What’s the difference between all the various paprikas? | Kitchen aide
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.The Guardian’s journalism is independent.
We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link,Learn more,“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.
”Linton, meanwhile, always has four Spanish paprikas, or pimentón, on the go: smoked (ahumado), sweet and mild (dulce), hot (picante) and bittersweet (agridulce).“Unsmoked are fruitier and somehow fresher, so I’d use those for rice dishes, which are generally not a long, slow cook,” she says.“You’re not trying to impregnate everything for hours on end with flavour; instead, you want the feeling of sunshine.” That’s why it could also play a part in eastern Mediterranean-style meze, Linton adds: “They suit a fresher, more tomatoey paprika.”When it comes to smoked paprika, its most high-profile coupling is probably with chorizo.
At home, though, remember that a little goes a long way: “It’s such a big flavour, so use it sparingly,” Linton says,It pairs particularly nicely with legumes and chickpeas: “They tend to require quite a long cook, and somehow don’t get overwhelmed,” Slow-cooked meat dishes and stews also thrive in its company, especially if you’re using pimentón de la vera, which is made from the sweet-smoky agridulce variety of jaraíz pepper, says José Pizarro,“The smokiness is incredible, and really balanced – it lifts all the other flavours,” says the restaurateur, whose new book, The Spanish Pantry, is published in June,He uses it especially in salads, soups and with vegetables (think potatoes): “It’s the taste I grew up with.
” Whether you go for hot smoked paprika, though, really comes down to personal taste.Guardian regular Rukmini Iyer, for example, punts for the hot stuff in a one-tin curry, combining it with turmeric, ground cumin and ground ginger, then adding grated garlic, yoghurt, oil, onion, paneer, cauliflower florets and some salt in a baking tin before roasting for half an hour.Finish with a squeeze of lemon, plus some chopped coriander and red chilli, and that’s dinner sorted.As for substitutes, you do have some options, though perhaps unsurprisingly they all involve peppers.“Soak a whole dried pepper in water, scrape out the flesh and add it to a sauce, bolognese or whatever it is that you’re cooking,” Linton says.
Otherwise, simply drop in the pepper whole: “Let it infuse the dish, like a bouquet garni, then discard it at the end of cooking.” Alternatively, get yourself some pepper paste: “That’s good if you want a lot of pepper flavour,” she says, but for a really deep, savoury hit, it’s much better just to get yourself a pot of paprika.Got a culinary dilemma? Email feast@theguardian.com
David Taylor obituary
My husband, David Taylor, who has died of cancer aged 78, missed out on a planned career in medicine but ended up making almost certainly a greater contribution to public health through research and policy development, latterly as professor of pharmaceutical and public health policy at University College London.David had a rare ability to work with people of different professions and persuasions to achieve consensus without compromising his own values and goals. He was adept at popularising complex pharmaceutical issues and bridging the policy and industry worlds. An inspirational lecturer and mentor to research students, he was a passionate champion of marginalised groups.Born in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, David was the eldest son of Doris (nee Manser), a hospital pharmacist, and Edwin (Bill) Taylor, a research chemist
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Don’t reinforce the idea that grown men don’t cry | Brief letters
Since the release of Adolescence on Netflix, there has been a lot of discussion about what it is to be male and toxic masculinity, which the Guardian has participated in. I was therefore particularly disappointed to see that the headline on your article about pigeon theft (1 April) began with “I cried like a little boy”. I appreciate that it comes from a quotation of an interviewee, but please don’t use subediting to reinforce ideas that grown men don’t cry. Surely we are all seeing the damage these nonsensical societal messages inflict on men, and all of us.Dr Imogen KearnsNHS clinical psychologist, London Ruth Ogden’s article is very insightful on the unsettling effect on humans of changing the clocks (Changing your clock? Scientists are only just beginning to understand what this does to us, 29 March)
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