pickled okra pimento cheese

do you know about pimento cheese? it's popular throughout the southern states and is perhaps making inroads across the mason-dixon line. in texas you can get it in big tubs at any grocery store. people usually eat it on white bread in sandwich form, though sometimes it's used as a dip for vegetables or crackers.

the thing about tub cheese is that it is tub cheese. thus, it is not all that good. i mean, it's good in the sense that anything composed of cheese and mayonnaise is going to be kind of good, but it isn't really good. also, pimento cheese is ridiculously easy to make and if you make it yourself you can avoid the preservatives and weird gums that fill many commercially-prepared versions.

seriously, have you ever looked at those? i just looked up the ingredients in one brand and it had guar, xanthan, and locust bean gums, along with preservatives and artificial coloring. i am not overly concerned about that kind of stuff (i eat gummy bears, after all), but it's just never going to taste as good as homemade.

the bare bones pimento cheese recipe consists of grated sharp cheddar, chopped pimentos, and mayonnaise. however, homemade is even better when you give pickled okra a leading role. when one is discussing pickled okra, talk o' texas is really the way to go. i don't know how widely distributed it is, but i bought mine here in oregon, so it's around. and you can order it online. as the website claims, it is crisp, delicious, and crisp. on a side note, my friend once dated the scion of the talk o' texas empire and i was excited about the prospect of increased pickled okra access, but alas, it was not to be. i still have to buy it like any old sucker.

anyway, other people's dating histories aside, okra is a nice addition to pimento cheese. in fact, i have been using it instead of the pimentos, because the day has yet to come when i go into the store and think of buying a whole thing of pimentos. pimentos just never seem to enter my consciousness while i am grocery shopping (and yet there's always pickled okra in the fridge). but i got a mad craving for pimento cheese the other day and found that pickled okra is a more than acceptable substitute.

i've made this a couple of times in the last fortnight or so, and each time it was a little different. so don't take this as a hard and fast rule-based recipe, but more like a template for whatever you have around. here are the things i used last time i made it:

in clockwise order, from the top left, we have mayonnaise, jarred roasted peppers, greek yogurt, pickled okra, scallions, and sharp cheddar. the greek yogurt is total heresy, but people do sometimes put sour cream in their pimento cheese, and i think it tastes similar and i can't bear to use only mayonnaise. but feel free to do the sour cream or all-mayo thing if you like. i used about 1/2 a cup of mayonnaise and 1/3 of a cup of yogurt for this batch, i think. but i never measure it - just use a large spoon to glop it in there, stir, taste, and adjust as needed. it's supposed to be pretty creamy, but you want to be able to really taste the cheese as well, obviously. lots of freshly ground black pepper is also a good idea, but i felt like it didn't need any extra salt.

i only had a couple of the roasted peppers - i think using twice the amount seen in the picture above would be even better. i also ended up adding another 2 or 3 okra pods after i mixed the cheese up and tasted it. see? it's kind of a guessing game. the scallions were delicious sliced into it, but you could also use shallots or a little sweet onion. or you could leave those out. i used about 6 ounces of grated sharp cheddar, but the other time i made this i used part sharp cheddar and part pepper jack, so that's pretty flexible as well. sometimes i grate it on the fine setting, sometimes on the larger holes. i think i prefer the larger, because the texture is a little more pleasing and you taste the cheese more. it's up to you, though.

as with so many things, this benefits from some time in the refrigerator before you eat it - try to give it at least an hour or so. it will last several days and maybe more. we always eat it before getting to test that, however. it's good on all kinds of bread (the top picture is with whole wheat bread and, incidentally, another sandwich featuring some truly amazing smoked salmon from the farmers market. the picture below this is with some cardamom toasts from ikea.), crackers, etc. you can also dip celery sticks in it and pretend it is super healthy.

or, as always, you can eat it straight from the bowl.

*ingredients*

6 ounces cheese, grated (either sharp cheddar or a mix)

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/3 cup greek yogurt or sour cream (or more mayonnaise to taste)

6+ chopped pickled okra pods

4+ sliced scallions (or substitute shallots, sweet onion, etc)

1/4 cup + jarred (or homemade!) roasted red/yellow bell peppers

black pepper

just mix it together!

also, sorry for the rather poor quality of these pictures - my camera doesn't like to photograph pimento cheese, apparently.

southernish cornbread panzanella

salad for dinner is the epitome of summer. after a couple of years away from texas, a summer salad dinner still feels right. even in portland's not-deadly-hot clime, there's something about a full-meal salad that woos me every summer.

a perfect salad-meal has a few requirements: leaves/vegetables, protein, carbohydrates, good dressing. if you are missing one of these four cornerstones, your salad will be a sad disappointment and you will wish you had just gone out for dinner.

this salad is a southern-style panzanella-esque meal that fulfills the 4 requirements perfectly - lettuce (here, romaine and a butter lettuce/radicchio mix, but you can use whatever hearty greens you have), cucumber, tomatoes, scallions, sweet onion, bacon, blue cheese (here, gorgonzola), cornbread, and a ranch-style buttermilk dressing with lots of fresh herbs. the best thing is that ingredients can be changed out with relative impunity as long as you have those four bases.

i would actually recommend that you purchase some cornbread for this, if you can find any worth your time. i made some in the toaster oven so as not to heat up the house too much, but really, who wants to bother with that? if you buy some cornbread that some other sucker made for you, you are ahead of the game. otherwise, use whatever you like (i like homesicktexan's, since she knows that in the south cornbread is not sweetened).

then you kind of treat the cornbread as if you are making croutons - i hacked it up into smallish pieces (actually, it's nice to have some craggy bits involved - it gives a better texture - you don't want it all to be perfect little squares) and dried it out in the toaster oven (although this could also be done in an oven - maybe 300-350, turn them occasionally for 20 minutes or so until they are dry and deliciously crustish).

this dressing is something like ranch. it has buttermilk (about a cup) and mayonnaise (about 1/3 cup, but you can use more or less to your taste and liking of thick dressing) and a little cider vinegar (about a teaspoon) and a clove of garlic, the zest from half a lemon, and a whole lot of herbs.

here in portland, one can procure fresh herbs in bulk, so it's easy to get a bunch of different things for a dressing like this. if you are in a place that makes you buy all of your herbs in little $3.99 thingies, though, for god's sake don't use this many herbs. of course, if you are totally on the ball and growing these little beauties in your backyard or patio, by all means use whatever you have on hand. in the photo above, italian parsley is in the top right corner, then going clockwise there is cilantro, garlic, lemon zest, rosemary, oregano, tarragon, thyme, and some chives in the center.

i did the garlic and the lemon zest on the microplane (though otherwise you could just chop both really fine) and mixed those with the buttermilk, mayo, and vinegar and a good amount of salt and pepper. don't be shy about these. then i chopped all of the herbs up together (after taking of the woody stems of those that needed it, like rosemary, oregano, and thyme) and threw them in and let it all get cozy for awhile. it's good if you can make the dressing at least a few hours before you have the salad, just so the flavors meld. but it will still be good, even if you can't. i like making dressings in a jar so you can just shake it all together, but you should feel free to do whatever you want. i am not the boss of you.

then it's simply a matter of cooking the bacon (i used our neighborhood do-goodery's free-range turkey bacon, although probably the real stuff would be excellent as well), slicing some vegetables, and putting it all together. oh, and making, if you like, some onions that i am calling "dry-pickled" (that's not really a thing, and pickling is not exactly what you are doing, but whatever).

the onion i used was some kind of small, sweet one. if you're in the northwest, something like walla walla is both tasty and fun to say. if you're in texas, a 1015 will definitely work. if you are elsewhere, as so many are, use your best judgment. so i had half an onion and sliced it thinly. then i massaged it with about a teaspoon of kosher salt and a teaspoon of sugar and let it sit for an hour or so. this is kind of like what happens when you make the pickles that go on banh mi - it softens the onion and mellows its flavor and makes it super good.

so. salad greens and vegetables washed and prepped, cornbread croutons dried and ready, bacons crisped and tasty - just plonk it all together (or, if you want it to be fancy, dress the greens lightly, then toss the cornbread with a little dressing, then put it nicely on a plate, then add the other vegetables and a little more dressing, then bacon and blue cheese as a crowning glory). this is a satisfying and delicious way to have dinner without significantly heating up your kitchen. you can even toast the croutons the night before and have them ready when you want dinner.

other options with this salad would be smoked salmon instead of bacon, the addition of some rotisserie chicken instead of blue cheese, or a poached egg instead of something. as long as you remember to have the 4 main ingredient categories, you can't go too far wrong.