Blistered Padrón Peppers with Whipped Feta & Black Garlic Honey

Taste

Padrón peppers have a short season, and this is the simplest way to use them well: a smoking-hot pan, enough oil to slick them, and no crowding. Most are mild and grassy, roughly one in ten is properly hot, and that lottery is the point. They sit on a bed of feta whipped with sheep’s milk yogurt until it’s light enough to spread, and the finish is Lufa’s black garlic — sticky, molasses-dark, nothing like raw garlic — mashed into local creamy honey with a splash of vinegar to keep it from cloying.

Instructions

1. Whip the feta. Break the drained feta into a food processor with the Greek yogurt, olive oil, lemon zest, and a squeeze of the lemon juice. Blitz for 60 seconds, scraping down once, until it’s smooth and holds soft peaks. It should taste salty and bright — feta varies, so add lemon juice a little at a time. Spread it across a wide serving plate in a thick, swooping layer and set aside at room temperature. ⏱︎ 1 min

2. Make the black garlic honey. Mash the peeled black garlic cloves to a paste with the back of a fork — they’re soft and sticky, like dates. Warm the honey in a small pan over low heat for 30 seconds, just until it loosens, then stir in the garlic paste and the vinegar. Take it off the heat. It should pour slowly off a spoon; if it stiffens as it cools, add a teaspoon of warm water. ⏱︎ 30 sec

3. Dry the peppers. Wash the Padróns and dry them thoroughly on a tea towel — any water left on the skins will steam them instead of blistering them. Leave the stems on; they’re the handle you eat them by.

4. Get the pan properly hot. Set a large cast-iron or heavy stainless pan over your highest heat and leave it for 3 minutes until it’s genuinely smoking. Add the olive oil, swirl once, and immediately add the peppers in a single layer. Work in two batches if they don’t all fit without touching — crowding is what separates blistered from soggy. ⏱︎ 3 min

5. Blister them. Leave the peppers alone for 2 minutes, until the undersides char in dark patches, then toss and continue for 3 minutes more, shaking the pan every 30 seconds. They’re ready when the skins are blistered and collapsing and the flesh has gone tender. Tip them straight onto the whipped feta. ⏱︎ 2 min

6. Finish and serve. Scatter the peppers with flaky sea salt while they’re still glossy, then spoon the black garlic honey over the top in a thin zigzag. Serve immediately with torn baguette, and eat them with your fingers by the stem.

Tips

• Pepper swap: Shishito peppers behave identically and can be used one-for-one. Sweet mini peppers work too, but halve them first and give them an extra minute — they hold more water.
• No food processor: Mash the feta with a fork and beat in the yogurt and oil by hand. The texture is more rustic but the flavour is the same.
• Black garlic substitute: If you can’t get black garlic, warm the honey with one small crushed raw garlic clove and a teaspoon of balsamic, then strain the garlic out. It’s a different flavour — sharper, less caramelised — but it works.
• Make ahead: The whipped feta keeps for 3 days covered in the fridge, and the black garlic honey for 2 weeks in a jar at room temperature. Blister the peppers to order — they don’t reheat.
• Turn it into dinner: Add a fried egg per person and a heavier hand with the baguette, or serve alongside grilled lamb or chicken thighs.