I’ve been seeing pimento cheese all over the place lately, but I have to confess that until I made it myself, I had never actually eaten it. I know that it’s originally a southern dish made with two different cheddar cheeses, mayo, sometimes cream cheese, onion, and of course pimentos. All of those ingredients sound amazing but, since I’m a life long PNW resident, I wanted to create a version that had local ingredients. My northwest take on pimento cheese has two different kinds of Beecher's cheese, which is made here in Seattle, and sweet, briny, Dungeness crab meat. I guess I don't have anything to compare mine to but I think it's pretty delicious and would be perfect for a holiday party!
Ingredients -
4 oz Beechers Flagship cheese - finely grated.
4 oz Beechers Marco Polo cheese - finely grated
4 oz cream cheese - softened
1/3 cup mayonnaise
4 jarred piquillo peppers - chopped
6 oz Dungeness crab meat.
Serving options -
I cut slices of crusty bread and brushed them with olive oil and toasted them under the broiler. Then I topped each slice with the pimento cheese and broiled them until the tops started to brown a little.
crackers
carrot sticks
celery sticks
Directions -
Combine the grated cheese, cream cheese, mayo, and peppers in a medium bowl. Mix until everything is almost completely combined. Add in the crab and gently stir it into the cheese mixture so it’s evenly distributed. Cover the bowl and chill the pimento cheese in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Serve as toasted pimento cheese bread as instructed above or with crackers, celery, and carrots.
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