Homemade Paprika: Because I Can
May 10th, 2009 | By tewonawonga | Category: Cooking Basics, Recipe, The Garden | Comments | 30 Comments |
I do a great many of the things I do simply because I can. Making paprika at home is one of those things.
One of my life’s guiding notions has been that people should be good at something — maybe several things — and then be basically competent in many other things. Writing, cooking, fishing and foraging I am good at. I am a competent hunter and gardener, and now, spice maker.
Why bother making homemade paprika? A fair question. After all, the Spanish and Hungarians are better at it than I ever will be, right? Why not just call up Penzey’s or somesuch and order some? Well, I do. Making something like paprika at home is not so much something I did out of necessity as it was an exercise in whether I could do it at all.
It’s not that I think the world is about to collapse and oh where oh where will I get the paprika to make my chorizo or chili or goulash, not to mention deviled eggs? It’s that I have a fascination with how things are made — I am a sucker for those shows on Discovery Channel or NatGeo. So I asked myself: “What would it take to make enough paprika for our household use for one year?” And just how do you make paprika?
Turns out making paprika is easy, but it takes a while; it’s like that famous recipe for Stewed Elephant that starts with “cut elephant into bite-sized pieces.” You basically need to start paprika a year before you want the powder.
I planted three paprika plants last year, but not to make paprika powder — the thought had not yet occurred to me. I like the fresh chiles fried in olive oil with a little garlic. But life got in the way and at the end of the season I had several strings of peppers hanging in our garage. And there they sat.
Until yesterday. This first thing I learned as I broke them into smaller bits was this: Chiles need to be dried in arid, hot shade. Drying in the sun bleaches away color. Heat adds an almost cooked aroma to the chiles. And humidity is the enemy. I had dried a couple peppers in the (more humid, cooler) house and when I opened them up they were all fuzzy inside. None of the peppers in the garage had mold.
Do you need paprika chiles to make paprika? No, but you would need a fairly large, thin-walled pepper. Thick walls have too much moisture and will mold up. Bad. (I’ve tried it.) And there is definitely a color thing. You want a dark colored pepper. Like a paprika pepper…
Making the powder consisted of breaking the peppers into pieces small enough to jam into a spice grinder. Seeds are no bueno. The grinding takes a few steps, because you always get a a few pieces that don’t want to grind. Keep sifting the bits through a fine-mesh sieve until you get an even powder.
In the end I wound up with 10 tablespoons of paprika. Definitely not enough for a year, but maybe for a few months — unless I make a huge batch of chorizo or Italian hot sausage. I reckon I’d need 10-15 plants to supply me for a year.
The cool thing about this experiement is that 10-15 plants is actually a doable number in my garden, if I so chose to devote that much space to paprika. And since I am decent enough at growing chiles from seed I could have a perpetual supply for nothing.
What’s more, my homemade paprika tastes just as good as the expensive kind I buy from Penzey’s. That was something of a surprise — and confirmation that there is no great mystery to making this spice. (Spanish smoked paprika is quite another thing…)
What did I do with my freshly ground paprika? Why I cooked octopus with it, of course.
I love to cook Spanish style whenever I can, and I happen to be particularly fond of their use of paprika and garlic sauces. I found a recipe for pulpo a la gallego in one of my favorite Spanish cookbooks, Penelope Casas’ The Foods and Wines of Spain. I changed her cooking method to suit what is the absolute best way I have learned to cook octopus, which can be tough as a tire: Blanch it, then braise the octos in their own juices on a bed of herbs. (you can find the method here.)
I gotta say that this recipe was damn good. Really damn good. Cold pizza on a hangover Sunday good. I’ve posted it in full on my About.com Fish & Seafood Cooking site here.
But still. Was it all worth it? The planting and the hanging and the year’s wait? Probably not. In the grand scheme of things, having my own paprika — as good as it is — is not so high on my list of priorities that I need to allocate time towards it. But I am glad I did this.
I had a track coach in college who was a champion runner in his day. He made his kids play sports, but did not tell them which sports to play; he encouraged them to try all kinds. He figured they’d find those they loved the most and would stick with them. And he was right.
It’s the same with me, and probably with you. We wander through life trying different things and working at some of those things until we become good at them. We decide that a few of our chosen pursuits are worth carrying on doing all our lives. Others fit only a certain place, a certain time.
And a few things we do just for shits and giggles. Like make paprika.
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Okay, so I finally, after 3 years, threw out the dried red thin skinned chili peppers I had been saving since my neighbor grew them and gave them to me, because I couldn’t figure out what the heck to do with them, and couldn’t be bothered to figure it out. Hitting head on wall now.
I love making some spices myself. I don’t grind the dried tiny chillies I had because that stuff is spicy and I get them fresh from my plant every now and then. I do however, make my own curry mixture or paste. They definitely taste better than prepackaged from the shelves.
Have you tried (successfully) to dry other peppers before? I’ve been wanting to dry some bird’s eye chiles (for shits and giggles I guess).
So glad to have found your blog, Hank.
That octopus is the money shot of food porn for the day right there.
Elise, I did the same thing when I moved. Ugh. So pissed.
Did you try smoking the peppers? My favorite Spanish paprika is the smoked variety–hot or sweet, but it doesn’t stay fresh for very long.
This is good to know. Thank you. I have some poblano chilis hanging around from last year, so I’ll try this. Too bad I didn’t smoke them. I’m growing them again this year though, so I’ll definitely smoke some.
Like you, I’d do this because I can. Unlike you, I’ll probably do it consistently. Where I live, it’s no trivial thing to pick up ancho chili powder at the store, and man, do I love that stuff.
I’m growing Alma Paprika peppers in my garden this year, and I hope to be able to do the same thing. One word of caution, if you are planning on a perpetual supply, make sure you aren’t growing any other peppers. They may cross pollinate, and the seeds you save may not be viable. An excellent resource on seed saving is Suzanne Ashworth’s Seed to Seed. I highly recommend it.
Elise: That’ll teach ya! But seriously, 3-year-old chiles will have lost quite a bit of their flavor, so you’re prolly OK.
Codfish: Love your blog, too — especially as a Jersey boy. As for grinding bird’s eye chiles, I’d suggest a mask. The powder from them is essentially pepper spray. No bueno.
Garrett: Bow-chicka-bow-wow!
Amy: Nope. Making Pimenton is, for the moment, beyond me. Maybe I will try it next year…
Kate: If I were in your shoes, I’d do the same thing. But it is easy to get good chile powders in California.
Chris: Mine were Alma’s, too. And you are correct about cross-breeding. It doesn’t happen very often, but it is a hazard. To be certain, I grow a chile I want to save seed from (rocoto, in my case) in the front of the house, and all the others in the back…
I’ve done the same thing….tried things for shits & giggles…like tapping 2 maple trees this spring & producing about a quart or so of syrup from weeks worth of work. I also grow peppers every year…the ones that I end up drying are cayenne…nice thin skinned that would probably make great paprika. I have a handful I’m going to try..thanks for the inspiration. If I were to try to smoke some of this years crop…I’d smoke them, then dry them…right? Love your site..thank you for all the great reading & eating!
Do it because you can. A solid guiding principle to live by. I’m with you on it, but I fear homemade paprika won’t be on the to-do list up here in Seattle; I don’t even bother growing peppers, though it can be done with lots of TLC. Those are some lovely pictures and I bet the paprika tasted just as good as Hungarian, if different.
Very cool, and the octopus has me really really hungry now.
Also, shits and peppers make for an explosive conversation, at least.
Hank,
The yield of spice may not have been worth it but it was for the pictures, those are great.
I hope I didn’t sound too bitter about the goat party, more of a envy really.
Matt
Every time I grow those delicious paprikas they always mold on the inside. I cut them in half to dry now. There is nothing like real paprika. I just mortar and pestle them before a dish.
That sounds like quite a process. Too bad I don’t own a home and live in a relatively humid climate.
But that octopus dish looked awesome.
Just what I was looking for! I want to do it because I can, too! Can I use a coffee bean mill to grind the dried peppers? I’ve bought two at garage sales just to use for herbs and such. Thanks so much for the info.
Mary Ann: Yes, you can use a coffee grinder for the dried peppers; that’s what I use..
Here is one for you all. Take the chili’s, 2 lbs. fresh ones. Cut stems off. Cut into 1 inch pieces. Place in pot. Add 1-2 cups water. Bring to boil. Then let cool for a few minutes. Place in food processor. Blend on high to total pulp. Add some of the cooking water to thin. Add 1.5 TBL of sugar, 1-1-5 tsp kosher salt. Keep blending. Once done blending, strain this pulp thru a fairly fine strainer, then and add 4-6 Cups cider vinegar to it, or what ever one you want. Place back into pot with water, bring to quick boil then, turn off. Then take the left over pulp and lay it out on parchment paper and place it in either an oven or a dehydrator, and dry it to a bone dry feel.
Now you have your own hot sauce and dried peppers, for later grinding in you wife’s fav coffee grinder
Well, as you can see, I live in Hungary – LOTS of paprika. But like you wanted to have a bash at making my own so this year I have saved a load of peppers (the Hungarian paprika type) and they are ripening off and reddening up quite nicely. I did a search for “how to make paprika” and this site came out at No. 1.
I just love the bit about experimenting at doing things. Much of the same mindset myself.
Thanks for the info!
Fantastic ! I grew 9 alma pepper plants this year in my Portland Or. garden. Upon harvest I smoked the peppers for six hours. whole, but cleaned out
Then 2 days in the dehydrater and finally ground in blender and worked thru a fine strainer. What a great bid of fun and I have 2 cups of smoked paprika. cheers
I live in Sunny, Hot, Humid FL and the info here on drying is great. I too am going to make paprika…because a friend gave me the seeds in a swap & why not. I’ll try just about anything once. Great info! Thanks.
OMG – I LOVE THE INTERNET and at this moment, I LOVE TECHNOLOGY!
Great article, thanks! I’m gardening for the
first time in my life, in a new community garden
( http://4thstreetgarden.blogspot.com/ )
I have on pepper plant that was labeled “pimento,”
and was trying to figure out what a pimento was.
The plant is small (maybe the size of two fists,
on on top of the other). It’s covered with tiny
peppers (think: the size of a pencil eraser).
The peppers are growing upwards from the stem,
which is different from every other pepper plant
I’ve seen. They’re a deep purple. And they’re
medium to hot spicy.
After reading your article I’m pretty sure they’re not
pimentos, though have no idea what they might be.
I cut sweet red peppers into chunks and dry on the dehydrator and then grind in my high powered juicer and whala–paprika and it smells wonderful and has a rich full flavor.
[...] can be either hot or sweet. It is a challenge to make, though I’ve never tried it. Check out this article if you are interested in attempting this [...]
Dang, I bet that would be awesome in a ribrub. We grow quite a few peppers of sorts and have yet to try anything like this. How many peppers would you think would produce a cup of paprika?
Josh: I am thinking about a dozen or so, but it depends on size. So figure on 4-6 ounces of dried peppers.
I am growing paprika peppers for the first time. Do I let them become red on the plant or do they turn in the drying process?
Jennifer: You let them get red on the plant. They don’t really turn much in the drying process…
Great article. Here’s how I do it. First I make ristras about 16 inches long with red ripe serrano peppers and hang them in my pantry, which gets heated by my furnace, for about a year until they’re really dry. Then I pull the pods off, leaving the stems behind, and crush them by hand to get a feel for the moisture content., it should be quite low for good results. I then coarse chop the pods with a large knife before running them through the Cuisinart. I then pull out all the petiole pieces (where the pod attached to the plant) and other uncooperative bits, and continue the grinding process until it looks pretty much as your second picture shows.
I also do this with applewood smoked serrano chiles. It’s less time consuming since the smoking process drives out most of the moisture for you. It takes about 16 to 18 hours of smoking to get them fully smoked, but then you need to let them air dry for about 6 to 8 weeks. Then follow the same process as above.
I plan to try the air-dry method with a hot cherry bomb type chiles, my garden yielded about 25 lbs of these. My mentor says to cut these into thirds, remove the stems and seed and dry them outdoors in the shade (I’m in Colorado so this works well). If they are not dry enough when the weather stops cooperating, I will finish drying them in the oven at the lowest setting on baking trays. The side benefit of oven drying them is the whole house smells of wonderfull chiles!