Name: Miso Padron Peppers
Prep time: 8 min
Cook time: 7 min
Total time: 15 min
Yield: 4
Ingredients: 1 lb padron peppers (about 2 heaping cups); 1 Tb olive oil (garlic infused if you have it); 2 tsp miso paste (red or white miso); 1 tsp mirin (or a pinch sugar)

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Peppers and whisky. Sip on whiskey, and pop a pepper. Repeat. This recipe adds some Asian flare to the usual “blistered padron peppers with olive oil and sea salt.”

Padron Pepper Poppers

It makes a nice bar snack, if you happen to need one, or a short-term interim solution to keep hungry guests at bay. Ready in 15 minutes or less.

Padron Peppers vs. Shisito Peppers

The Padron pepper is from Galicia, Spain. Often compared to a Japanese Shisito Pepper, it is smooth skinned, a bit more meaty, and shaped like a cone. The color is distinctly greener, and only about 10% of these peppers are actually hot.

The Shisito pepper is thin-skinned and curly. Because the skin is so thin, it has crunch if eaten raw and deliciously so. Shisitos are often cheaper and easier to find, while padron peppers only seem to be seasonally available in the summer.

If you can find the padron pepppers, toss with a simple dressing of miso paste, olive oil, and mirin.

Roast in the oven for 5-7 minutes at 375 degrees. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Drink pairing: Kurayoshi Malt Whisky

There is heat in a pepper and heat in an alcoholic spirit. Here they go head to head.

A Japanese whisky known for its mellowness, the Kurayoshi is paired with the Padron pepper with a similarly mild reputation. Made from 100% malted barley whiskey sourced from Scotland, it is then blended with Japanese whisky.

This pure malt hybrid is aged for over three years in ex-bourbon white oak casks before being mixed with the soft mineral water from the Tottori prefecture in Japan to 46% ABV. The oak lends flavors of vanilla and dried fruit, while the aroma is relatively smooth and almost honeyed.

Try it with this Padron pepper recipe or on its own, depending on what kind of night you’re having.

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