Pimento Cheese

I did not grow up eating things like Pimento Cheese. I think that my British father’s influence didn’t allow for things like this, but went more towards cucumber sandwiches, raspberry tarts and rhubarb crisps. So pimento cheese is something that’s new to me. When I was in NYC earlier this month for the launch of One Man's Folly: The Exceptional Houses of Furlow Gatewood, he and John Rosselli had whipped up several large batches of Pimento Cheese for the guests. It was delicious, and I heard it was simple to make.

On Saturday, I am joining some of the same friends from the book launch to go to the Maryland Hunt Cup, about which I wrote, here. I threw out my intention to make Pimento Cheese on FB, and got all sorts of answers and suggestions. My friend Will strongly suggested I use the recipe found in Garden & Gun Magazine. So, that’s the one I used.

I stopped by the grocery store to pick up the fixins for the Pimento Cheese, and then swung by to have dinner with “the boys”. Since the have more of a familiarity with PC than I do, I asked them to mix it up for me.

Here’s the recipe, courtesy of Garden & Gun Magazine.

Pimento Cheese
Yield: About 1 pint (serves 4 as an appetizer)
Ingredients
2 cups sharp orange cheddar, grated (8 oz.)
½ cup Duke’s mayonnaise
½ cup pimiento peppers, drained and chopped (7-oz. jar)
¼ cup green onion, chopped (use both the green and the white parts)
1 tsp. black pepper
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. cayenne
Dash of Tabasco
Preparation
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl, and stir with a rubber spatula. Serve immediately with crackers, or cover, refrigerate, and let flavors marinate.

Chad chopped the spring onions into a small dice, which means no big chunks in the PC.

Then he drained and re-chopped the pimentos into a small dice.

Add the rest of the ingredients, being sure to use Duke’s Mayonnaise, which doesn’t have any sugar in it, and combine. I cheated and used shredded cheese, with the fine shred, instead of grating my own. I have a fear of grating off bits of skin, so I tend not to use a grater.

We weren’t exact on any of the measurements, and actually ended up adding a little more hot sauce and some more pepper.

You can either eat it right away or refrigerate it for a day or two to let the flavours deepen. I am going to put it into a sweet little Copeland tureenand serve it on petit pain grille, or mini toasted breads.

While I was with the boys, we continued with our Limoncello project. The vodka and lemons have been sitting for about a month now, so it was time to add the simple syrup and let it sit for another week or two.

Someone’s in the kitchen!