Found in many Cajun dishes, the peppadew is a flavorful sweet and spicy cherry pepper. The name is a combination of the words “pepper” and “dew”. Many times confused as a cross between a tomato and a pepper the peppadew is actually a breed of capsicum baccatum, a type of piquante pepper.
This little gem is found growing in the Limpopo province of South Africa, a place I had read about and envisioned as a small child. In Rudyard Kipling’s Just so Stories, the elephant’s child wanders the banks of the great grey green greasy Limpopo river all set about with fever trees in search of an answer to his question of where the elephant got his trunk. I was excited to discover that one of my favorite peppers come from the same place.
Brought by trading ships from South Africa to the port of New Orleans, these peppers were quickly adopted by the Cajuns and are found in many dishes today.
Even though this pepper has been around in various forms for more than a hundred years, the peppadew as we know it today was only recently discovered in 1993 by a botanist at his holiday home in the Limpopo region. He found a bush growing in his garden with bright red fruit and immediately began working to secure all rights to this new discovery. The formal introduction of the peppadew came about in 2002 and was touted as the first truly new fruit to be launched on the world market since the kiwi 26 years earlier. The seeds for these peppers are still closely guarded and are not readily available.
There are many ways to enjoy this wonderful pepper. One of my favorite “easy to make” appetizers is created by simply stuffing the peppers with goat cheese and sprinkling with herbs.
