Pimientos de Padron

I love these little beasties. Fried and salted and accompanied by a cold tube of Cruzcampo. Tradition and statistics dictate that 29 out of 30 are mild and sweet with the remaining rogue being hot and fiery. I’ve never seen them sold in this country before but have recently discovered them tucked away on a stall in Borough Market.

Preparation time:1 minute
Cooking time:4-5 minutes
Skill level:Easy

Ingredients

• Pimientos de Padron – 250g
• olive oil
• course sea salt

Wash and thoroughly dry the pimientos.

Heat some olive oil in a heavy bottomed frying pan and add the pimientos. Fry for 4-5 minutes occasionally stirring with a wooden spoon. When they are puckered and blistering transfer to a (preferably terracotta) serving dish and stir in a generous amount of course sea salt.

Eat as soon as they are cool enough to handle … hold the stalk and bite off the flesh … seeds and all.

Verdict: Perfect. Bitter/sweet with a salty crunch. Disappointingly no one got a hot one.

Drink: A lethal cocktail of far far too much.

Entertainment: At the stage when these were served I think I was still relatively coherent, however by the end of the evening I had to be coaxed out of opening a forth bottle of wine with the promise of a gin and tonic. For a brief moment I may have been entertaining, however …