Paprika

[ChiliPeppa]

Worth, I bet you would like Indian food. Most likely South Indian.

[ilex]

There are many to try out there. All "choricero" are used for making "pimenton". Most famous pimenton is made from a kind of "ñora", jaranda and jariza. Cap de corti is used to make sobrasada. Those are the famous, there are many obscure varieties out there. Many disappearing quick as few do homemade pimenton any more.

Most are thin walled but ñoras are thick.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by ChiliPeppa

Worth, I bet you would like Indian food. Most likely South Indian.

I do and try to make something like it at home as best I can.

Worth

[ChiliPeppa]

We cook cook Punjabi but when traveling in the South I had a couple curries where it was so hot I literally could not breath.

[FarmerShawn]

Starlight, for grinding small batches, a dedicated electric coffee grinder works, if a bit dusty. I was lucky to already have a hand cranked grain grinder (metal, not stone) that really works like a charm. And I dry all kinds of peppers for various powders, lemon drop being one of our favorites. I even make fermented hot sauce, strain it for bottling, dehydrate the solids, and grind them up for a powder with that hot sauce flavor! It's all good.

[tash11]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Some of the best and almost all prize winning chili recipes have paprika in it.
I use it in chili all of the time.
Mine is onion powder oregano, garlic powder chili arbol, cayenne, guajillo chili, cumin, paprika salt.
But if you just use sweet paprika you will end up with goulash.
Worth

My best one (when I have it all and the time): fresh onion, fresh garlic, cumin, sea salt (smoked if I have it), ancho, paprika, chipolte or whatever hot pepper I have on hand, and whatever homemade hot sauce I have (currently ghost from a friend). I smoke the peppers myself if I have time. I will toss a whole hot smoked pepper in sometimes. Good stuff.

Oddly, I have never made it with fresh tomatoes. Everything else I have used fresh (or dried for the beans and smoked peppers) at some point, but never the tomatoes....

Originally Posted by jwr6404

Starlight
My Korean wife grows her own very hot peppers that she uses to make Hot Sauce and Kimchee. She also dries them for seasoning. She also grows a variety that she calls wrinkly, based on appearance, for snacking. She eats them by dipping them into the Hot Sauce. If you think you would like to try them PM me with your address and I'll mail you acouple of Peppers with seeds

She wouldn't be willing to share the recipe for the kimchee would she? I love kimchee.

Originally Posted by Starlight

...

I see you and Tom both use cumin. Interesting. That is one ingredient I would never have thought to try. Gonna have to check into that.

...

It's not chili without cumin. It's some kind of spicy stew, but not chili. Without the spicy it's not chili either, it's just cumin soup.

Originally Posted by Worth1

Now when I say goulash I mean real goulash not the stuff with hamburger neat and macaroni.
Cumin/comino is a must for any chili it is a spice I use by the boat load.

When you asked what to keep the powders in I use pint mason jars.
By far the best cheapest and most economical way to keep spices.
Worth

Goulash is like chop suey, there is no right way to make it. Just toss whatever you got in a pot and tell people it's dinnertime.

I agree on the mason jars. Pint or half pint or the 4oz depending on what/how much. I usually don't grind the smoked peppers right away so I put them in larger jars. I do put them in bags if I am taking them to trade though. I have one of the attachments for my foodsaver that sucks the air out of mason jars too.

[oakley]

You will want to research dehydrators...many choices. If your oven will go and hold a low temp, like below 160, you could use that...or go the solar route. Start checking yard sales or ask around...friends and such. People get them and use them once or twice. I paid 5 bucks for my first Nesco.
I made the one we now use. It holds 10 half sheet grids.
Coffee grinders are another yard sale score. I even have a couple back-ups as i make my own spice mixes. (a tbsp of dry rice will clean them out).

My thumb is not green when it comes to peppers. I get couple pounds but usually smoke them...trying again this year with more varieties having given up in the past.

I stock a dozen or more pepper and paprika powders. (the good stuff) Smoked, sweet and hot. Making your own is a fantastic idea and so fresh. As mentioned, i suppose a few varieties would be better than others but any pepper you grow would work.

I use MountainRoseHerb for most of my spices...https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/catalog/herbs/bulk

[oakley]

It did not post, but and addy....some dry them hanging but i have trouble with wet fall weather even in the barn. If you have a nice dry place, you can thread them together and hang the 'clump'. I get a risk of rot.

[Father'sDaughter]

I de-stem and de-seed them then lay them flat on a dehydrator tray to dry until crispy. If you're okay with a flaky consistency a blender or food processor will do. If you want powder, a $10 coffee grinder works perfectly.

[TomNJ]

I use a food processor to grind to flakes, and a coffee grinder to make powder (Ancho). I also prefer cumin seeds as opposed to cumin powder as the seeds give a pure cumin burst when bitten,

TomNJVA

[Worth1]

Without quoting everyone I will make a few comments if you car to read.
Goulash is another word for herders stew or some such thing and one of its main ingredients is paprika powders and peppers.
In the USA they have taken the word goulash and turned it into meaning a conglomeration.
They have also turned the recipe so far around it is now what some people call macaroni ketchup and hamburger meat.
It is correct there is no real recipe for it as there wouldn't be for any other stew.

I was sitting at a table with a guy from a farm, a real meat and potatoes kind of guy.
Goulash came up.
He said it sounded disgusting and wouldn't eat it.
I asked him if he would eat something called herders stew and he said that sounded good.
I told him it was the same thing in another language.
Really, 'he said, I had no idea.

Now to the cumin.
I can get whole seeds for almost nothing at a middle eastern market in Austin.
Something like pound for what it costs at the store for one ounce.
I then grind them up put them in mason jars and put them in the freezer.

Drying peppers hung up and tied is called a Ristra.

To dry peppers you need to have the humidity at around 50% or less and it be that way for several days.
If you house is air conditioned even though it is cool and out of the light you may get away with it if you have a fan blowing on them.
One thing you can do is slit the thicker peppers on the ends.
I also dont hang peppers in the sun as this fades the bright red colors.

Worth

[Starlight]

For some reason , I can't get the quote button to work. Been trying since last night.

Worth... Cool! Mason jars I have. I have the jelly size. If I learn how to do this right, maybe then I'll get some of them little decorative ones.

Ilex.... I didn't find Nora. ( sorry don't know how to make ~ sit on top of words. I did find Jaranda and Jariza. The site I found didn't say how hot they were. Jariza looks like the pepper is almost a foot long from the picture I saw.

Your right. Lots of varieties out there and lots being lost. A shame really. I think more would even be lost if not for folks saving seeds and sharing them.

Farmer Shawn.... Great! I'll get a coffee grinder. Thank you. I have some friends who have alot of the old timey kitchen and farm utensils. I'll ask if they happen to have one of them hand grinders. They used to grind and make their own flour and products. Did just about everything the
old-fashioned way on the farm. They are a very self-sustaining couple.

tash11... Definitely going to have get some cumin. We were raised with mom only ever adding salt and maybe a bit of pepper to the food she cooked. Very simple, plain fare. Good, but no real flavor.

I don't think I am to the stage of learning how to smoke peppers yet, but I'll keep that in mind.

Oakley ... Nice link. I book marked it. I had been looking for some rose petals. I checked and 200 is the lowest temp I have, so I'll have to get a dehydrator is 160F is the recommended temp. Checked my toaster oven and it doesn't go that low either.

I wish I could do solar here, but while we have heat that would dry the peppers out fast, the dew and humidity just rots them. I tried that once for saving seed. Outside of peppers looked ok, but the insides were rotten. Trashed em all and just dried inside for seed.

Farmer's Daughter .... Sure glad you said how to prepare them. I would probably just have put in whole.

TomNJ.... Would you believe I am going to have to google what a coffee grinder looks like. I have no idea. I'm a 24/7 coffee drinker, but have never ground a bean. Always used instant.


You know what is really great about learning how to do this? I grow all kinds of peppers, hot and sweet. I grow for the love of growing and seeing what the fruits are like. For once I won't have to give most all of them away since I didn't know what to do with them.

With all the information you folks are sharing, hopefully other folks reading will give trying to make their own powders a try too.

Oh, about how long do they have to dry in a dehydrator.?

I really appreciate all the help and suggestions. A whole new experience with peppers is opening up.

[Father'sDaughter]

They need to be crispy to grind and a lot depends on the dehydrator as to how long it takes.

Also, if I have extra peppers, I don't grind them all at once. I stash them in a ziplock bag in a cool dry place. Then when I'm running low on powder/paprika, I put them back in the dehydrator to re-crisp them before grinding.

If you grow peppers, the possibilities are endless!

[oakley]

What's cool in my world?...so what if i can't grow peppers successfully as everyone i know gives me their extra pepper harvest since i know what to do with them, lol. Last fall i was smoking, drying, and making spice blends and smoked tomatillo pepper salsas, then keeping half and giving back half. Everybody wins, : )

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by Father'sDaughter

They need to be crispy to grind and a lot depends on the dehydrator as to how long it takes.

Also, if I have extra peppers, I don't grind them all at once. I stash them in a ziplock bag in a cool dry place. Then when I'm running low on powder/paprika, I put them back in the dehydrator to re-crisp them before grinding.

If you grow peppers, the possibilities are endless!

All of my peppers stay at the consistency of leather until I am ready to grind them.
Then I use a fine mesh sifter.
I ended up dumping about a pint of just finished fine mesh sifted product on the floor one time.
I was so ticked.

Worth