Blistered Shishito peppers are a simple treat and great appetizer for any occasion. Served slightly charred with crunchy bits of coarse sea salt, these peppers–like many of the best cocktail hour appetizers–somehow make your drink taste better.
What’s great about these peppers is that they’re a snap to prepare, and once cooked, you can season them to your liking: plain sea salt, drizzled with a good aged balsamic vinegar, or drizzled with a simple vinaigrette of lemon juice mixed with honey. What’s more, Shishito peppers have become a lot more mainstream, which means that the price has also become a bit more reasonable! I remember seeing these for $7.95/pound a few years ago, but I recently bought an 18-ounce bag for $4.99!
These blistered Shishito peppers are generally a hit, but for anyone who can’t take the heat, they’ll have to roll the dice when eating these. Most of the time, Shishito peppers are quite mild, but a couple of them in your average batch can get uncomfortably spicy, even for seasoned spice-heads, so make sure you warn folks when you put these down on the table.
Enjoy these blistered Shishito peppers with friends this New Year’s Eve!
You’ll need:
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoons light olive oil or vegetable oil
- 4 ounces Shishito peppers, washed and pat dry
- 2 teaspoons Balsamic vinegar (optional)
- Coarse sea salt, to taste
Put the garlic and oil in a mortar and pestle, and crush the garlic. You don’t want to create a paste––you are just infusing the oil in this step.
Heat a saute pan or wok over medium-high heat, and spread the garlic-infused oil evenly in the pan. Do not put the crushed garlic in the pan, or it will burn.
Add the Shishito peppers to the pan in one layer, so all of the peppers are touching the pan. Sear for 20 to 30 seconds, or until the peppers get golden brown. Turn the peppers over to brown the other side. Continue this process of tossing and turning until all of the peppers are golden brown and the peppers are blistered and begin to wilt.
I like the Shishito peppers to be slightly more charred; if you want to do this, turn up the heat for the last 30 seconds to really blister the peppers. This entire frying and blistering process should take about 6 to 8 minutes.
Once the peppers are cooked, sprinkle a large pinch of coarse sea salt over the peppers. Give them a good toss, and transfer them to a plate. Drizzle 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar over the peppers, and garnish with another small pinch of sea salt.
If you don’t like balsamic vinegar or want to change up the flavors, then mix 2 teaspoons of lemon juice with ½ teaspoon of honey and drizzle over the peppers. Grate a little bit of lemon zest over the top for garnish. You could also simply use lemon zest and skip the juice and honey altogether. It’s your party!
If you like these peppers, try our Chinese Tiger Skin Hot Peppers recipe, which uses the spicier, long hot green peppers and Zhejiang black vinegar.
Another great holiday-worthy appetizer involving blistering peppers is our Trio of Pinchos recipe, inspired by classic Spanish tapas!
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 tablespoons light olive oil or vegetable oil
- 4 ounces Shishito peppers, washed and pat dry
- 2 teaspoons Balsamic vinegar (optional)
- Coarse sea salt, to taste
- Put the garlic and oil in a mortar and pestle, and crush the garlic. You don’t want to create a paste––you are just infusing the oil in this step.
- Heat a saute pan or wok over medium-high heat, and spread the garlic-infused oil evenly in the pan. Do not put the crushed garlic in the pan, or it will burn.
- Add the Shishito peppers to the pan in one layer, so all of the peppers are touching the pan. Sear for 20 to 30 seconds, or until the peppers get golden brown. Turn the peppers over to brown the other side. Continue this process of tossing and turning until all of the peppers are golden brown and the peppers are blistered and begin to wilt.
- I like the Shishito peppers to be slightly more charred; if you want to do this, turn up the heat for the last 30 seconds to really blister the peppers. This entire frying and blistering process should take about 6 to 8 minutes.
- Once the peppers are cooked, sprinkle a large pinch of coarse sea salt over the peppers. Give them a good toss, and transfer them to a plate. Drizzle 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar over the peppers, and garnish with another small pinch of sea salt.
Mary says
Just wanted to mention that shishitos aren’t hard to grow. I grew them two years ago and they were very prolific. I bought my seed from Nichol’s Garden Nursery.
Bill says
Thanks Mary, planting your own peppers is a great alternative or solution to buying them. I have grown padron peppers before but will have to try growing shishitos next season:)
Michael says
Love these! We make them with crumbled Feta in addition to the salt. :)
Bill says
Hi Michael, sounds like feta cheese would be a nice addition!
Doug says
My comment is not related to the recipe, which sounds great.
Wikipedia reports they are often used in Japanese (Shishitōgarashi) and Korean (kkwari-gochu) dishes.
My comment (more of a question) is about the ads that annoyingly appear at the bottom of each page.
I used to be able to close them by clicking on the “circled X” usually found on the upper right of the ad.
Now.. all it does is cause another annoying ad to appear.
Has anyone else tried to close these ad’s ?
Bill says
Hi Doug, I hear that these peppers are common in Korean and Japanese cooking but seldom see them used in restaurants here in the US, maybe because they are still relatively expensive. Sorry about your experience with the ads. I will pass your comment on to our ad provider!
Doug says
Hi Bill !
Thanks for your response.
Out here in the West (California) I often see them on sale at Marukai Markets.
You’ll more likely find them at Japanese and Korean restaurants that cater almost exclusively (90%+) to their respective ethnicity.
They’re rare but every now and then we stumbled upon these types of restaurants.
Example: At an Hunan restaurant in San Gabriel , CA.
Their menu was 100% in Chinese characters and the waitress spoke only Mandarin.
Luckily for us.. the menu also had sample photographs of some their dishes, so we were able to point to the pictures of dishes we ordered.
One pork dish was comprised of 80% blistering, red chili peppers !!! ROFLMAO.
Doug
Bill says
Hi Doug, I love restaurants with picture menus. It makes me miss China, as all the menus have pictures!
Marilee says
They are good with a drizzle of soy sauce, too. And if there are any left-overs (no, that’s not a joke, only hopeful thinking), stuck in between layers of cheese in a grilled cheese sandwich.
Bill says
Hi Marilee, I am totally with you on that grilled cheese! These are great on any sandwich or even with a bowl of congee :)
George says
Hey guys thought I’d mention these are known as Padron peppers in Europe – one of my favourites! Yum!
George says
…and the ‘roulette’ of getting a spicy one is half the fun ??
Bill says
Yes, I love a good head sweating pepper every so often too! I found these shishito peppers were much spicier than the padron peppers. I’ve never had any padron peppers that were overly spicy.
Bill says
Hi George, padron peppers are stubbier with fewer seeds. We also had padron peppers cooked this way in Madrid along with fried anchovies. So good! Thanks for bringing back the memory :)