A pal introduced me to Bobby Flay's recipe for "Pimento Cheese" a while back and I have been tweaking it a little more over the 8 to 10 times I have made it.
I didn't grow up in a "Pimento Cheese" household but have grown real fond of this stuff.
Here is the original Flay recipe as I was given it.
Bobby Flay Pimento Cheese
Pimento Cheese:
1 1/2 pounds extra-sharp yellow Cheddar, coarsely grated
1 cup prepared mayonnaise
1 cup drained and finely diced roasted red peppers
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
And here is what I have settled on as my own "go to" recipe
Keeper Roasted Pepper Cheese
24 oz. Sharp Cheddar cheese
3 fresh red Bell peppers
1 Cup + Mayo (1 & 1/8th Cup)
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard (I use Grey Poupon)
2 teaspoon onion powder
7 teaspoon Garlic powder. (Kirkland granulated garlic) (I like garlic but even with this amount it is not anywhere near overpowering).
1 teaspoon Cumin
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
15 shakes Texas Pete (This is going to be more than 15 drops, Probably double that).
Three red bell peppers getting started.
Getting there
Steaming after roasting helps loosen the skin for pealing.
Things get a little messy at this point. I slice the peppers from stem to bottom and open them up, cut around the stem and remove it, and lay them flat. There will be a fair amount of HOT liquid inside and it will take a little "fussing around" to remove all the seeds and "webbing" inside the peppers. I use a lot of paper towels to dry the peppers as much as possible.
Here they are with the insides cleaned up and ready for the skins to be removed. The more completely you get the outsides blackened the easier the skinning will go. I dry the peppers again after skinning. You want the diced peppers to be as dry as possible so that it doesn't dilute your sauce too much.
Sauce ingredients all ready to blend together. I let the sauce blend in the fridge for at least an hour after blending together, add the diced peppers and let sit. Usually over night.
Blended sauce and diced peppers. I like to chop about a third of the peppers to a fairly large size, though that may not be apparent in these photos.
Sauce and diced peppers all mixed up.
All done and time for an "Original Club cracker" which is my go to cracker for this recipe.
Close up
Just realized that I don't have a pic of it sitting on a cracker. I'll try to post one up later.
I didn't grow up in a "Pimento Cheese" household but have grown real fond of this stuff.
Here is the original Flay recipe as I was given it.
Bobby Flay Pimento Cheese
Pimento Cheese:
1 1/2 pounds extra-sharp yellow Cheddar, coarsely grated
1 cup prepared mayonnaise
1 cup drained and finely diced roasted red peppers
1/2 teaspoon cayenne powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
And here is what I have settled on as my own "go to" recipe
Keeper Roasted Pepper Cheese
24 oz. Sharp Cheddar cheese
3 fresh red Bell peppers
1 Cup + Mayo (1 & 1/8th Cup)
2 Tbsp. Dijon mustard (I use Grey Poupon)
2 teaspoon onion powder
7 teaspoon Garlic powder. (Kirkland granulated garlic) (I like garlic but even with this amount it is not anywhere near overpowering).
1 teaspoon Cumin
2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
15 shakes Texas Pete (This is going to be more than 15 drops, Probably double that).
Three red bell peppers getting started.
Getting there
Steaming after roasting helps loosen the skin for pealing.
Things get a little messy at this point. I slice the peppers from stem to bottom and open them up, cut around the stem and remove it, and lay them flat. There will be a fair amount of HOT liquid inside and it will take a little "fussing around" to remove all the seeds and "webbing" inside the peppers. I use a lot of paper towels to dry the peppers as much as possible.
Here they are with the insides cleaned up and ready for the skins to be removed. The more completely you get the outsides blackened the easier the skinning will go. I dry the peppers again after skinning. You want the diced peppers to be as dry as possible so that it doesn't dilute your sauce too much.
Sauce ingredients all ready to blend together. I let the sauce blend in the fridge for at least an hour after blending together, add the diced peppers and let sit. Usually over night.
Blended sauce and diced peppers. I like to chop about a third of the peppers to a fairly large size, though that may not be apparent in these photos.
Sauce and diced peppers all mixed up.
All done and time for an "Original Club cracker" which is my go to cracker for this recipe.
Close up
Just realized that I don't have a pic of it sitting on a cracker. I'll try to post one up later.
