The Spice Trail: cooking with paprika

Share your paprika recipes to win a Cool Chile Co gift box

Here we are in a brand new year, and so The Spice Trail is taking us to a brand new spice destination. In January our challenge is to cook with paprika. Hopefully though it won’t prove too much of a challenge. I for one use paprika quite a bit in my cooking. It’s a favourite ingredient in warming sausage casseroles or for adding a spicy kick to a simple tomato sauce for pasta. It’s also great sprinkled over potato wedges and other root vegetables before roasting. But I want to know how you use paprika in your cooking? We had such a fantastic response to the chilli and cinnamon recipes at the end of last year, I can’t wait to see what paprika dishes you come up with.

A little bit about paprika

Paprika is a ground powder of dried sweet red peppers (seeds out first), which were said to have been taken to their spiritual home (Hungary) by the Turks, though as with all peppers they came originally from the New World. True Hungarian paprika is divided into different echelons of quality: noble sweet, semi-sweet, rose, strong and commercial. The Spanish make a wood-smoked (pimenton) that you can buy either sweet or hot. Indispensable in goulash, chorizo, devilling and fish dishes. Taken from Leon: Ingredient & Recipes by Allegra McEvedy

Win a Cool Chile Co gift box

At the end of the paprika challenge, one lucky winner will receive a super cool gift box from the Cool Chile Co, featuring a range of Mexican herbs and spices, including their delicious smoked paprika from Spain and of course a selection of fantastic Mexican chillies.

The Cool Chile Co started in 1993, and the idea was simple: to import a wide variety of the best dried chillies, direct from Mexico, providing the UK with an exciting new range of flavours and heat sensations for real Mexican and home cooking. They have gone on to produce their own salsas, sauces and pastes, faithfully using traditional Mexican recipes and their delicious imported chillies. Personally, I’m a massive fan of their dried Ancho chilli and Mexican oregano.

How to enter The Spice Trail

Display the The Spice Trail badge on your recipe post, and link back to this challenge post. You may enter as many recipe links as you like, so long as they feature this month’s key ingredient, paprika. Send your recipe URL to me at vanesther-at-reescommunications-dot-co-dot-uk, including your own email address and the title of your recipe or post. The closing date this month is Tuesday 28 January 2014. If you tweet your post, please mention #TheSpiceTrail and me @BangerMashChat in your tweet and I’ll retweet each one I see. Feel free to republish old recipe posts, but please add the information about this challenge and The Spice Trail badge. As entries come in, links to these will be added to the bottom of this page. At the end of the month a guest judge will choose a winning recipe and the winner this month will receive a tasty gift box from the Cool Chile Co. The winner will be announced in a monthly round-up of all the entries. All entries will be added to The Spice Trail Pinterest Board. I can’t wait to see what paprika dishes you come up with this month for The Spice Trail. Any questions, please tweet or email me.