Pimientos de Padrón

[Steve W]

I love these, and I bought a bag the other day. So yesterday I fried them up in oil, added salt and scoffed them down with some bread. Easy and delicious.

[Ben]

Any of them burn (spicy-wise) ? This nicely pre-empts tomorrows Cuisine from Spain podcast by the way!

[Steve W]

a few were hot, but I like my food spicy so it was all good.

[Steve W]

I had these again last night in a bar, and a couple blew me away with hotness. But overall, mine were nicer, if I do say so myself.

[genevadavid]

I first ate pimientos de padrón 15 years ago at a restaurant in Orense. I thought that padrón was just a gallego spelling for patrón as in "house special". I was surprised to be served a plate of small green peppers, but I quickly acquired a taste for them. So simple and delicious!

It was years later that I realized that Padrón is a place near Santiago de Compostela! It is the place at the mouth of the Rio Ulla where the body of Saint James (Santiago) was supposedly brought to land. I would be willing to make an annual pilgrimage to Padrón to buy a supply of the peppers at the source.

[PeterC]

I love these, and I bought a bag the other day. So yesterday I fried them up in oil, added salt and scoffed them down with some bread. Easy and delicious.

There are a lot of 'out of season phony' ones around.
The genuine ones are grown in Padron, a village in Galacia.

I heat up olive oil, add garlic, when the galic is cooked and the oil flavoured, add the pimentos and last thing just before the pimentos are ready, some course sea salt. None should be hot.

[allan]

Any of them burn (spicy-wise) ? This nicely pre-empts tomorrows Cuisine from Spain podcast by the way!

That's half the fun if your eating them with a friend. A sort of culinary
Russian Roulette.

Do they have protected name status? I noticed that those carried by one of the supermarket chains - Mercadona or SuperSol - label them Pimientos Semipicante. They were from Valencia (I think), but Pimientos de Padron in all but name.

Allan

[PeterC]

Genuine ones come from Padron in Galica, it is a fairly short season. If grown in other areas, the percentage of hot ones (they are not meant to be hot), increases and that taste is not a good as the 'real' ones. I only buy the latter.
I tried to grow them, they were all hot. It is the local soil at Padron which makes them different.