My wife and I just recently got back from our honeymoon in Barcelona, and the one thing we miss the most (well maybe I miss the most) is the Padron Peppers. In Spain these little green peppers are mostly served up as Tapas, but we also had them mixed in with a plate of misc. fried seafood deliciousness.
Grown in the Galician region of Spain, these little beauties are plucked when they are still young and green before they turn into hot chili peppers. So they end up retaining their awesome pepper taste without the hot…well for the most part…about 1 in 12 of these guys end up actually being hot. The picking process is really labor intensive because you have to really know when to pick these guys and is the reason why these are so expensive and freakin hard to find!
We loved these peppers so much that when we got back home, the first thing we did was search around for places that may import or sell them. Unfortunately, we did not find anyone in the SF bay area that sold or imported these guys and after some deep digging online I came across this place called La Tienda who actually cultivates their own Padrons in Virginia, and sells them by the pound. So I ordered 2lbs because now that I can’t have them, I need them! Also there is nothing like a nice beer on a warm summer day with some pan fried Padron Peppers! It is simple, and it is mind blowingly delicious.
Unfortunately, after my order shipped from La Tienda I came across this article from LivetoEat which talked about how they found Padron peppers from a place in the San Francisco Bay Area called Happy Quail Farms. It turns out Happy Quail Farms actually specializes in growing exotic peppers and sells Padrons in farmers markets around the bay, so if you live in the Bay Area like us you can find these guys at the Menlo Park Farmers Market on Sundays.
So if you are interested in trying these little guys I would suggest looking up either La Tienda on the East Coast, Happy Quail Farms if you live in the Bay Area, or check out The Spanish Table who has stores in Seattle, Berkeley, Santa Fe, and Mill Valley. They are hard to find, are kind of expensive, but really worth it.
Cooking instructions: The way you cook these bad boys up is super simple. Simply pan fry them in olive oil for a few minutes (until they look like the pic above ) and sprinkled with some coarse sea salt, then crack a beer or a nice bottle of white or rose wine…thats it!
