Pre-Season Variety Pack: Killer No-Veeta Cheese Dip, Honeysuckle Melon Cocktails and Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars

A no-Veeta dip for the ages

For articles from the 2012-13 season, go to http://www.razorgumbo.blogspot.com

This week’s pre-season party starts with a flavorful, authentic cheese dip that doesn’t include any processed cheese food in the pot. I like a good veeta dip as much as the next guy, but for you, I wanted to make something without synthetics. I also wanted a deeper flavor profile and a chance to use some of my garden-raised produce in the recipe.

Little Rock is the epicenter of cheese dip culture in the South, and I’m a little sad that the World Cheese Dip Championship has decided to take a year off this fall to regroup. So I offer up this recipe to keep your Sterno burning for another year until the championship resumes.

Next, we have a truly original summer cocktail that caught my attention a few weeks ago on a food site’s twitter feed: a Honeysuckle Melon libation featuring Cathead Honeysuckle Vodka from Mississippi. Honeysuckle vodka? A thousand times, yes.

Finally, we offer a touch of Thanksgiving with a chocolate-bourbon pecan pie bar that will be nice to throw into the Tupperware and take to October/November Fayetteville games, or maybe even to please your Ole Miss Friends at the Grove in Oxford.

Killer No-veeta Cheese Dip

See how this queso drips and stretches?

I like this queso because it involves a white sauce or instant roux. The recipe calls for Longhorn cheese — yes,  I hate Longhorns, too. But this is actually an American variety of Colby and it isn’t BURNT orange. It might be hard to find Longhorn, which comes in a wheel shape, at your grocery store, so we decided to use a shredded Colby Jack mix and it turned out great. Colby and Monterey Jack are both good melting cheeses, but don’t use cheddar for this, as it has strange melting properties.

The real key to this recipe is to keep the temperature low while incorporating the cheese and to add it only 1/4 cup at a time. Don’t put any more cheese in until the last pinch is completely incorporated. Just when it starts to look a little too thick, the sour cream helps to liquify the dip enough to get it on a chip.

Now stay with me for a moment, but you owe it to yourself to try this over apple wedges with some chips on the side just to say you had them. Cut some apples into chunks that you can pick up easily, and then drizzle the dip over the top. As it cools, the queso maintains a great texture and doesn’t go all gelatinous like the fake stuff. The textured blend of the cheeses, along with the slight graininess from the insta-roux, make this really tasty over tart-sweet apples.

• 1/2 onion, diced (about 1/2 cup)
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced (don’t combine it with the onions and peppers yet)
• 3 Serrano peppers, diced
• 3 jalapeno peppers, diced (you can vary the types of peppers and adjust for missing heat with the spices at the bottom of this list, or with some hot sauce)
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 cup of milk
• 6 cups of shredded cheese, using any combination of Longhorn and Monterrey Jack (or just Colby Jack mix)
• 1/2 cup of cilantro, chopped (optional)
• 2 plum tomatoes, peeled and diced (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup of sour cream
• Salt, ancho chili powder or Chipotle bouillon cube (crumbled) to taste

1. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium heat (just edge the heat up until a piece of onion stars to sizzle in the butter) then add the onions and peppers and cook for about five minutes or until the onions are translucent.
2. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
3. Whisk the flour into the butter, vegetable mix and cook for about 30 seconds.
   

   The milk goes in to create the white sauce

4. Add the milk to the pot, and cook on medium, whisking constantly until sauce is thick, about five minutes. Now, stir in the cilantro and tomatoes.
5. Turn the heat down to low, and a 1/4-cup at a time, slowly add the shredded cheese stirring into the white sauce until completely melted. Repeat.
6. Stir in the sour cream.
7. Add salt, ancho chili powder and/or chipotle bouillon cube (crumbled) to taste. I really like ancho as it has a mild flavor and a nice dark color that adds interest to the dip. If you like the smoky chipotle flavor, crumble one of those cubes in there when all the cheese is melted and mix in, then check flavor and adjust with the other spices.
   

   Add the cheese slowly, a 1/4 cup at a time, at low heat.

The dish serves four. When reheating it, don’t use the microwave. Instead, just put the dip in a small pan on medium low heat and stir til it is somewhat liquified again. It would work just as well to reheat it with a can of Sterno.

I owe thanks to a Texan for this recipe. So thank you, homesicktexan.com, for doing the research that took a lot of the work out of this for me. I added a few things such as ancho powder and chipotle bouillon, and I switched the peppers to the ones I had.

Honeysuckle Melon Cocktails

Ingredients for the Honeysuckle Watermelon cocktail

This recipe comes straight from Southern Living  (July 2012) and it was the best of a bunch of new drink ideas I found featuring the new Cathead Honeysuckle Vodka. Run an internet search and you will find some great recipes on Pinterest for this product.

The chilled watermelon juice in this recipe provides instant relief from summer when combined with the honeysuckle hooch. The soda just smooths everything out and gives it a punch-like quality. The only thing missing from this drink is liquid firefly to make it pulse with light in the dark. Um, someone get on that. Make an extra pitcher for the kids without the vodka and they will probably be very pleased with the unique flavor.

You can find Cathead vodka at Colonial Wine and Spirits in Little Rock, my favorite liquor store. I’m sure they have it somewhere else, as well, but that place has everything and really fast service.

One final note: I stuck my bottle of Cathead in the freezer to chill so I could try it neat, and I must say that I’ve never tasted a vodka so silky.

• 8 cups seeded and cubed watermelon
• 1 cup Cathead honeysuckle vodka
• 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lime juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 cups ice cubes
• 2 cups lemon-lime soda
• Garnishes: lime slices, diced watermelon, fresh mint leaves

Finished drink

Process the watermelon in a blender or food processor until smooth. Pour through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a large pitcher, using back of a spoon to squeeze out juice; discard solids.

Squeeze four or five limes to make the juice, then slice one lime and throw those slices into the pitcher for an interesting color contract. Stir vodka, lime juice and sugar into the watermelon juice.

Add ice and top with the soft drink, then stir gently. Serve immediately into Mason jars, please, garnished in the glass with a generous sprig of mint. This drink is the perfect match for those early-season sunburn games.

Chocolate-Bourbon Pecan Pie Bars

I love bars — the weight of them, their moisture, the fact that they are square. I reviewed a bunch of recipes to satisfy my craving for pecan pie bars, but the best one comes from Deep South Dish.  http://deepsouthdish.com What really caught my eye about the recipe was the fact that cocoa powder was included in the crust, along with a second layer of chocolate that is incorporated into the bars with melted chocolate chips. The topper, for me, was  the touch of cayenne included with the buttered pecans.  I took a sample tray of these to the office and they were devoured.

For the Roasted Pecans:

• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of unsalted butter
• Pinch of Cayenne or Cajun seasoning
• 1 cup of pecan halves
• 1 cup of pecan pieces
• 2 teaspoons of kosher or coarse sea salt

For the Crust:

• 1-3/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2/3 cup of powdered sugar
• 3/4 cup of cold butter or vegetable shortening
• 1-1/2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips

For the Bars:

• 3/4 cup of firmly packed brown sugar
• 1 heaping tablespoon of all-purpose flour
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 cup of light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
• 2 tablespoons of bourbon
  
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

Preheat oven to 375 to roast the pecans.  Melt the butter and add in the tiny pinch of Cayenne or Cajun seasoning. Toss the pecans with the melted pepper-butter and roast on a rimmed baking sheet in the oven for about 10 to 13 minutes, stirring once or twice until fragrant. Remove, sprinkle with salt, toss and transfer to paper towels to cool. Line a 9 x 13 inch baking pan with heavy duty aluminum foil, leaving excess hanging over on the ends for handles; butter the foil and set aside.

Reduce oven temperature to 350. For the crust, whisk together the flour, cocoa and powdered sugar, and cut in the cold butter or shortening until mixture resembles a coarse meal. Press into the bottom of the prepared baking pan and slightly up the sides. Bake at 350 for about 15 minutes, remove and immediately sprinkle the chocolate chips on top. Let rest a few minutes, then use a spatula to spread the melted chocolate evenly on the crust. Set aside to cool completely, about 30 minutes.

Once the crust has cooled, heat the oven to 350 again. Make sure you have allowed your butter to get soft. Not melted — soft.  For the filling, whisk together the brown sugar and flour. Using a wooden spoon, very gently  stir in the eggs, corn syrup, vanilla, bourbon and butter. If you haven’t let the butter soften adequately it will not incorporate into the batter properly. Stir in the roasted pecans. Just like pecan pie, stick with hand mixing and don’t over-mix the filling or it will be runny.  Pour into the cooled crust. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes or until set. Let cool completely on a rack, about 1 hour, until you can hold the pan in the palm of your hand. Don’t try to shortcut the cooling process – you really need it to let the filling set well before cutting into bars. Transfer the pan to the refrigerator to chill for another hour, then use the aluminum foil to lift out of the baking pan and let the finished product rest at room temperature until pliable enough to cut into bars.

Cut these into squares and store them in a covered container in the refrigerator, layered with wax paper to separate the bars, and bring them to room temperature before serving. These bars freeze well, and they will be perfect for game-day guests if you set them out overnight to thaw.