Pimento Cheese a/k/a Southern Caviar

PIMENTO CHEESE

Pimento Cheese/Southern Caviar

Yes, Ma'am! Spread it on low carb veggies, eat it on pork rinds, or just eat it with a spoon. You know it and love it and at less than 1 gram of carbs per 2 tablespoon serving, you need to keep it on hand. 'Nuff said. Here's the recipe, courtesy of Atkins, plus a little bit of my own tradition.

Note: Use block cheese, not the pre-shredded stuff. The texture will be much better because the pre-shredded stuff is dusted with some kind of powder that prevents it from sticking together and you don't want that.

Ingredients
4 ounces extra sharp cheddar (from the block), shredded
4 ounces extra sharp white cheddar (from the block), shredded
1/3 cup real Mayonnaise, or more to taste/texture
2 ounces chopped pimentos (jarred)
1 tablespoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon Dijon
1/4 teaspoon Salt
several drops of hot sauce, to taste

Directions
1. Shred cheese and set aside.
2. Mix remaining ingredients together until blended, add cheese and blend with fork until well mixed.
3. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours before serving.

This can be stored in the refrigerator in a tightly sealed container for up to two weeks, but it never lasts that long. This recipe can be easily doubled, tripled, quadrupled, whatever. You may have to tweak the hot sauce but that's O.K. Just keep tasting it until you get it right. Like that's a hardship.

Tip: My best friend uses a food processor to grate her cheese and she grates it in different thicknesses as she says it improves the texture. She makes mega-batches to share with family and friends. You can choose different sized grates on a hand grater as well.

Nutrition information (approximate) .3 grams carbs, 7.1 grams protein, 15.7 grams fat, 172 calories.
1 serving = 2 tablespoons

Recipe variation: Try stuffing boiled egg halves with this cheese instead of the deviled yolks. Yum!