pimento cheese

Almost eight years ago, I posted a recipe for pimento cheese. It's a good recipe. But after six years in Durham and a great deal of exploration, I have to say it is not my go to recipe any more.

2 red bell peppers, roasted, peeled, and diced
16 oz. cheddar cheese, grated
8 oz. goat cheese
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1 tablespoon lemon juice
tabasco sauce
black pepper
1 tablespoon of bourbon

Put the two peppers right on my gas burners on my stove and roast and turn them until the outsides are charred. Then put them in a bowl and cover them with plastic wrap and let them sweat for about fifteen or twenty minutes. Take a couple of paper towels and wipe the charred skins off and brush the seeds out of the middle. Don’t wash them to clean them; it takes away from the flavor. When they have been cleaned, cut them in a small dice and set aside in a bowl.

Grate the cheddar cheese (don’t buy it pre-grated) into a large bowl and then crumble in the goat cheese. Add the rest of the ingredients, along with the peppers (and the juices that have accumulated in the bowl) and mix them together. I find it works best to do this by hand.

If you aren’t a goat cheese fan, you can substitute cream cheese.

Besides the taste, the biggest advantage of this recipe is it can be heated and melted. Face it — who likes hot mayonnaise?

Peace
Milton