Photo by Lucie Monk
Just two weeks ago, I received a lesson on the economy of words, among other things.
“Aw yeah, DIY!” I crowed to my Facebook friends—a puffed-up caption for my latest food picture-meets-personal triumph. “Here we have smoky red pepper powder. Fresh red peppers, cut into 1/2-inch strips and put in the oven at 150 F for 8 hours. Then pulverized. It smells so good.”
My older sister Margaret, in the role she was born to play, set me straight in the comments below. “So homemade paprika?”
Weeell … homemade paprika by any other name smells just as sweet. After eight hours in the oven, the dried and aromatic red peppers were borne out shriveled on the baking sheet, ugly ducklings bathed in clouds of perfume.
Once the spice grinder itself failed me, I demolished the peppers with its heavy wooden top. The shambles relinquished a deep vermilion dust, which I collected, photographed, and then stored alongside my supermarket spices, ready for service. I favor paprika on fried eggs and sprinkled over hummus.
Who knows what happy accident will befall my kitchen next? I’ll need a label maker, I reckon, to give my creations a proprietary air … and a proper name.
Homemade Paprika
Yield: 1/2 cup
Ingredients: 3 red bell peppers, stemmed and seeded
Method:
- Preheat oven to warm setting. On mine, the temperature was 150º F, but you should be safe anywhere below 200º F.
- Halve the peppers and slice into 1/2-inch pieces. Place pieces without overlap on a baking rack fitted onto a rimmed sheet.
- Dry in oven for 7–8 hours, until peppers are fully dehydrated and shriveled. Remove from oven and let cool slightly.
- On a cutting board or in a large bowl, pound the dried peppers to dust. Store the spice in an airtight container.
