Queso Flameado

The spirit warmed separately and lit as it goes on, never poured cold from the bottle onto hot cheese.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains a sausage whose meat the source does not name, cheese whose rennet the source does not name, chorizo, which is pork, lard, pork.

Ingredients

• 400 g Chihuahua or Oaxaca cheese, grated
• 200 g chorizo, as on its own page, skinned and crumbled
• 1 poblano chilli, charred, skinned and in strips
• 60 ml tequila or mezcal
• flour tortillas, as on their own page, to serve
• salsa verde, as on its own page, to serve

Method

1. THE SPIRIT IS WARMED SEPARATELY AND LIT AS IT GOES ON, NEVER POURED COLD FROM THE BOTTLE ONTO HOT CHEESE. Two reasons, and the first is safety: pouring from a bottle towards a flame can carry fire back up the stream into the bottle, which is the one genuinely dangerous thing in this collection. The spirit goes into a small pan or ladle, is warmed for a few seconds, lit there, and then poured already burning. The second reason is that it works better: cold spirit on hot cheese sinks in and will not light at all, because alcohol needs to be warm enough to give off vapour, and a dish that refuses to light three times in front of people is a dish that has gone wrong.
2. THE BOTTLE IS NOWHERE NEAR THE PAN. Measured out, capped, and put away before the dish is lit. This is not fussiness.
3. THE FLAME IS FOR THE TABLE AND BURNS OUT IN SECONDS. Sixty millilitres burns for perhaps twenty or thirty seconds and leaves very little behind -- a faint agave note and a scorched edge on the cheese. It is not a cooking stage and nothing waits for it; the cheese is already fully melted when the spirit goes on.
4. IT IS A MELTING CHEESE AND IT IS GRILLED, NOT STIRRED. Chihuahua or Oaxaca, grated into a shallow heatproof dish and put under the grill or in a hot oven until molten and bubbling. Stirred in a pan it ropes, then splits and releases a pool of oil. Left alone in a dish, it stays a smooth sheet.
5. IT IS EATEN STRAIGHT FROM THE DISH AND SETS IN MINUTES. The dish goes on a mat on the table with the tortillas beside it and people pull cheese straight out of it. Within four or five minutes it has set into a solid rubbery disc that cannot be rescued, so it is the last thing made and the first thing eaten.
6. The chorizo cooked in a dry pan 8 MINUTES until the fat has run and it has caught. Lifted out with a slotted spoon, leaving the fat behind.
7. The poblano charred, left under a cloth 15 minutes, skinned and cut in strips.
8. The cheese grated into a shallow heatproof dish, and the chorizo and poblano strips scattered over the top.
9. The tortillas warmed and put on the table. The salsa verde put out.
10. The dish put under a hot grill, or in a 220°C oven, 6 to 8 MINUTES until molten and bubbling. NOT stirred.
11. THE SPIRIT MEASURED INTO A SMALL PAN OR LADLE and THE BOTTLE PUT AWAY.
12. The dish carried to the table on a mat.
13. The spirit warmed over a low flame a few seconds, then LIT IN THE PAN.
14. Poured over the cheese ALREADY BURNING. Never poured from the bottle.
15. The flame left to burn out on its own, 20 to 30 seconds.
16. Eaten at once, pulled straight from the dish into warm tortillas. It sets solid in 5 minutes.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes