Visiting the San Diego wholesale produce warehouse Specialty Produce is like going on a treasure hunt. In business for the past 20 years, the produce purveyor carries an eye-popping variety of fruits and vegetables, most of which come from local or other California farms. On a recent visit, I discovered a half dozen “new” (to me) foods that I now cannot live without.
One of the most exciting was the Honeydew Nectarine, a pale green nectarine with the distinctive aroma and sweetness of a honeydew melon. The texture was stand-over-the-sink succulent. Equally enchanting was the Mango Nectarine with its bright orange skin and pulp and sweet fragrance that calls to you from the next room. Both are grown in California’s San Joaquin Valley and are available only for about 2 or 3 weeks each summer. Talk about playing hard to get! Check out Specialty Produce’s Web site to see if they’re still around. If not, make a note on your daily calendar not to miss them next summer.
I’m also a newcomer to the Pineapple Heirloom Tomato fan club. Those in the know insist that this is the sweetest tomato of all. It’s reddish-orange, large and juicy. It has an in-your-face sweet flavor and subtle perfume that scream “eat me plain.” No sauces or casseroles for this baby. A sprinkle of salt (such as Anglesey) is fine. A few slabs of fresh mozzarella or burrata is a good idea, too.
Padrone Chile Peppers are headlining Specialty’s Web page right now. They’re smaller than jalapenos, with at least 100 needed to make a pound. They’re said to be crisp, with a sweet nutty flavor. But….every once in a while you hit a hot one in the bunch. I might have passed right by the padrone peppers….I mean, exactly how different can a chile be? But then I saw a recipe for sautéing the peppers.
That prompted a flash-back to lunch a couple months ago in a New York City tapas bar called Boqueria where Washington Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema and I flipped over tiny fried peppers dusted with very coarse salt. Padrone chilies are perfect for this treatment. Just sauté them in hot olive oil, preferably Spanish, until small white blisters appear on the skin. Drain them and serve them piping hot with very coarse salt such as my favorite Anglesey or Murray River or Maldon or French fleur de sel. Check out Salt Works for info on the different salts.
A visit to Specialty Produce’s Web site is a treasure hunt in its own right. There are thousands of fascinating fruits and vegetables, including 19 types of sprouts; some 50 kinds of squash with names like Gold Bar and Baby Tiger; wild ramps; curry leaves and too many types of herbs to count. Angel hair chives? I’ve been in the food reporting business for more than 28 years, but the Specialty Produce site introduces me to something new every time I look at it.
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