Saturday, May 03, 2008

National Burger Month Day 3: Pimento Cheese Burger


First we slather these suckas with some cheese pimento spread.

Found it here: http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/...-pimento-chees...

Ingredients for the pimento cheese:
24 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
1 (4 ounce) jar diced pimentos, drained
1 teaspoon dried, rubbed sage
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons scallions, chopped
Pinch of sugar (or more to taste)
1/3 cup mayonnaise

I didn't have any scallions but substituted a sweet maui onion in their place. I also didn't have a 4 oz. jar of pimentos, relying instead on a 2 oz. jar. I just chucked the whole mess in a food processor and I processed.

The burger was your basic chuck, salt and pepper affair, grilled for four minutes on each side.


And then we lay the burgers on.

Overall, these cheese pimento burgers represented a refreshing change from our condiment-free burgers of the two previous nights. The cheese spread was creamy, a bit slippery even. We had to take care not to let the burgers fly out as we took our bites. I think in the future I would use a sharp cheese rather than an extra-sharp. And I might have liked more pimentos, since my 2 oz. jar was insufficient to infuse the yellow goodness with more heat. But I can't really complain. The burger was good, though not phenomenal.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Mike!
This is Rebecca's friend, Kate. I am a super fan of burgers and also of food obsession. Right now a current obsession is semi-hard cheeses from Northern Europe, but I digress.

3 things:

1) I am jealous of your bbq. Just had to put it out there.

2) Do you own a copy of Jane and Michael Stern's book 'roadfood'? You should. It's excellent - especially on the burger front.

3) Will you be making a burger a la the NYC hamburger trend...i.e. foie gras, artisnal bacon, etc? If so, let me know how it goes.

I am excited by national burger month and inspired by your own pledge/journey. I will be eating more burgers this month in honour of this special occasion (although first I have to get through the 5 pounds of pulled pork currently slow roasting in my oven...

bagel said...

Hi Kate! I'm glad Rebecca forwarded you the link. Semi-hard cheeses from Northern Europe? Could they go on burgers? Hmm-- something to look into.

I guess I'll respond to each your points.

1) Thanks-- it's actually a friend's grill. He couldn't keep it in his apartment complex so I was of course happy to babysit it for him. It's wonderful. It has three burners in the main compartment and has a wing on the left side which packs a gas powered cast iron griddle. I've found it pretty useful for searing things and for living out my early childhood fantasies of being a short-order cook at a diner.

2) I have not read that book yet but now I will keep an eye out for it.

3) I haven't thought of making a foie gras and truffle burger. But now that you say it, I do have a package of foie gras lying around (I can't believe I actually keep a package of foie gras in reserve but I do), which I've been saving up for a good occasion, but I knew nobody who ate foie gras in Santa Cruz.

Yes you should celebrate National Burger Month too!