I love October in California, it's the inbetween month. Summer's bounty is still waving a final farewell with dry farmed tomatoes, sweet late season corn, and heirloom peppers while Winter squashes are tempting us closer to the hearth.
These little peppers are almost out of season. In fact they should be totally out of season but this summer has come and gone a little late on the West coast. At Echo Valley we love padron peppers and put them in everything: sliced in salads and on pizzas, grilled with sausages or shrimp, and braised in stews.
Our favorite way to eat these sweet mildly spicy peppers is simple. And it has become the go to appetizer after an exhausting day of selling at the Farmer's markets. We like to get a skillet hot with a small splash of cooking oil (sometimes toasted sesame oil, but be careful it has a low smoke point) and throw the peppers in stems and all quickly tossing them around until they are blistered.
We plate them in a pile, top with crunchy Maldon salt, and dip them in whatever we feel appropriate. Sometimes Kate makes her famous Echo Valley Farm ranch dressing or I make a little ponzu sauce. Sometimes we just eat them plain!
Ah! one of my favorite tapas. Do you get the occasional spicy one or are they uniformly sweet?
Os pementos de Padrón, uns pican e outros non.
Posted by: wattacetti | October 28, 2011 at 04:58 AM
glad to see you back again! hadn't seen anything since you started at citizen cake but just read the echo valley farms chicken post. really interesting and a good read, amy. (been following your blog since paris)
Posted by: chris | November 12, 2011 at 11:38 AM
Ah! one of my favorite tapas. Do you get the occasional spicy one or are they uniformly sweet?
Posted by: Cheap Nike Free | November 25, 2011 at 04:36 AM
glad to see you back again! hadn't seen anything since you started at citizen cake but just read the echo valley farms chicken post. really interesting and a good read, amy.
Posted by: Ugg Bailey Button Triplet | November 27, 2011 at 11:27 PM