This versatile spice has long outgrown its Spanish and Hungarian roots to bring richness, warmth, colour and flavour to a host of dishes
Sweet, smoked, hot … What’s the difference between the various paprikas? And are there any substitutes?
“Paprika brings warmth, it brings colour and it brings another layer of flavour,” says Monika Linton, founder of Brindisa. “Even just a sprinkling over goat’s cheese on toast, hummus or any kind of dip, along with a bit of olive oil, will bring it to life.” Crucial to both Spanish and Hungarian cuisines, paprika is made by drying peppers (generally speaking, Hungarian varieties are air-dried whereas the Spanish stuff is smoke-dried) and grinding them to a fine powder. The taste, meanwhile, depends on the variety of pepper used, although, as Linton points out, not all tins of paprika specify that.
“Paprika brings a certain richness,” says Jeremy Salamon, author of Second Generation and chef/owner of Hungarian restaurant Agi’s Counter in New York. “It has this unique, vegetal, unripe fruit-like quality, and lends itself in different ways to different dishes.” While he generally has sweet (“to use as a flavour base to build on with other spices”) and smoked (“to whip into butters”) to hand, hot paprika always comes out tops: “I like the kick it adds, so I’ll use it in chicken paprikash or in a pimento cheese dip.”
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