Tiny Tapas Peppers
Jack spotted these little beauties at our local farmers’ market on Sunday morning; that evening I sauteed them in olive oil, dusted them with sea salt and served them alongside a mound of soft goat cheese, duplicating a dish we’d had at one of my favorite restaurants, The Cellar Door Cafe in Santa Cruz.
These are Padron peppers, named for the Spanish town where they originated. They need harvesting when only an inch or so long — any bigger and they get too hot.
Because of an unusually cool summer here in California followed by a blast of early autumn heat , the pepper crop is late but prolific. From our own garden Jack has picked the proverbial peck of yellow and red beauties, which I’ve been grilling to serve atop bruschetta slices and grinding for romesco sauces
So why am I telling you about peppers that are soon to vanish from the market? Because vegetable lovers must plan ahead. You should order the seeds now and tuck them away until planting time. (Jack found them at Johnny’s). Procrastinators risk Padron pepper deprivation, a lamentable culinary condition.
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 at 7:29 amand is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 29th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
that sounds PERFECT.
i have a ton of poblano peppers from our CSA and would welcome advice on what to do with them…
September 29th, 2010 at 1:16 pm
Just saute/fry them in olive oil until they shrink and get a FEW brown patches on them. It won’t take long. Drain, salt and then smear them with bits of soft cheese. Really, really good.
September 29th, 2010 at 4:23 pm
oops–confused poblano with padron–will ponder
October 8th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
Cellar Door Cafe. Sounds like a road trip to me!
October 17th, 2010 at 7:15 pm
Casey, you have made me so hungry! And….YOU must post more often!!!