Theme and Variation: Kimchi Pimento Cheese

Contributor Jim Dixon of Real Good Food makes a truly impressive pimento cheese spread, one of those gotta-have-it signature recipes that qualifies as legendary. I'm planning on taking this new variation to our upcoming Fourth of July Free-for-All trip to the Gifford Pinchot.

I spent the weekend camping on a beach on the Columbia with a bunch of fathers I’ve known for more than 40 years. Beach bocce, boating adventure, too many mosquitoes and lots of good food made for fun-filled days.

Here’s one of the things I made for the trip.

Kimchi Pimento Cheese

I made my usual batch of pimento cheese, but added about half cup of the kimchi I made at a Portland Culinary Alliance workshop a few weeks ago.

1.25-1.5 lbs cheddar, roughly even mix of yellow medium and white sharp
4 roasted, peeled, seeded red bell peppers (about 2 cups worth after the peeling, etc., or the equivalent amount of roasted red peppers from a jar, either red, pimento or piquillo)
2-3 Tbsp. mayonnaise (homemade or Best Foods, aka Hellman’s east of the Mississippi; Duke’s in the south)
1 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. good bourbon
Crystal hot sauce to taste
1/2 c. kimchi (Choi's, a local company, is wonderful if you don't have your own)

Grate the cheese with a box grater or with a food processor (I prefer hand grating since you need the processor bowl with the steel blade for the next step and I don’t want to have to clean it). Combine the peppers and other ingredients (here’s where you add the kimchi, but not the cheese) in the processor and pulse a few times. Add the cheese and pulse until well mixed, but not so much that you can’t detect little bits of red pepper. You want everything chopped and mixed but not pureed.

Eat with bread, crackers, raw vegetables, or, like we did, on chorizo and egg breakfast tacos with a little shredded cabbage and extra Crystal hot sauce.

Get my recipe for incorporating his basic pimento cheese spread into a truly unique mac'n'cheese. Bet this kimchi version would work as well!

Improving on Mac'n'Cheese? Is it Possible?

I wasn't sure if I was courting disaster or on the verge of discovering a fabulous new world. Not that I'm any Amerigo Vespucci or Ferdinand Magellan, but I sure know how they must have felt when they got to the edge of the map that stated in capital letters "HERE BE DRAGONS."

A delicious beginning.

Incongruous as it seems, it all started with a batch of pimento cheese dip. I'd made it to take to a Super Bowl event, though I only needed a small portion for the party (which was summarily scarfed down and the bowl practically licked clean). So when we got home there was plenty left over and I wondered what the heck I was going to do with it.

How bad could it be?

Inspiration struck the next night as I was casting about for what to make for dinner. Hm…a cheesy mix of cheddar and roasted red peppers, just about the right amount for mac'n'cheese. Now, most of the time when I get these wacky I-Love-Lucy type ideas it's pretty low risk, but this time I was potentially wasting a pound of very good cheddar, not to mention the possible humiliation when I put a pan of inedible glop in front of my family.

Not bad at all!

Casting aside my fears, I sailed forth and found that the cheese dip melted oozingly into the milky roux, with a certain promising je-ne-sais-quoi from the slight amounts of relish, bourbon and Crystal hot sauce from the dip recipe. I said a little prayer to the dinner gods as I mixed it with the pasta and poured it into my lucky casserole dish, then set the timer for 30 minutes.

The aroma of bubbling cheese filled the kitchen, and pulling out the sizzling, perfectly browned casserole from the oven made me want to shout out the kitchen equivalent of "land ho!" The subsequent ooh-ing, ahh-ing and slurping confirmed it was a successful voyage, the only dragons being those of my own doubts, which were slain without further ado.

Pimento Macaroni and Cheese
Adapted from Jim Dixon's recipe for Pimento Cheese Dip

For the cheese mixture:
1 lb. extra sharp cheddar cheese
4 roasted, peeled, seeded red bell peppers (about 2 cups worth after the peeling, etc, or the equivalent amount of roasted red peppers from a jar, either red, pimento, or piquillo)
2 Tbsp. mayonnaise
1 Tbsp. good bourbon
Crystal hot sauce to taste

For the sauce:
4 Tbsp. butter or margarine
4 Tbsp. flour
2 c. milk
4 oz. cream cheese
Cheese mixture (above)
Salt to taste

1 lb. pasta

Preheat the oven to 350°. Bring a pot of water to boil for the pasta.

To make the cheese mixture, grate the cheddar. In a food processor, combine the peppers and other ingredients (not cheese) in the processor and pulse a few times. Add the cheese and pulse until well mixed, but not so much that you can’t detect little bits of red pepper. (You want everything chopped and mixed but not puréed.)

Put the pasta on to cook while you make the sauce.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. When it has melted, turn off the heat and add the flour, stirring until completely combined with no lumps. Return the heat to medium and cook the flour and butter, stirring constantly to avoid burning, approximately one minute. Add the milk slowly, stirring to prevent lumps and avoid scorching until it thickens. Add cheese mixture in large spoonfuls, stirring to melt after each addition. Add cream cheese and stir until it melts. Season to taste with salt.

Drain pasta and put it back in the pot. Add cheese sauce and stir to combine. Pour into preheated casserole dish. Bake for 30 minutes until browned and bubbling.

Not Just Another Cheese Ball

Contributor Jim Dixon just got back from a month-long sojourn in Italy visiting friends and the suppliers of the fantastic products he carries at Real Good Food. With all the memories from that fabulous trip, what's the first thing he writes about on his return? Pimento cheese.

I’m not sure exactly where or when I’d first heard about pimento cheese (aka PC), but I’ve been thinking about making some for a long time. I started the recipe research early this year, and after a few batches, came up with a version I like.

While universally described as an iconic southern food, pimento cheese actually sprang from the psuedo-scientific Yankee home economics movement in the early 1900s. One of its tenets was that strong flavors like garlic encouraged overly emotional, “undesirable” behavior thought to be typical of spicy food-loving immigrants. The original pimento cheese was a blend of a new product, cream cheese, and very mild canned pimentos. For more on this fascinating history, read food historian Robert Moss.

History notwithstanding, folks from the south claim PC as their own, and you’ll find commercial versions in Winn-Dixie supermarkets across the region. But its most ardent fans make it at home, and like most iconic foods, opinions as to the “best” vary; check out the winners of the Southern Foodways Pimento Cheese Invitational to see some interesting versions.

In the end, PC is American as apple pie and just plain delicious. Traditionally eaten on soda crackers or celery sticks, PC also goes well on good crusty bread or in an omelet. Here’s how I make it:

Pimento Cheese

1.25-1.5 lbs. cheddar, a roughly even mix of yellow medium and white sharp
4 roasted, peeled, seeded red bell peppers (about 2 cups worth after the peeling, etc, or the equivalent amount of roasted red peppers from a jar, either red, pimento, or piquillo)
2-3 Tbsp. mayo (homemade or Best Foods, aka Hellman’s east of the Mississippi; Duke’s in the south)
1 Tbsp. sweet pickle relish
1 Tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp. good bourbon
Crystal hot sauce to taste

Grate the cheese with a box grater or with a food processor (I prefer hand grating since you need the processor bowl with the steel blade for the next step and I don’t want to have to clean it). Combine the peppers and other ingredients (not cheese) in the processor and pulse a few times. Add the cheese and pulse until well mixed, but not so much that you can’t detect little bits of red pepper. You want everything chopped and mixed but not puréed.

You can find Jim and his edible friends most Mondays from 5-7 pm at Activspace, 833 SE Main on the corner of SE 9th and Main, space number 122.

Photo from Wikipedia.