thick, so add water (several tablespoons at a time), processing briefly after each addition, until it is the proper consistency.
- Each batch will require a different amount of water, depending on the ratio of cheese to tomato sauce, but you'll quickly get the hang of about how much to add.
- If you accidentally get one batch too thin, you can easily compensate by making the next one extra-thick and stirring them together.
- Although this makes a huge amount, it will disappear more quickly than you ever thought possible, so stock up on lots of chips!
- Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for days on end.
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Reviews
-
This didn't do it for me. There was a sweet undertaste that I didn't find appealing. I cut the ingredients in half and still filled my 3 quart casserole so I can't imagine how many people it would take to finish off the whole recipe. Also, my batch was never at any time thick in consistency, but rather thin in fact. -
Great dip!!!!! Because it is just the 2 of us, I cut this recipe down and it still made a pretty large amount of dip. We ate the dip with chips and then a couple of days later, I cooked some macaroni and added to what was left and it made a great side dish. I will use this recipe again. It is the perfect dish for when having guest over!!!!
RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Forgive me, but I must go on a rant here. You see, what I love is cooking. What I HATE is unfair reviews!
* If you despise one of the major ingredients, why in the devil would you prepare it?
* If you haven't made it/tasted it, what on earth would make you think your input is valuable?
* If your grocery doesn't have something or it's not in your pantry, how assinine is it for you to say, "I deducted a star because I couldn't find/didn't have (fill in the blank)"?
* If you have young children and the recipe includes hot seasonings, how stupid is it for you to say "It was so spicy my kids couldn't eat it"???
* If your review reads something like "My whole family went berserk they loved this so much and they've demanded that I serve it at least once a month!", how can you possibly feel comfortable that you gave the recipe 4 stars?
* If your every instinct tells you there's too much salt, too much garlic, too much hot sauce, too much whatever for your family's taste, why don't you just use your common sense and cut back instead of telling us it was too salty, too garlicky, too spicy, too whatever?
* If you're a food snob, how fair is it for you to rate a recipe that calls for 'cream of --' soup or garlic powder or margarine or dried parsley flakes and say it didn't come up to expectations?
* If you regularly use 'cream of --' soup and have never bought a head of garlic or a fresh bunch of Italian parsley in your life, how fair is it for you to substitute commercial products for fresh and say you were disappointed in the results?
* If you limit/eliminate your intake of certain food products, whether for physical or philosophical reasons, what makes you think you have the right to try to impose your restrictions on the rest of us?
* If you've never shared a recipe, why should your opinion of ours matter?
* If you're from Texas and automatically give 1* reviews for chili recipes that include beans, may I suggest you get over yourself?
* Last, but most assuredly not least, if the
'zaar program that does the calorie counting screws up, does it really make you feel good to slam the recipe poster?
Just askin'...
So, what do I think constitutes a fair review? Here's my take on the issue...
1) I try to judge a recipe 'in context'. If it requires a special trip to a gourmet food market... and if the ingredients cost a bundle... and if I have to spend a lot of time and effort preparing it... well, yeah, I hold it to a higher standard. In that case, it needs to be perfection itself to rate 5*. On the other hand, if a dish is quick and easy and fairly inexpensive, and everybody goes back for seconds and tells me how much they enjoyed their dinner -- well, I have no problem giving that recipe an excellent rating as well. Comparing dinner party possibilities with weeknight family meals is a silly apples/oranges thing. There are 5* dishes in *both* categories!
2) Some seasonings are super-personal. Salt, garlic and spicy things are probably the source of more negative comments on this site than anything else. Tone it down -- or ramp it up -- based on your intimate knowledge of your family's tastes. If any of the above are slightly too much/too little for us, I do not deduct a star. After all, the poster wasn't at fault -- my judgment was. (I do make an exception if the given amount of an ingredient is way over the top and really ruins it...)
3) I am willing to admit that I might be at fault. If a recipe has 8 great reviews but it was a flop for me, should I rush to submit a poor rating -- or should I maybe consider that it was slightly above my skill level? Or that maybe I misread the directions? Or maybe mismeasured the ingredients? If my results were totally at odds with several other reviewers', I make the dish a second time to be sure.
4) Hurt feelings are not good. Most of my reviews are extremely positive. If you think I go overboard with 4* and 5* reviews, let me assure you that I have tried many, many more recipes on this site than those for which I have submitted a critique. If it's just goshawful, yes, I'll say so. If a recipe was submitted by one of the superstar chefs around here and I find it to be seriously lacking, I don't hesitate to post negative comments. But to say hateful things about a recipe that some newbie just posted? Oh, that is sooo lame!!
5) The "authenticity" thing leaves me cold. Who cares if your Polish (or Ukranian or Italian or German) grandmother wouldn't have been caught dead using a certain ingredient in an ethnic dish? Hey, maybe her grandmother came from a different part of Poland (or the Ukraine or Italy or Germany) where using it was common. Imho, the only criterion on which it should be judged is taste.
6) And then there's the matter of substitutions. Hmmm... Debatable. For the most part, I think that if the substitution (or elimination) of an ingredient works, then it's fine to post stars. Just indicates that the recipe is adaptable to personal tastes/needs. But if the result is negative, I think it's only fair to post a 'comment', without stars.
