Pimento Cheese Burgers with Bacon Studded Slaw

This month, Ginger Man expanded our cable services, for which I am truly thankful because now I get the Food Network. The last time I had it was during the second season of The Next Food Network Star when the bold and brash Guy Fieri beat sugar baker Reggie Southerland in the finals. I like both of them, but Guy was made for American TV. He now hosts several shows on Food Network including:

• Guy’s Big Bite
  
• Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives
• Ultimate Recipe Showdown
  
• Guy Off the Hook

A recent episode of Ultimate Recipe Showdown featured burgers, and the cooks were really creative. There was a good-looking turkey burger, a flavour-packed vietnamese burger, and a unique artery-clogging Croque Monsieur burger, but the winning patty was 74-year-old Harold Cohen’s Southern Pimento Cheese Burger which looked incredibly nummy. Harold made his own slaw and pimento cheese, right there on stage, so I followed his lead and started from scratch.

Slaw isn’t something I usually make, but I knew I wanted it crunchy, tangy, and creamy, with a hint of sweetness. I compared a few recipes and started by sautéing a little bit of minced onion, then mixed that into some honey and apple cider vinegar, a shake of celery seed, mustard, and some mayo. It came together fine, and after it set a while it tasted pretty good, but something was missing. I think it needed some lemon to wake up the flavours, plus I discovered I don’t really like celery seed much, so there is tweaking to be done.

Like the slaw, pimento cheese spread gets better if it rests a while, so I made it ahead of time. The pimento cheese I remembered was this thick orange goo in a jar that we put on toast or in little white bread sandwiches, and I don’t recall loving it, so I hoped making my own would be worth it. Pimentos are the little red bits stuffed in a martini olive. They are slices of sweet, succulent, heart-shaped Cherry Peppers, a type of red bell pepper (Capsicum annuum). The taste is very distinctive, and pimento cheese is very popular in the Southern US.

There are oodles of recipes out there for Pimento Cheese Spread, so really it’s one of those things you can easily make to suit individual tastes. It comes down to three simple things: cheese, creaminess, and spice. The peppers and cheese must be the star of the show, but some spreads go no further than pimentos, velveeta, and mayo. A few extra splashes and dashes can give the flavour more depth and make your personal version quite special.

You can use a blend of cheeses if you want (some people include Jack or Colby), but I’m a big fan of sharp cheddar (American cheese or Velveeta are other popular choices). Some recipes call for melting the cheese to create a more homogenized spread, but I wanted something coarser with cheesy bits that could melt on the burger (or under a broiler on toast). I used a mini-processor to blend everything together. After the spread sits in the fridge for a while, the flavours get a chance to know each other and become delicious.

Harold jacked up the meaty flavour in his burger by adding chopped ham to the ground meat and topping it off with bacon. I considered giving that a try, but really I wasn’t in the mood. I just wanted to have a good burger with a whole lotta that cheese spread on it. I decided that bacon bits would be awesome in the slaw, though. That turned out to be a good idea, and it kinda made up for the presence of celery seed.

For the burger patties, I mixed up some ground sirloin with a few spices (nothing fancy) and cooked them in a skillet while a couple of buns went under the broiler to toast. When they’re ready, they get a good shmear of homemade pimento cheese spread. Top off the burger with a fair bit of delicious bacon studded coleslaw, add a side of cherry tomatoes, and a sprinkling of Terra Stix for crunch. Yum. Yum yum yum. It was a sloppy delicious mess, and I’d definitely make them again.

Curious Pimento Cheese Spread

• Small jar of pimentos with juice
• 2 Tbs finely minced onion
• 1 finely minced garlic clove
• Dash of cayenne pepper
• Splash of worchestershire sauce
• 1 Tbs pickle juice
• 2 oz cream cheese
• Canadian cheddar (about 1 1/2 cups grated)

Mix together everything except the cheddar until smooth, then fold in the grated cheddar, cover, and let sit in fridge until ready to use. Bring to room temp before slathering on burgers, spreading on toast, or dolloping onto an omelette.

Bacon Studded Slaw

Make the Bacon Bits:

Chop 6-8 slices of thick bacon into small pieces. Cook over medium heat until browned and crispy. Drain bits on paper towel.

Mix the dressing:

• 2 Tbs minced onion, cooked briefly
• 2 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbs honey
• 1 tsp mustard
• 2 Tbs mayo
• 2 Tbs milk
• Dash of celery seed (optional)
• S & P

Toss dressing with:

• 1/2 head green cabbage, sliced thin
• 1 large carrot, grated
• Homemade Bacon Bits

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