This will be the first of a few recipes over the coming days featuring Saucy Mama ingredients. A couple of months ago we were invited to participate in a recipe contest, open only to 50 food bloggers nationwide. As you know, the past few months have been travel filled for us, and while we've been cooking, we haven't been posting - and the contest deadline is drawing near. There's the background - now on with the food: Let me start this post by saying that southerners love food. The way a tomato tastes fresh off the vine, or how much better a squash is when it’s just out of your own garden.
Isn’t it funny how we can taste or smell something that takes us back years, even decades? Smells and tastes that are all too familiar but can’t be placed at the time – or maybe they immediately transform you to the place you were.
Growing up in the South, food was an important part of the culture, and a strong family tie. Whether it was my grandmother on my father’s side, Mammaw, who grew blackberries and would make her own jelly (that would bring a tear when we’d find an unopened jar in the years after she’d passed) – or the memories of waking to fresh buttermilk biscuits that she had made from scratch to a chicken and dumpling dinner to use the rest of the biscuit dough from that morning.
On my mother’s side – Nanny would make these delectable breakfast treats we always just called “stickies”. They were like cinnamon rolls but about the size of a silver dollar. It was just homemade dough, butter, cinnamon and sugar – but there wasn’t a recipe. When her health started failing I remember asking my mother to get the recipe for “stickies” so that I could pass it along to my children one day. She wasn’t able to, there wasn’t a recipe, and try as I might, I’ve never been able to duplicate how my grandmother made them.
It was from my mother’s mother that I got my first introduction to Southern Caviar – pimiento cheese. She would always have a batch of pimiento cheese in the fridge. Now, don't be scared of pimiento cheese, it's just shredded cheddar cheese, with pimiento peppers and a little lubricant - in this case, mustard and mayo - nothing to be scared of.
When The Wife and I got word we were accepted into the Saucy Mama Recipe Contest, we were racking our brains to come up with recipes, but when the package arrived with our sauces one thing leapt to the front of my mind. I wanted to do something different than your typical party fare and when I saw the Saucy Mama Chipotle Mustard and the first thing I thought wondered was how great the smoky and slightly sweet chipotle would spice up a traditional southern dish.
It did. What’s nice about the Saucy Mama Chipotle Mustard is that delayed reaction of the chipotle. You get the sweet and smoky up front, and after you swallow your tongue reminds you that the chipotle is, in fact, a pepper with a subtle warming burn that spicy food lovers will appreciate.
Directions:
1 8 oz. packet of cream cheese – room temperature
4 heaping Tablespoons of Saucy Mama Chipotle Mustard
4 heaping Tablespoons of Mayonnaise
½ teaspoon of salt
½ teaspoon of black pepper
½ teaspoon of chipotle powder
1 - 4 oz jar of pimientos
2 - 8 oz blocks of sharp cheddar cheese (the sharper the better), shredded at home (it will give you a fresher cheese flavor – which is what pimiento cheese is all about.
Directions:
In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, whip the cream cheese for one to two minutes until it achieves a light and airy consistency.
Add the Saucy Mama Chipotle Mustard and mayo and whip for another minute to combine flavors. Add the salt, pepper, chipotle powder and pimientos. Mix on high for 30 seconds.
With a rubber spatula, stir in the shredded cheese and mix thoroughly. Once mixture is combined, give it a whirl in the stand mixer, or hand mixer for another 30 seconds to make sure you get good cheese to pimiento consistency.
Refrigerate until ready to serve.
Pimiento cheese, southern delicacy as it is, is ideal as a standalone dip with crackers, or on lightly toasted bread, or as a condiment alongside fried green tomatoes.
Cheers and Bon Appétit, Y’all!
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